Category: MLB

Welcome to our series grading every member of the San Diego Padres’ 40-man roster. The roster being evaluated is current as of Oct. 18, prior to the end of the World Series. Because of that, it will include players who will be free agents once the postseason concludes. Each player will be graded on their performance in the 2026 season, including the playoffs. That performance will be weighted based on how much time the player spent with the team (availability is the best ability). 

The Rule 5 Protectee

The Padres’ No. 30 prospect, Garrett Hawkins, was drafted by San Diego in 2021. In 119 games (237.2 IP) in the minors, the righty has posted a 3.86 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and 307 strikeouts. After undergoing Tommy John in 2024, Hawkins transitioned into the bullpen in 2025. That transition was seamless, with Hawkins posting a 1.50 ERA and 80 strikeouts across 60 innings of work.

Overall Grade: C+

Because of that production, Hawkins was added to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft ahead of the 2026 season. He was believed to be a candidate to bolster the Padres’ pitching staff this year but struggled in the minors. His strikeout numbers were still solid with 65 Ks across 54 1/3 innings, but he couldn’t limit runs the same way he had in ‘25 (5.47 ERA).

The 26-year-old righty features an otherworldly fastball and serviceable slider and changeup to go along with it. That pitch mix makes him quite similar to former San Diego closer Robert Suarez. Hawkins’ command struggles in 2026 were the reason for his downfall. He allowed 13 extra walks this season in 5 1/3 less innings pitched.

Still, Hawkins remains a potential contributor for the Friars’ bullpen in 2027. With a solid performance in Spring Training, Hawkins could wind up on the Opening Day roster depending on which relievers the Padres end up retaining this offseason. With the potential departures of Jason Adam, Yuki Matsui and Adrian Morejon this offseason, Hawkins could become an important piece for San Diego in the years to come.

The past couple of seasons have not gone as planned for the Arizona Diamondbacks finishing just outside of the playoff picture every season since their magical 2023 World Series run. What we all hoped would be the makings of a powerhouse turned out to be more of a team that struggled to turn a corner from a middling 3rd wild card type to a 90+ win a season powerhouse. Going into the 2026-2027 offseason it is perhaps time for this team to receive a bit of a change of identity if the goal is to turn a corner. That being said, owner Ken Kendrick has already gone on record saying that the payroll is likely to come down from the record highs of 2026. So the question is, does this team have a realistic path to finally turning a corner?

For this plan, I chose 85 projected wins as the benchmark. The 2027 projections I used in this article for the 2027 roster are projections from a Marcel-style WAR model (method by Tom Tango), built on FanGraphs WAR, as of Oct 31, 2026. This is due to the mainstream projections for 2027 not being out just yet. As currently constructed, with no additions, the 2027 D-backs project for about 80 wins (79.9; preseason projections carry roughly ±8 wins of uncertainty). The 85 number comes from me running many many offseason scenarios, and 85 was about the ceiling I could get the projections to with this team with realistic financial resources and realistic trade values. Those I will be outlining in the next section.

The Resources

To help answer that question, I think a good place to start is what resources does this team realistically have going into the offseason. On October 3rd, Jack Sommers did a phenomenal job outlining what the Dbacks financial situation likely looks like heading into the offseason with roughly 162.8M already committed. I suggest you read that article to get the full breakdown of what all that number entails. The 2026 baseline was 192.8M LRD or about 30 million more than what they currently have pledged. It is also likely the team non-tenders Pavin Smith which could save an additional 2 million as well as trimming some money around arbitration contracts, however for the purposes of this article, lets be optimistic and assume Kendrick meant what he said and this team has about 25M to spend this offseason or a small reduction in payroll at just a 2.6% drop.

In addition to money, lets look at what the Dbacks realistically have available to trade:

I will be the first to acknowledge that these trade values are a bit hand wavy as it is really impossible to know how everyone in this organization is valued. However, I attempted a methodology that included future production projections as well as contract and years of control while sprinkling in some prospect status using MLB Pipeline FV. This list is far from perfect, but it passed some of the initial smell tests so I’m going to go with it.

So how much trade value do they realistically have? For some context here, I applied the same methodology to a list of front line starters and this is what I got:

What I gathered from this? The Dbacks are going to have a really hard time acquiring impact front line starting pitching via trade given the resources they have. All four premium chips together (Lawlar, Waldschmidt, Bratt, Fernandez) come to about $45–78M at market.

