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Art Deco · 04-18-2026, 12:22 PM

Well we made a slew of trades, shedding guys we didn't want to pay in arbitration and filling some holes:

Morel has been a major disappointment since coming over in 2024 for Isaac Paredes, Caballero is getting too pricey for a utility infielder, and Pepiot and Baz, once promising pieces of the starting rotation, saw their effectiveness drop off big-time in the last year or so with Pepiot all the way down in AA and Baz in Durham in last year's second half. And in return we got some useful players. Matthews will take Caballero's spot as the backup IF and platoon with Brayden Taylor at 2B, Susac will become the backup (and vs LHP) catcher, and Durbin will take the super-utility role that Davis Schneider had as we're going to non-tender him and save about $1.5M. The one guy who isn't slated to be on the OD roster is Long, a 1B prospect who bats righty and hit 327/397/583 at AAA Iowa last year with 14 homers in 55 games. He could be a possible platoon mate for Xavier Isaac but there's only so many positions we can platoon at so I don't see him up until mid-season sometime at the earliest.

None of these are big needle-movers but they do make us younger and cheaper and fill in a hole or two.

Notable retirements: Max Scherzer, J.D. Martinez, DJ LeMahieu, Justin Turner, Craig Kimbrel, Andrew McCutchen, Carlos Santana, Anthony Rizzo.

Awards season:

Gold Glove: Our Jonathan Aranda took the AL 1B nod, quite a turnaround for a player who was all-bat coming out of the minors.

Reliever of the Year: In this parallel universe Emmanuel Clase laid off the bets (or didn't get caught) and won the AL award after a 40-save, 2.28 ERA, 2.3-WAR season. Somehow our Gabe Speier finished fifth. In the NL Philly's Orion Kerkering was the clear winner thanks to a 44-save, 1.67 ERA campaign.

Silver Slugger: We had two winners: Brandon Lowe at 2B and Junior Caminero at 3B.

Rookie of the Year: In this day and age of unending logins it's fitting that The Password, Boston's Jhostynxon Garcia, won the AL award after a .270-19-71 year taking all but the one first-place homer vote I gave to Carson Williams, who ended up fourth. The top NL freshman was Cincinnati's Cam Collier who exploded for a .274-38-103 year. He too took 29 of 30 first-place nods.

Cy Young: He did it!

Although it's not a prerequisite to qualify for the ERA crown to win the Cy Young as several relievers have won, it's pretty unprecedented for a starter but Mac was so dominant over his 17 starts and 103 IP that he won the award going away with rotation mate Ryan taking third.

The NL award went to Hunter Greene of Cincinnati, who won a fragmented three-way vote with Kevin Gausman (SF) and Ryan Weathers (MIA). Greene had 15 first-place votes and 144 points, Gausman 8/129 and Weathers 7/107. Greene was 13-8, 3.19 with 207 whiffs in 192 IP.

MVP: The AL voting was another 3-player race with Detroit's Colt Keith coming out on top ahead of Gunnar Henderson and Julio Rodriguez. The first-place/total points voting was Keith 13/330, Henderson 7/293 and J-Rod 10/286. Keith hit .316-37-114 and earned 6.7 WAR, well behind J-Rod's 8.1 and also behind Henderson's 6.9. The NL race was much more clear-cut as Atlanta's Michael Harris II was a unanimous (and back-to-back) winner thanks to a .348-36-116, 8.2-WAR season.

November 28: We lost both our arbitration cases with Joe Ryan taking us to the cleaners for $3M than the $13M we offered and Josh Lowe getting $6.1M instead of $5.5M. Now that that's set, we have a payroll of $94M with the option to go as high as $140M, so that's up to $46M to play with.

December 2: Added IF Gregory Barrios, C Dominic Keegan, 1B Jonathan Long, OF Aidan Smith and P Brody Hopkins to the 40-man roster.

Time to protect some of our decent prospects from the Rule 5 Draft. Not sure if any of these guys are going to contribute much next season but you never know.

December 6: Freddie Freeman is staying with the Dodgers, who extended for 2/50.

