OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - The Montreal Expos... Exposing the New MLB?

Griever20 · 05-07-2025, 12:40 PM

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EL Awards:
Batter of the Month: Atlanta LF Robbie Thompson(31, 3*) .333-8-18 .968OPS 1.2WAR 3x Gold Glover, 4x All-Star, 1x Silver Slugger
Pitcher of the Month: Pittsburgh RHSP Victor Alvarez(24, 3.5*) 5-0 0 2.29 37K 39.1IP 5GS 1.4WAR 2nd in W(18) in EL
Rookie of the Month: Toronto RHSP Brendan Lucas(23, 2.5*) 4-0 2.06 28K 35IP 5GS 1.0WAR 2-0 4.05 against us for 2022.

WL Awards:
Batter of the Month: Las Vegas 1B Pablo Mayorga(24, 3.5*) .359-5-18 1.233OPS 1.6WAR 2022 All-Star, Leads WL in SLG(.588) and OPS(.954)
Pitcher of the Month: San José RHSP Eddie Baiamonte(31, 3*) 4-0 1.71 41K 6GS 47.1IP 2.0WAR 5x All-Star
Rookie of the Month: Portland 3B Justin Lowe(25, 2.5/3*) .330-5-21 .910OPS 24G 1.0WAR 3rd rounder in 2018.

Another season of Montreal Expos baseball in the books. It was only a brief time before reality hit, but we actually flirted with a .500 season for a moment before the last 10 games hit us like a truck, but we improved our winning percentage from .340 to .426 to now .488, so we are on the rise and have a clear path for further improvement. The outline for 2023 shows a budget increase by $4M which will come in handy, but there is not much to spend it on.

The best upcoming free agent is 1B Sal Masariegos(30, .272-10-54 .738OPS 0.3WAR 95G) from Jacksonville, which isn’t particularly interesting with Grok on our roster. There are some 3* right-handed relievers in the mix and we may tap into one of them, but free agency remains a questionable way to improve our roster as the market seems quite barren.

Looking around the league, it was actually the San Francisco Red Devils that posted the best record in baseball with 98-64, and they did it by scoring a league leading 817 runs. WL stolen base and runs leader CF Mario Hernandez(24, 3*, .270-28-80 .786OPS 44/54SB 4.3WAR) leads their offense from the leadoff spot (hitting 28 HR as leadoff is mean) and 2x All-Star 2B Ralph Pelletier(25, 4*, .287-23-90 .848OPS 6.1WAR) and star catcher Danny Smith(27, 4.5*, .307-30-98 .895OPS 5.6WAR) are hitting in the middle of the lineup, and did so well. The rest of their roster is littered with 3-4* players, so there is merit to this…

My money on the playoffs is on the Western League teams, San Francisco or Las Vegas.

Pitching:

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DL: none

NMBL Montreal Expos Players on the leaderboard:
RHSP Sam Griffin 16 W – tied 3rd
RHSP Sam Griffin 1.6 BB/9 – 4th
RHSP Dan Hinton 1.07 WHIP – 3rd
RHSP Dan Hinton .270 BABIP – 5th
RHSP Dan Hinton .224 OAVG – 2nd

Danny really had a strong second half and actually survived without a lengthy DL stint, and that alone picked up 2.8WAR compared to 2021 on one player. He is still 23 and will play another season for the minimum, but depending on his time in the development lab to work on his fragile tag, he is in for a long term extension locking him up through three years of arbitration and the first years of free agency. Marty Murrietta picked things up since we got him and not only got off the walks leaderboard, but also pitched a 9-6 3.49 103K 1.4WAR stint in 20 starts with us… he will also go to the lab for strength and stuff to lessen the risk of injury.

Starting Pitching (# of options left, arb. estimate, Trade Chips in Red):
Save Roster Spot: Hinton, Roy, Murrietta
In the Battle: Griffin(2), Miranda(2), Asselin(Minor League contract)
40-man minimum contract: Ball(2)
40-man arbitration: none
To be waived and DFA’ed: none
Rule 5 eligible: Bowman, Harrison, Lange, Watanabe, Bernstein

Looking at the list, we will see a battle for the 3-5 spots in the rotation between 16-game winner Sam Griffin, sophomore Juan Miranda and top prospect Brett Asselin. This will be fun. Hidden in the RHRP list below is Cesar Alvarado who was great as a starter, so he is in the mix if we need a starter as well. We should make room for one of the Rule 5 eligible guys to have an additional layer of depth. Don’t know who tho.