Next lets try the same table but for left handed impact bats:

So a Pasquantino-level bat (10–18): one premium chip, or two secondary pieces. That’s something like a Troy + Dix package, or maybe a Drake + Groover package. Not really great either especially considering the years of control you would be trading away for a pretty 1 dimensional type player. Do you trade Troy + Morillo for a platoon bat like Colt Kieth or a 28 year old who strikes out at a 30% clip in Kyle Stowers?

So does the trade market really make sense to go out and try and acquire the impact level talent (2-3WAR players) this team needs? Probably not as much as you would think.

How to Get to 85+ Wins?

This is where things really get interesting. In almost every scenario I modeled to get this team to 85+ wins, it involved roughly the same strategy. Essentially completely overhaul the starting rotation. The starting rotation as currently constructed is the teams Achilles heal. The D-backs’ rotation as currently constructed projects in the bottom third of MLB (about 21st-23rd measured by the author’s model), with Merrill Kelly projected at under 1 WAR per 180 innings and Corbin Burnes’s projection limited by his return from Tommy John surgery.

The rotation is the largest weakness on the current roster: it projects about 21st of 28 clubs and roughly 1.7 WAR below an average rotation, across some 870 innings. First base projects even lower relative to the league, but it’s one lineup spot; the rotation’s gap is bigger in total wins and cheaper to close. That’s why most paths to 85 wins start there, with a first-base/left-handed bat and a bullpen floor as the secondary priorities.

Another common theme, was trading away Ketel Marte in order to free up capital. According to my best estimates, trading away Ketel Marte saves this team about 13.75M of LRD payroll flexibility in 2027.

The Moves

Path A: Two free-agent starters + 4 trades (85.3 wins at ~$187.3M)

Path B: One free-agent starter + 4 trades (85.0 wins, $181.9M payroll)

Conclusion

This exercise is limited by my ability to accurately value the players trade value, however I gave it my best effort. Ultimately that value is going to vary from team to team at how they value them based off of their own methods and data that I don’t have access to. One of the biggest variables I found while doing this was what the value of Ketel Marte was going to be. To do that I really focused on the teams that I thought had the biggest need and would be willing to take on the extra baggage he brings along with the most surplus of starting pitching.

The other thing that was interesting to me was all roads apparently go through Trevor Rogers! My models really like him from a starting pitcher projected wins added per dollar amount rate. You could certainly argue for swapping Rogers for Soroka especially because it has been reported Soroka has interest in returning, however my projections only project about 1.8 WAR for Soroka compared to 2.9 WAR for Trevor Rogers even though Rogers also has some durability concerns.

On the offensive side, guys like Colt Keith and Lawrence Butler may not be the names people were hoping for. However Colt Keith I believe could be had given 2nd base being a real weakness in Detroit that Tommy Troy could fill and Keith’s production against righties has been pretty steady .336 regressed xwOBA vs RHP, 77th percentile, steady from 2024–26. 3B is also freed up if Nolan Arenado really is willing to move to first, however Keith is not as good of a 3rd basemen compared to Arenado. Although Keith has played some 1B. My models also really likes Butler in that he is left handed and has been steady against righties xwOBA .347 / .320 / .339 (2024–26) with top end bat speed and exit velocity. He would mostly DH vs righties.

At the end of the day, it is impossible to know the direction the Dbacks will go. Recently there was some reporting the team had interest in young controllable starting pitching, but that is certainly different than tearing this rotation apart. Also the shear volume of trades make both of these scenarios unlikely given how hard it is to make trades and the condensed offseason due to the lockout.

For me, I like both of these scenarios because I was able to keep the big 3 of the bullpen intact while also staying within the financial constraints of the team, while also avoiding completely gutting the farm although it does take a hit. What do you guys think?

I spent the week going over what I felt were the five most important stories of the season. On Monday, I wrote about the pitching and all of the ways that part of the team foiled it. On Tuesday, I tied Bryce Eldridge’s outstanding age-21 season to the team’s overall player development success. Wednesday was all about praising Rafael Devers for sticking it to his haters. Thursday was about saying goodbye to Mike Krukow. And yesterday, I declared that Buster Posey had tainted his legacy with his handling of the anti-Pride Night protest. Here are some others I considered spotlighting this past week.