December 11: That $46M was burning a hole in my pocket so we spent about $15M of it in a couple of deals to beef up the rotation and bullpen:

Now that's more like it. We've added one of the best closers in the league (and yet another former Twin for the staff joining Ryan and Stewart - not to mention the recently-departed Ober) and Stewart will go back to doing what he did in Minnesota: setting up Duran. The Twins are picking up half his salary and we sent them Kmatz, who could pass as a fifth starter but wasn't a prospect while Lopez truly isn't one.

And then we hooked up with the Mets to get Senga, who are also paying 50% of his salary. Senga's an excellent starter and gives us a fearsome four with McClanahan, Rasmussen and Ryan. Now we don't have all our eggs in the "does Bradley come back effectively from TJS?" basket as he becomes the fifth starter. Senga's only knock is his fragility; he missed about half the year last season but was excellent when healthy: a 2.63 ERA with 110 whiffs in 101 IP and has a career 3.39 ERA in 78 starts. The main cost was Lesko, who has a million dollar arm but very iffy control. Schiefer was a 2-star "make it work" guy.

Duran is a rental as he's a free agent at year's end. Senga was one more (very expensive) arb year left so hopefully we can get something for him next winter. And we still have about $25M to spend in case we see a bat worth adding.

December 15: Signed Japanese IF Yasuhiro Saito to a minor league contract.

The pro IFA market this year was very weak, but we did sign Saito who profiles as a utility infielder with decent (55) contact but litter power or eye (40 each). His calling card is his glove as he plays a 60 SS and potentially a 65 3B and 70 2B. He'll be depth at Durham.

Meanwhile the first big free agent signing of the winter was SP Sonny Gray, who goes to the Mets on a 3/83 deal despite being 37. I imagine he'll take Senga's spot in the rotation.

December 17: A couple of notable short relievers found new homes with Carlos Estevez joining the Mets for 2/20 and the Rangers signing Bryan Abreu from cross-state rivals Houston for 2/19.

December 18: The Mets continue to collect relief pitchers, signing veteran closer Raisel Iglesias to another 2/19 deal. Iglesias will probably be out until May-June after nerve surgery.

December 19: Slugging OF Tyler O'Neill joined the Cubs for 6/92 after hitting 92 homers the last three seasons.

December 22: The Rule 5 Draft was a dull affair with only 12 players taken and nobody lost from our organization.