LHRP (# of options left, arb. estimate, Trade Chips in Red):
Save Roster Spot: Herzer
40-man minimum contract: Mannino(2), Costa(1), Mendoza(2)
Rule 5 eligible: none

There is not much to be talked about here. Mendoza is slated to be the second lefty in our pen according to our scouting department and Aaron McCreery, and we have two more options with options, sorry for the pun.

RHRP (# of options left, arb. estimate, Trade Chips in Red):
Save Roster Spot: Rudolph, Alvarado, Silva
40-man minimum contract: McKeen(2), Thrower(2), Jenkins(2), Cowden(3)
40-man arbitration: Matt Bow(2, $909k)
To be waived and DFA’ed: Thrower(2)
Rule 5 eligible: Bell, Martinez, Ross
Minor League Free agent: Hilscher

If you are asking yourself, who is Matt Bow… yes. He and Thrower were on the 40-man for depth, and Thrower even was demoted to AA as he was too wild for AAA. Bow did a good job in this minor league season, going 3-1 1.50 50K 42IP 0.7WAR in 33 gaes after we claimed him off waivers from Seattle, but we ultimately didn’t need him, so he may just get the golden watch and let go.

Position Players:

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DL: none

NMBL Montreal Expos Players on the leaderboard:
1B Dave Grochowski .351 Batting Average – 1st
1B Dave Grochowski .416 OBP – 1st
1B Dave Grochowski .529 SLG – 5th
1B Dave Grochowski .945 OPS – 1st
1B Dave Grochowski 92 RBI – 4th
1B Dave Grochowski 194 H – 1st
1B Dave Grochowski 162 OPS+ – 1st
1B Dave Grochowski 4.96 WPA – 2nd
1B Dave Grochowski 5.8 WAR – 2nd
CF Vicente Rodriguez 9 TP – tied 2nd

If Grok does not win Rookie of the Year, I’m going to resign. This kid may even have a shot at the MvP after his strong finish to a strong year. I did NOT see that coming when we put him on the 26-man, winning the job over Cook and Kerzner and even Matt Talbert. Adding to that, we got a cheap improvement to our lineup in 2B Joe Hawk who hit .283-8-17 .934OPS 8/9SB 0.9WAR in 27 games since returning from KCR due to their Rule 5 misread of the situation… Dave G. has Hawk up to a 3* player.

With him, and with Weltzer making a big jump with a season we did NOT see coming, the infield suddenly looks like a place where we will see spring battles for every position apart 1B… this will be interesting.

Now, add the fact that our outfield got a good boost with Bobby Martinez giving C-Rod a run for his money…

Catcher (# of options left, arb. estimate, Trade Chips in Red):
Save Roster Spot: Cervantes
40-man minimum contract: Craddock(3), Chavis(1)
Rule 5 eligible: Martinez
Minor League Free Agent: none

Nothing to see here, move on.

Infield (# of options left, arb. estimate, Trade Chips in Red):
Save Roster Spot: 1B Grochowski
40-man minimum contract: 1B Talbert(2), 2B/DH Hawk(3), 2B Weltzer(2), 3B Gonzalez(2), 3B Kazemd(2), SS Meilleur(3), 3B/SS Hernandez(2)
To be waived and DFA’ed: 2B Reyes(1), 2B McKusick(1)
Rule 5 eligible: 2B Perez, IF/UT Slowik
Minor League Free Agents: 1B/2B Bendezu, 1B Cook, 2B Donald, 3B Anderson

Ok, this is going to be a knife fight in a phone booth in spring. The two jokers in this list definitely will be 2B Fernando Perez and 3B/SS Julian Hernandez who are quality prospects AND will get some time in the development lap to be ready to win the job in spring training. There is a lot of minor league free agents that were signed or kept around for depth… that we will let go. Bye Dan Cook and thank you for your .278-17-64 .775OPS 1.4WAR year in 2021… but hitting .247 with -0.6WAR in AAA is not going to cut it.