Tony Vitello

Yes, it was a big deal how much the Giants spent on the manager’s position and the guy they went with to follow in the footsteps of Bruce Bochy, Gabe Kapler, and Bob Melvin. It was a big gamble with a lot of obvious downside and that’s where the play wound up going. It is possible that his “rookie” status caused a lot of the problems he and the team experienced. This is why it didn’t grab Top 5 status for me: we might still be in the prologue. He did not make a positive impression, that much is clear. If it had worked out as intended (the Giants make the playoffs), I might’ve also folded it into the Buster Posey aspect of this season.

The hitting group

For a minute there, the offense was pretty good. You can see the Giants trying to become this year’s Brewers or last year’s Blue Jays. But the injury pileup really does make it difficult to attempt a clean analysis.

But, obviously, Casey Schmitt broke out. Drew Gilbert showed why he has been a prospect able to stay in a team’s plans. Bryce Eldridge stepped into a version of the guy he’s projected to be. Victor Bericoto seems like he might be something — at worst, an immediate replacement for Heliot Ramos. Daniel Susac might be a perfectly fine replacement for Patrick Bailey specifically because of how well his bat plays.

Logan Webb’s partial decline

I’ve said it too many times recently, but it really does seem like Logan Webb has hit the 1,000 MLB innings wall. This is the point when the injuries begin to pileup. Or, he could start to separate himself from his peers and continue pitching on a Hall of Fame-esque track. He wound up having a pretty good season despite the knee injury that caused him to miss around 6 starts and despite the frequency with which he was shelled. From 2023-2025, he was a 4.5-5 fWAR pitcher. This year, his 3.1 fWAR in 27 starts had him on track to being around 3.8 fWAR… or a 4-WAR pitcher. That’s a step down anyway you want to look at it, but there’s always the chance that he does not go the way of Lincecum, Bumgarner and Cain, who all fizzled out at this point in their careers.

The trades

Along the same line as the farm system, I thought it was worth looking at the trades the team has made the past two years which have worked out in this narrow window of around 12 months. Their deadline pickups from this season have also offered flashes of quality that stokes similar hope for the future as the draft component of player development has done. In other words, Anthony Molina looks like a useful major leaguer already. The Giants were able to turn Patrick Bailey into Matt Wilkinson and Carson Bolemon.Henry Lalane, Miguel Mendez, Ramon Marquez, Kaeden Kent, and Marcelo Mayer? All very solid pickups.

Attendance

We heard about attendance for a good chunk of the season as it looked like the franchise was on course to break last year’s mark (2,925,823), but the team’s poor performance likely contributed to the team coming up short (2,856,810). Anecdata-wise, it sure did seem like most nights featured a loud contingent of fans for the visiting team; and, of course, Oracle Park is basically Dodger Stadium North now that the rivalry is dead.

But the team was strutting and the beat writers were dutifully pointing that out wile the team was being picked apart for being so bad. It especially came up when the topic of trading Jung Hoo Lee appeared in conversation, the implication being that the attendance totals are being bolstered by tourists there to see the Grandson of the Wind. But it seems like hanging an attendance figure on a platoon outfielder who can only flirt with being league average is probably not the way to go in the future.

The franchise’s valuation

The San Diego Padres were sold for $3.9 billion and the Los Angeles Angeles sold for $4 billion, but both of those transactions occurred at least a quarter after the Giants had announced an influx of capital thanks to two new investors: private equity firm Thrive and St. Louis Business leader Richard Chaifetz. There’s no official valuation of the Giants floating around out there. Forbes does an estimate each season and had the Giants at $4.05 billion for 2026, but the investors will have had their own figure when buying in. Also, a valuation doesn’t necessarily equal a sale price.

This isn’t to suggest that the Giants are on the verge of being sold, but as team valuations to continue to skyrocket and leadership’s land holdings expand it’s probably worth a thought exercise about a potential sale at some point. But from a story of 2026 standpoint, it’s a simple fact that this money helped the Giants cover a slightly expanded payroll and the other financial commitments the team had made (paying Bob Melvin’s contract and Tony Vitello’s buyout among the line items). The Giants have a large ownership group now.

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I didn’t go with any of these for a single story mainly because of the strong injury component of the season — yes, I did consider the injuries as a single story, but I didn’t want to help build a narrative that they were a meaningful part of the season’s overall failure (at the major league level). Plus, I feel like these were all more like the first act of bigger stories that will be expanded upon in 2027 (whenever that season gets underway).