04-18-2026, 12:22 PM	#140
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 7,831	2026-27 Offseason: Part 1 Well we made a slew of trades, shedding guys we didn't want to pay in arbitration and filling some holes: Morel has been a major disappointment since coming over in 2024 for Isaac Paredes, Caballero is getting too pricey for a utility infielder, and Pepiot and Baz, once promising pieces of the starting rotation, saw their effectiveness drop off big-time in the last year or so with Pepiot all the way down in AA and Baz in Durham in last year's second half. And in return we got some useful players. Matthews will take Caballero's spot as the backup IF and platoon with Brayden Taylor at 2B, Susac will become the backup (and vs LHP) catcher, and Durbin will take the super-utility role that Davis Schneider had as we're going to non-tender him and save about $1.5M. The one guy who isn't slated to be on the OD roster is Long, a 1B prospect who bats righty and hit 327/397/583 at AAA Iowa last year with 14 homers in 55 games. He could be a possible platoon mate for Xavier Isaac but there's only so many positions we can platoon at so I don't see him up until mid-season sometime at the earliest. None of these are big needle-movers but they do make us younger and cheaper and fill in a hole or two. Notable retirements: Max Scherzer, J.D. Martinez, DJ LeMahieu, Justin Turner, Craig Kimbrel, Andrew McCutchen, Carlos Santana, Anthony Rizzo. Awards season: Gold Glove: Our Jonathan Aranda took the AL 1B nod, quite a turnaround for a player who was all-bat coming out of the minors. Reliever of the Year: In this parallel universe Emmanuel Clase laid off the bets (or didn't get caught) and won the AL award after a 40-save, 2.28 ERA, 2.3-WAR season. Somehow our Gabe Speier finished fifth. In the NL Philly's Orion Kerkering was the clear winner thanks to a 44-save, 1.67 ERA campaign. Silver Slugger: We had two winners: Brandon Lowe at 2B and Junior Caminero at 3B. Rookie of the Year: In this day and age of unending logins it's fitting that The Password, Boston's Jhostynxon Garcia, won the AL award after a .270-19-71 year taking all but the one first-place homer vote I gave to Carson Williams, who ended up fourth. The top NL freshman was Cincinnati's Cam Collier who exploded for a .274-38-103 year. He too took 29 of 30 first-place nods. Cy Young: He did it! Although it's not a prerequisite to qualify for the ERA crown to win the Cy Young as several relievers have won, it's pretty unprecedented for a starter but Mac was so dominant over his 17 starts and 103 IP that he won the award going away with rotation mate Ryan taking third. The NL award went to Hunter Greene of Cincinnati, who won a fragmented three-way vote with Kevin Gausman (SF) and Ryan Weathers (MIA). Greene had 15 first-place votes and 144 points, Gausman 8/129 and Weathers 7/107. Greene was 13-8, 3.19 with 207 whiffs in 192 IP. MVP: The AL voting was another 3-player race with Detroit's Colt Keith coming out on top ahead of Gunnar Henderson and Julio Rodriguez. The first-place/total points voting was Keith 13/330, Henderson 7/293 and J-Rod 10/286. Keith hit .316-37-114 and earned 6.7 WAR, well behind J-Rod's 8.1 and also behind Henderson's 6.9. The NL race was much more clear-cut as Atlanta's Michael Harris II was a unanimous (and back-to-back) winner thanks to a .348-36-116, 8.2-WAR season. November 28: We lost both our arbitration cases with Joe Ryan taking us to the cleaners for $3M than the $13M we offered and Josh Lowe getting $6.1M instead of $5.5M. Now that that's set, we have a payroll of $94M with the option to go as high as $140M, so that's up to $46M to play with. December 2: Added IF Gregory Barrios, C Dominic Keegan, 1B Jonathan Long, OF Aidan Smith and P Brody Hopkins to the 40-man roster. Time to protect some of our decent prospects from the Rule 5 Draft. Not sure if any of these guys are going to contribute much next season but you never know. December 6: Freddie Freeman is staying with the Dodgers, who extended for 2/50. December 11: That $46M was burning a hole in my pocket so we spent about $15M of it in a couple of deals to beef up the rotation and bullpen: Now that's more like it. We've added one of the best closers in the league (and yet another former Twin for the staff joining Ryan and Stewart - not to mention the recently-departed Ober) and Stewart will go back to doing what he did in Minnesota: setting up Duran. The Twins are picking up half his salary and we sent them Kmatz, who could pass as a fifth starter but wasn't a prospect while Lopez truly isn't one. And then we hooked up with the Mets to get Senga, who are also paying 50% of his salary. Senga's an excellent starter and gives us a fearsome four with McClanahan, Rasmussen and Ryan. Now we don't have all our eggs in the "does Bradley come back effectively from TJS?" basket as he becomes the fifth starter. Senga's only knock is his fragility; he missed about half the year last season but was excellent when healthy: a 2.63 ERA with 110 whiffs in 101 IP and has a career 3.39 ERA in 78 starts. The main cost was Lesko, who has a million dollar arm but very iffy control. Schiefer was a 2-star "make it work" guy. Duran is a rental as he's a free agent at year's end. Senga was one more (very expensive) arb year left so hopefully we can get something for him next winter. And we still have about $25M to spend in case we see a bat worth adding. December 15: Signed Japanese IF Yasuhiro Saito to a minor league contract. The pro IFA market this year was very weak, but we did sign Saito who profiles as a utility infielder with decent (55) contact but litter power or eye (40 each). His calling card is his glove as he plays a 60 SS and potentially a 65 3B and 70 2B. He'll be depth at Durham. Meanwhile the first big free agent signing of the winter was SP Sonny Gray, who goes to the Mets on a 3/83 deal despite being 37. I imagine he'll take Senga's spot in the rotation. December 17: A couple of notable short relievers found new homes with Carlos Estevez joining the Mets for 2/20 and the Rangers signing Bryan Abreu from cross-state rivals Houston for 2/19. December 18: The Mets continue to collect relief pitchers, signing veteran closer Raisel Iglesias to another 2/19 deal. Iglesias will probably be out until May-June after nerve surgery. December 19: Slugging OF Tyler O'Neill joined the Cubs for 6/92 after hitting 92 homers the last three seasons. December 22: The Rule 5 Draft was a dull affair with only 12 players taken and nobody lost from our organization. Last edited by Art Deco; 04-18-2026 at 12:59 PM.