Outfield (# of options left, arb. estimate, Trade Chips in Red):
Save Roster Spot: CF Rodriguez, LF Benavides
40-man minimum contract: CF Martinez(3), LF/RF Mah(1), CF Allen(1)
40-man arbitration: LF/RF Messer(2, $1.818M)
To be waived and DFA’ed: none
Rule 5 eligible: LF/RF Pedraza, LF/RF Burhoe, LF/RF Spangler, LF/RF Urraques

Also, this one is pretty much set apart from one spot that will go to a LF/RF backup. We have four good outfielders in AAA/AA that are Rule 5 eligible, and we will have to make a decision who to put on the 40-man to protect 100%. Messer will get his arbitration estimate and no long term contract as with the rise of Hawk as left-handed DH option, some prospects underway and him becoming fragile after getting HBP 812 times this season, his outlook has changed for us a bit.

We would love to grab another quality center fielder to get Allen down the depth chart as his 2.5* value point was inflated as our scouts now tell us, but with V-Rod and Martinez out there, we are not set up badly.

Prospect Watch:
AAA 2B/SS/3B Julian Hernandez(2.5/4*) .304-8-33 .805OPS 102G 16/19SB 4.5WAR
AAA LHSP Brett Asselin(3/4*) 3-4 2.52 88K 93IP 15GS 1.3WAR
AA 2B Fernando Perez(22, 2.5/3*) .230-18-54 .718OPS 111G 3.9WAR
A RHSP Alejandro Corral(2/3*) 12-7 2.36 155K 156.1IP 28G 2.7WAR
A LF Santiago Rodriguez(2/3.5*) .242-14-41 .698OPS 116G 14/17SB 0.1WAR
A 1B Joe Townsend(1.5/3*) .197-14-43 .624OPS 127G 0.4WAR
S A SS Bryan Booth(21, 1.5/4*) .256-6-21 .748OPS 3/4SB 39G 1.5WAR
R LHSP Chris Alberti(1,5/3.5*) 1-3 2.77 33K 39IP 8GS 0.4WAR
R LF/CF Tyler Dean(19, 1.5/5*) .231-18-50 .715OPS 11/14SB 122G 6.8WAR
R 2B/SS Manny Ramirez(1/5*) .169-7-26 .454OPS 1/2SB 123G 2.0WAR
R 1B Tyler Aurand(18, 0.5/3.5*) .198-8-14 .700OPS 38G 1.7WAR

Plan: Hernandez, Asselin and Perez are a lock for the development lab, and I think Dean and Ramirez if we can cramp them in there. Love this group and the last draft class and I hope our scouts don’t disappoint us.