But, what do you think? Were any of these a bigger deal than one (or all) of the five offered over the course of the week? What might you have included in the 5 or on this quasi-Honorable Mention list?

1937
Ed Arthur Walsh, son of White Sox legend Ed Walsh, died of rheumatic fever after falling into a coma at his childhood home in Meriden, Conn. He was just 32 years old.

Quite obviously, the younger Walsh would never escape the shadow of his father, a Hall-of-Famer and fifth all-time in White Sox WAR. However, Ed was a talented athlete, making the University of Notre Dame football team as a punter under coach Knute Rockne and pitching to an 18-6 record for a Fighting Irish baseball team managed by his father.

The White Sox signed the younger Walsh upon graduation in 1928 and he made his major league debut on the mound that same year, on July 4. Walsh pitched in four seasons for the White Sox, ending his career with an 11-28 record, a 5.57 ERA and 0.1 pitching WAR.

Just five years after his final game in the majors, the younger Walsh was dead. His father lived until the White Sox pennant-winning season of 1959, 22 years later.

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1972
In an extremely tight race, Gaylord Perry edged Wilbur Wood for AL Cy Young, 64 votes to 58. Both hurlers had very similar, 24-win seasons:

• Wood threw 34 more innings (376 2⁄3 !), started nine more games (49), and had three more shutouts (eight).
• Perry had one fewer loss (16), nine more complete games (29), and had key edges in ERA (1.92 to 2.51), ERA+ (168 to 126), and WHIP (0.978 to 1.059).

In the final accounting, Perry had a slightest of edges in WAR (10.8 to 10.7) and finished sixth in AL MVP voting to Wood’s seventh.

But for fans of “meaningful games,” the decision was hard to swallow: Perry’s Clevelanders finished sixth in the AL East (72-84), while Wood’s White Sox were 16 games better, finishing second in the AL West (87-67).

Wood would have been just the second White Sox pitcher ever to win a Cy Young (Early Wynn, 1959) and would have joined Dick Allen (MVP) as major award winners in 1972 for the upstart South Siders.

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2005
As the White Sox were winning their first World Series in 88 years, Sports Illustrated put Scott Podsednik and his winning home run from the second game on the cover. The long headline read, “World Series. In A Match Up Of Two Title Hungry Teams, The White Sox Struck First, Dramatically Downing The Astros In Games 1 And 2.” 

Sports Illustrated then basically ignored the White Sox winning the series by only putting a small circle shot of the team celebrating in the corner of the following week’s cover, breaking a longstanding tradition. The cover that week was Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, as the magazine previewed a regular season NFL game — not a Super Bowl matchup, not a playoff contest — but a regular-season meeting. 

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2011
Three days after leading the St. Louis Cardinals to another World Series title, former White Sox skipper Tony La Russa announced his retirement.

He would not remain retired.

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2024
The White Sox officially announced the hiring of Will Venable as the 44th manager in franchise history.

Venable came from the Rangers organization, where he was the associate manager under Bruce Bochy and helped Texas win a World Series in 2023. He also coached in the Red Sox and Cubs organizations after an almost 10-year playing career as an outfielder.

Venable was considered an up-and-comer in the baseball world and initial reaction to his hiring was very positive. He stepped into what many were also considering the most difficult job in the majors, taking over a team that lost a record 121 games in the 2024 season, and improved the club by 19 wins in 2025 and another 24 in 2026.

Also on this day, the White Sox bought out third baseman Yoán Moncada’s contract for $5 million rather than pay him $25 million for the 2025 season. Moncada is commonly regarded as a “bust” for the White Sox, and while his enormous promise as an overall No. 1 prospect in baseball promised more, the infielder was not. From a strict value standpoint, he was paid $71.1 million over the course of his White Sox career and produced 14.5 WAR; at $4.9 million paid per WAR, the White Sox actually got a slight bargain in the deal.

Paul Toboni made several moves at his first trade deadline, but the biggest one was with his old club. He cashed in on Curtis Mead’s breakout first half to acquire standout 24 year old lefty Connelly Early. Toboni is very familiar with Early, being the one who drafted him in Boston. Now, the duo is reunited in DC, and hopefully the partnership can be fruitful.

