The State of the Team is Back-to-Back Champs, baby!:
The rebuild became a reload as it turned it out. This winter should be a lot less hectic than last year's as most everyone can come back with one big exception:
Free agents to be:
* Taj Bradley. That's the big one. It's an owner goal to get him re-signed and we'll see what he wants but it's not likely.
* Jordan Westburg. He was phased out of the lineup late in the season and Brayden Taylor is the man at 2B now.
* John McMillon: He went from closer to middle relief and his control is poor, so he's replaceable.
* Eloy Jimenez: Eloy was great for us in the postseason and took over the DH job from
Lazaro Montes, but we're counting on Montes to bounce back and play more like he did in the first half of the season.
Owner Stu Sternberg gave us a $140M payroll for next season and if everyone listed is kept that's $128M. But there's no way we're keeping Kim at $22.8M next year so we're closer to $105M. Kim will be dealt or non-tendered, as good as he is. Also Horton at nearly $8M looks like a non-tender or trade as does Robertson at $3M so that could be another $11M off giving us up to $45M to spend this winter to either re-sign or replace Bradley.
Otherwise we can roll out the same lineup and 4/5 of the rotation (Schwellenbach's return could fill the Taj vacancy) and 2-way prospect
Kruz Schoolcraft ("Schooltani", they call him) is just about ready and he too could take a starter role. I'd still like to find an impact bat to improve the offense, preferably a corner outfielder, and to beef up the bullpen as always.