05-07-2025, 12:40 PM	#149
Griever20 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Dortmund, Germany Posts: 3,727	2022 October 4th - State of the Expos EL Awards: Batter of the Month: Atlanta LF Robbie Thompson(31, 3) .333-8-18 .968OPS 1.2WAR 3x Gold Glover, 4x All-Star, 1x Silver Slugger* Pitcher of the Month: Pittsburgh RHSP Victor Alvarez(24, 3.5) 5-0 0 2.29 37K 39.1IP 5GS 1.4WAR 2nd in W(18) in EL* Rookie of the Month: Toronto RHSP Brendan Lucas(23, 2.5) 4-0 2.06 28K 35IP 5GS 1.0WAR 2-0 4.05 against us for 2022.* WL Awards: Batter of the Month: Las Vegas 1B Pablo Mayorga(24, 3.5) .359-5-18 1.233OPS 1.6WAR 2022 All-Star, Leads WL in SLG(.588) and OPS(.954)* Pitcher of the Month: San José RHSP Eddie Baiamonte(31, 3) 4-0 1.71 41K 6GS 47.1IP 2.0WAR 5x All-Star* Rookie of the Month: Portland 3B Justin Lowe(25, 2.5/3) .330-5-21 .910OPS 24G 1.0WAR 3rd rounder in 2018.* Another season of Montreal Expos baseball in the books. It was only a brief time before reality hit, but we actually flirted with a .500 season for a moment before the last 10 games hit us like a truck, but we improved our winning percentage from .340 to .426 to now .488, so we are on the rise and have a clear path for further improvement. The outline for 2023 shows a budget increase by $4M which will come in handy, but there is not much to spend it on. The best upcoming free agent is 1B Sal Masariegos(30, .272-10-54 .738OPS 0.3WAR 95G) from Jacksonville, which isn’t particularly interesting with Grok on our roster. There are some 3* right-handed relievers in the mix and we may tap into one of them, but free agency remains a questionable way to improve our roster as the market seems quite barren. Looking around the league, it was actually the San Francisco Red Devils that posted the best record in baseball with 98-64, and they did it by scoring a league leading 817 runs. WL stolen base and runs leader CF Mario Hernandez(24, 3, .270-28-80 .786OPS 44/54SB 4.3WAR) leads their offense from the leadoff spot (hitting 28 HR as leadoff is mean) and 2x All-Star 2B Ralph Pelletier(25, 4, .287-23-90 .848OPS 6.1WAR) and star catcher Danny Smith(27, 4.5, .307-30-98 .895OPS 5.6WAR) are hitting in the middle of the lineup, and did so well. The rest of their roster is littered with 3-4 players, so there is merit to this… My money on the playoffs is on the Western League teams, San Francisco or Las Vegas. Pitching: DL: none NMBL Montreal Expos Players on the leaderboard: RHSP Sam Griffin 16 W – tied 3rd RHSP Sam Griffin 1.6 BB/9 – 4th RHSP Dan Hinton 1.07 WHIP – 3rd RHSP Dan Hinton .270 BABIP – 5th RHSP Dan Hinton .224 OAVG – 2nd Danny really had a strong second half and actually survived without a lengthy DL stint, and that alone picked up 2.8WAR compared to 2021 on one player. He is still 23 and will play another season for the minimum, but depending on his time in the development lab to work on his fragile tag, he is in for a long term extension locking him up through three years of arbitration and the first years of free agency. Marty Murrietta picked things up since we got him and not only got off the walks leaderboard, but also pitched a 9-6 3.49 103K 1.4WAR stint in 20 starts with us… he will also go to the lab for strength and stuff to lessen the risk of injury. Starting Pitching (# of options left, arb. estimate, Trade Chips in Red): Save Roster Spot: Hinton, Roy, Murrietta In the Battle: Griffin(2), Miranda(2), Asselin(Minor League contract) 40-man minimum contract: Ball(2) 40-man arbitration: none To be waived and DFA’ed: none Rule 5 eligible: Bowman, Harrison, Lange, Watanabe, Bernstein Looking at the list, we will see a battle for the 3-5 spots in the rotation between 16-game winner Sam Griffin, sophomore Juan Miranda and top prospect Brett Asselin. This will be fun. Hidden in the RHRP list below is Cesar Alvarado who was great as a starter, so he is in the mix if we need a starter as well. We should make room for one of the Rule 5 eligible guys to have an additional layer of depth. Don’t know who tho. LHRP (# of options left, arb. estimate, Trade Chips in Red): Save Roster Spot: Herzer 40-man minimum contract: Mannino(2), Costa(1), Mendoza(2) Rule 5 eligible: none There is not much to be talked about here. Mendoza is slated to be the second lefty in our pen according to our scouting department and Aaron McCreery, and we have two more options with options, sorry for the pun. RHRP (# of options left, arb. estimate, Trade Chips in Red): Save Roster Spot: Rudolph, Alvarado, Silva 40-man minimum contract: McKeen(2), Thrower(2), Jenkins(2), Cowden(3) 40-man arbitration: Matt Bow(2, $909k) To be waived and DFA’ed: Thrower(2) Rule 5 eligible: Bell, Martinez, Ross Minor League Free agent: Hilscher If you are asking yourself, who is Matt Bow… yes. He and