BREAKING: The Boston Red Sox are trading left-hander Connelly Early to the Washington Nationals for infielder Curtis Mead, sources tell ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 26, 2026

If you told someone before the 2026 season started that Mead would be traded straight up for Early, any knowledgeable baseball fan would call you crazy. Mead was DFA’d by the White Sox right before Opening Day, and the Nats acquired him for the unknown Boston Smith (who also had a monster year and was traded again at the deadline). Meanwhile, Early looked like a stud in his September callup and started a win or go home game.

However, this one for one trade ended up happening about a week before the deadline. It was not like Early was having a bad season in Boston either. Some of his underlying metrics were mildly concerning, but Early still had a 3.44 ERA with 93 strikeouts in 91.2 innings for the Red Sox. He was already establishing himself as a reliable middle of the rotation starter as a rookie.

There was one catch though, Early was hurt at the time of the trade. He exited a start against the Nationals with elbow soreness at the end of June. However, there was no structural damage on his MRI, so the injury was not going to keep him out that long. The injury scare, combined with the Red Sox glut of left handed starters and their need for offense led to them moving Early for Mead.

Neither team really got anything out of the trade in 2026 though. Mead was hit by a pitch and broke his wrist in his second at bat, causing him to miss the rest of the season. Meanwhile, Early, who was supposed to come back some time in August, suffered a setback. While ramping up again, Early felt some discomfort in his forearm. That caused the Nats to shut him down temporarily.

However, the discomfort was very mild, and the Nats cautiously ramped up Early again in an effort to get him on the mound by the end of the year. After a few rehab starts, Early was able to make a start in the second to last game of the season. 

We only saw three innings, but it was very impressive. Early was in command of his six pitch mix and kept the Mets hitters off balance. He only allowed one hit and did not walk anyone. The lefty cruised through three innings on just 34 pitches. It gave Nats fans a sneak peak of what is to come.

Made me happy to see Connelly Early back on the mound. pic.twitter.com/eg4SYBlpDR

— Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) September 27, 2026

With Early not pitching for most of his time with the Nats, the mood around the trade was a bit negative. Nobody was writing off Early, but there was plenty of grumbling about where the team would be with Mead. That last start of the season provided a lot of optimism for fans. We got to see why Paul Toboni was so high on Early.

For the season, Early posted a 3.33 ERA in 94.2 innings with 94 strikeouts. The peripherals suggested his ERA should probably be in the low to mid 4’s, but Early was able to overachieve. Moving forward, I think Early could be able to match that 3.33 ERA, but do it in a more sustainable manner.

Early has a strong combination of stuff, feel and command. He throws a 4-seamer, a sinker, a changeup, a curveball, a sweeper and a slider. It is very impressive to see a young pitcher show the ability to use so many different weapons. His velocity is only average, but a strong fastball shape makes the pitch effective. Early is able to show a variety of different secondary pitches off that fastball.

Connelly Early (acquired by WSH) is a young, controllable lefty who is currently nursing an elbow injury. His profile is highlighted by solid command and a deep arsenal which features a deceptively good fastball and a nasty changeup. He projects as a mid-rotation arm. https://t.co/xhbNbX2QZnpic.twitter.com/IGSLetid43

— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) July 26, 2026

Right now, Early sits at 94 on his 4-seamer, but as a leaner guy, I wonder if he can add another tick of velocity with additional strength training. Early has said getting stronger is a priority for him. That added strength could help his durability, along with the velocity.

While Early pitched well, he did suffer that injury that held him out for months. He has not pitched more than 103 innings in his pro career, so being able to log innings is a slight question. The health is a question, but the fact he got back on the mound this year makes me a lot more optimistic.

Moving forward, I think Early will be the perfect number 3 starter for the Nats. A rotation consisting of Cavalli, Early and one other big time arm could make the Nationals rotation a strength. At the deadline, we knew that Nats needed pitching help badly. I think Connelly Early will be a part of the solution moving forward.

Several months back, I began a series here at Pinstripe Alley where I was going to put together an All-Star Yankee team of players who were born in a given month. Since then, we as a staff have started doing daily posts for the year 2026, highlighting a Yankee from history whose birthday happens to land on that day. As we near the end of this month, what better way to put a cap on a month’s worth of birthday posts then by using the all-month teams as a way to look back on who we covered? And maybe some we didn’t cover who shared a birthday with someone else?

With that in mind, here are my choices for the All-October Birthday Yankee Team. 

Pitcher: Whitey Ford (October 21st birthday post)

With Orlando Hernández behind and David Bednar in the bullpen, October has a decent pitching staff, but “The Chairman of the Board” is the only choice I could make on the mound. He’s rightfully a legend, in the Hall of Fame with his number retired by the Yankees, and yet his stats were still somewhat held back by the way manager Casey Stengel would use him.

Catcher: Joe Girardi (October 14th birthday post)

Girardi is not only the pretty obvious choice to be behind the plate for the October team, but we can also use him as a player-manager.

First Base: Joe Pepitone (October 9th birthday post)

In another universe, Fred McGriff would be starting at first base for this team, but, well, you know. Instead, Pepitone will starting over there.

Second Base: Robinson Canó (October 22nd birthday post)

There were some tough choices to be made in the infield, with the likes of Snuffy Stirnweiss, Bobby Brown, and Tony Kubek also options. However, no matter how much frustration around his departure still exists, Canó was still a damn incredible hitter.

Shortstop: Frankie Crosetti (October 4th birthday post)

With 17 World Series championships across his time as a Yankee player and coach, “Crow” is one of the most decorated people in all of sports.

Third Base: Red Rolfe (October 17th birthday post)

Rolfe managed in the major leagues after his player career, but that wasn’t the only sport he coached in. Rolfe had a brief run as the coach of the Toronto Huskies of the Basketball Association of America, which was one of the leagues that merged to form the NBA.

Left Field: Mickey Rivers (October 30th birthday post)

The excellent “Mick the Quick” of the 1970s was more of a center fielder, but we’re going to hold that spot for someone he shares a first name with.

Center Field: Mickey Mantle (October 20th birthday post)

Obviously, we had to save center field for one of the greatest Yankees and one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He put up 112.3 career fWAR despite being greatly hampered by injury in the final couple years of his career.

Right Field: Dave Winfield (October 3rd birthday post)

Of the many dumb things George Steinbrenner did, getting himself banned essentially because he was mad about Winfield’s contract was one of the dumbest. Winfield had a career 135 OPS+ as a Yankee, it wasn’t his fault the rest of the roster was meh in that era.

Designated Hitter: Juan Soto

I know he’s another one whose departure we’re all still somewhat annoyed about, but it’s fairly impossible to deny that Soto is going to go down as one of the best hitters of his generation. The Yankees exulted in everything he got to provide in 2024, including a pennant-clinching homer.

I am not a fan of hypothetical trades that are completely unrealistic which is why my first instinct when I heard ESPN mention the Cardinals and Tarik Skubal in the same breath was to laugh it off and turn away. However, the more I started to think about the concept of the St. Louis Cardinals signing free agent Tarik Skubal the more I realized that it’s worth exploring even though I predict it’ll never happen.

I want to be clear that this is not a free agent signing prediction that originated with us. Blame this on the 2026-27 MLB offseason best fits for free agents from ESPN. They said that the Chicago Cubs were the best fit for Tarik Skubal, but their second choice for a possible fit was our beloved Cardinals. I immediately dropped this in The Feed and it inspired many interesting responses.

One thing that David Schoenfield of ESPN said that does make a hypothetical Tarik Skubal signing doable for the Cardinals is the estimated 2027 payroll of just $66 million. Mathematically speaking, it would not be outrageous for St. Louis to add even a pitcher of Skubal’s stature to the roster. I’ve seen estimates that Tarik will command a contract between $400 and $500 million. Spotrac projected a 7-year, $276 million contract not that long ago. I think that’s wildly conservative, but let’s run with those numbers. Could the Cardinals handle a $40 million per season top of the rotation superstar starter? My last name is not DeWitt, but it doesn’t sound unreasonable for St. Louis to suddenly have a $106 million dollar roster instead of $66 million.

There are three more reasons that I think a St. Louis Cardinals/Tarik Skubal deal could make sense for what Chaim Bloom is trying to accomplish. First, he would be the ultimate leader for the young arms on the Cardinals roster and those about to appear from Memphis. Who better to be a model and mentor for young pitchers than a two-time Cy Young award winner? The second would be marketing. A Skubal signing would be a message to the fanbase that the organization is serious about winning again sooner rather than later. That would be a great way for the DeWitt family to put the attendance trajectory at Busch Stadium headed back toward 3 million per season. Finally, Chaim Bloom would not be giving up any prospects to place a proven ace at the top of the rotation. That fits within his stated mission of not harming the farm system for a short term gain.