Thrower were on the 40-man for depth, and Thrower even was demoted to AA as he was too wild for AAA. Bow did a good job in this minor league season, going 3-1 1.50 50K 42IP 0.7WAR in 33 gaes after we claimed him off waivers from Seattle, but we ultimately didn’t need him, so he may just get the golden watch and let go. Position Players: DL: none NMBL Montreal Expos Players on the leaderboard: 1B Dave Grochowski .351 Batting Average – 1st 1B Dave Grochowski .416 OBP – 1st 1B Dave Grochowski .529 SLG – 5th 1B Dave Grochowski .945 OPS – 1st 1B Dave Grochowski 92 RBI – 4th 1B Dave Grochowski 194 H – 1st 1B Dave Grochowski 162 OPS+ – 1st 1B Dave Grochowski 4.96 WPA – 2nd 1B Dave Grochowski 5.8 WAR – 2nd CF Vicente Rodriguez 9 TP – tied 2nd If Grok does not win Rookie of the Year, I’m going to resign. This kid may even have a shot at the MvP after his strong finish to a strong year. I did NOT see that coming when we put him on the 26-man, winning the job over Cook and Kerzner and even Matt Talbert. Adding to that, we got a cheap improvement to our lineup in 2B Joe Hawk who hit .283-8-17 .934OPS 8/9SB 0.9WAR in 27 games since returning from KCR due to their Rule 5 misread of the situation… Dave G. has Hawk up to a 3* player. With him, and with Weltzer making a big jump with a season we did NOT see coming, the infield suddenly looks like a place where we will see spring battles for every position apart 1B… this will be interesting. Now, add the fact that our outfield got a good boost with Bobby Martinez giving C-Rod a run for his money… Catcher (# of options left, arb. estimate, Trade Chips in Red): Save Roster Spot: Cervantes 40-man minimum contract: Craddock(3), Chavis(1) Rule 5 eligible: Martinez Minor League Free Agent: none Nothing to see here, move on. Infield (# of options left, arb. estimate, Trade Chips in Red): Save Roster Spot: 1B Grochowski 40-man minimum contract: 1B Talbert(2), 2B/DH Hawk(3), 2B Weltzer(2), 3B Gonzalez(2), 3B Kazemd(2), SS Meilleur(3), 3B/SS Hernandez(2) To be waived and DFA’ed: 2B Reyes(1), 2B McKusick(1) Rule 5 eligible: 2B Perez, IF/UT Slowik Minor League Free Agents: 1B/2B Bendezu, 1B Cook, 2B Donald, 3B Anderson Ok, this is going to be a knife fight in a phone booth in spring. The two jokers in this list definitely will be 2B Fernando Perez and 3B/SS Julian Hernandez who are quality prospects AND will get some time in the development lap to be ready to win the job in spring training. There is a lot of minor league free agents that were signed or kept around for depth… that we will let go. Bye Dan Cook and thank you for your .278-17-64 .775OPS 1.4WAR year in 2021… but hitting .247 with -0.6WAR in AAA is not going to cut it. Outfield (# of options left, arb. estimate, Trade Chips in Red): Save Roster Spot: CF Rodriguez, LF Benavides 40-man minimum contract: CF Martinez(3), LF/RF Mah(1), CF Allen(1) 40-man arbitration: LF/RF Messer(2, $1.818M) To be waived and DFA’ed: none Rule 5 eligible: LF/RF Pedraza, LF/RF Burhoe, LF/RF Spangler, LF/RF Urraques Also, this one is pretty much set apart from one spot that will go to a LF/RF backup. We have four good outfielders in AAA/AA that are Rule 5 eligible, and we will have to make a decision who to put on the 40-man to protect 100%. Messer will get his arbitration estimate and no long term contract as with the rise of Hawk as left-handed DH option, some prospects underway and him becoming fragile after getting HBP 812 times this season, his outlook has changed for us a bit. We would love to grab another quality center fielder to get Allen down the depth chart as his 2.5* value point was inflated as our scouts now tell us, but with V-Rod and Martinez out there, we are not set up badly. Prospect Watch: AAA 2B/SS/3B Julian Hernandez(2.5/4) .304-8-33 .805OPS 102G 16/19SB 4.5WAR AAA LHSP Brett Asselin(3/4) 3-4 2.52 88K 93IP 15GS 1.3WAR AA 2B Fernando Perez(22, 2.5/3) .230-18-54 .718OPS 111G 3.9WAR A RHSP Alejandro Corral(2/3) 12-7 2.36 155K 156.1IP 28G 2.7WAR A LF Santiago Rodriguez(2/3.5) .242-14-41 .698OPS 116G 14/17SB 0.1WAR A 1B Joe Townsend(1.5/3) .197-14-43 .624OPS 127G 0.4WAR S A SS Bryan Booth(21, 1.5/4) .256-6-21 .748OPS 3/4SB 39G 1.5WAR R LHSP Chris Alberti(1,5/3.5) 1-3 2.77 33K 39IP 8GS 0.4WAR R LF/CF Tyler Dean(19, 1.5/5) .231-18-50 .715OPS 11/14SB 122G 6.8WAR R 2B/SS Manny Ramirez(1/5) .169-7-26 .454OPS 1/2SB 123G 2.0WAR R 1B Tyler Aurand(18, 0.5/3.5) .198-8-14 .700OPS 38G 1.7WAR Plan: Hernandez, Asselin* and Perez are a lock for the development lab, and I think Dean and Ramirez if we can cramp them in there. Love this group and the last draft class and I hope our scouts don’t disappoint us. __________________ The Montreal Expos... Exposing the New MLB? MLB 2015 - Being the Brewmaster(ended) MLB 2013: The Blue Jays That Never Were(concluded)