Now, let’s tear down why all of my daydreaming will almost certainly never happen. First, Tarik Skubal will likely not have any interest in being a part of a rebuild even if he would likely speed up the return to competitiveness. He’ll have the Dodgers, Yankees and other big market teams that are already competitive knocking on his door willing to pay unreasonable amounts of money for a long-term deal.

I’m not a Chaim Bloom mind-reader, but I think we’re at least one if not two seasons away from him going after a major free agent talent. The last time I asked the community about this, I think that 2028 was the most popular guess of when the Cardinals will be seriously competitive again. Why sign Tarik Skubal who will likely hit his peak in the next couple of seasons before the rest of the roster is prepared for a deep post-season run? I’d also be concerned about the bone chips in Skubal’s left elbow discovered this past May. He looked strong when he returned in mid-June through the rest of the season, but that would likely give me a slight pause before I’d recommend getting the DeWitt checkbook out.

As I watched Chaim Bloom’s end of season press conference, I got a vibe from him that he’s pulling back from some fan’s expectations that the rebuild is going quicker than expected. He seemed to be warning that an expectation of seriously competing in the next season would be premature. Do those words sound like a President of Baseball Operations that plans to go sign the biggest free agent pitcher in recent memory? I don’t think so.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today has reported via social media that Dana Brown is returning to the Atlanta Braves organization as a senior advisor with amateur scouting.

Brown, who had been in the Braves organization from 2019 through early 2023 in an executive role with the team’s front office, had been the general manager of the Houston Astros from January 2023 until he was released from his contract in a mutual agreement in August 2026.

This marks the third time that Brown, 59, will have worked with Alex Anthopoulos having done with with the Toronto Blue Jays prior to his first stint with the Braves.

The Atlanta Braves have brought utilityman Vidal Bruján back to the organizations, signing him to a minor league deal according to the team’s transaction page. Bruján, 28, spent part of the 2025 season with Atlanta.

The move gives the organization depth across multiple positions as Bruján has big league experience at second base, shortstop, third base and all three outfield positions. Since debuting in 2021, he has appeared in 271 MLB games, but only saw action in nine contests with the New York Metropolitans last season.

Bruján doesn’t offer much offensively with little power and a stolen base success rate of barely over 50-percent for his big league career. However, the Braves came into this offseason with almost no depth on the middle infield. Other than Ozzie Albies, whose option was picked up, only Jim Jarvis is under contract from the 2026 team’s middle infielders.

Bruján debuted with the Tampa Bay Rays and spent three seasons with the team. He’s played with five different organizations, including the Braves, since 2024. He has a career 53 wRC+.

The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions in 2026. It took a lot of things going right over the course of the regular season and the postseason in order to make that happen. These Brewers were a very young team, with a lot of players who were rookies just making their debuts in 2026 playing significant roles down the stretch.

Successfully implementing prospects like Cooper Pratt, Luis Lara, and Shane Drohan into the team was a key part of the Crew’s success. Pratt made a run for World Series MVP, Lara saved multiple games with his glove and had some big hits, and Drohan helped stabilize the rotation during the season and proved to be a versatile, reliable arm.

The Brewers rely on a constant stream of young players coming up and producing to keep the team competitive and strong. Winning the World Series is not going to change that strategy. 2027 will be no different. Milwaukee has the best farm system in all of baseball and more players from that system are going to come up and produce in 2027.

These four Brewers prospects could be that next combo of Pratt, Lara, and Drohan that help the Brewers repeat as World Series champs in 2027.

1B Blake Burke

I’m very high on Blake Burke and there’s a possibility he’s the long-term solution for the Brewers at first base. Jake Bauers is a free agent and his 2026 campaign has likely priced him into a very lucrative multi-year deal in free agency. While the Brewers could possibly retain him, those kinds of deals haven’t generally been the type they make. Meanwhile Andrew Vaughn was relegated to platoon duty this year and is projected to earn $8.5MM next season in his last year of arbitration.

At the very least, it appears unlikely that both Bauers and Vaughn will be back next year, leaving open room for someone else to enter that first base picture.

Blake Burke was named the Double-A Southern League MVP in 2026, and earned a late-season promotion to Triple-A. On the season, Burke hit .263/.350/.538 with 28 doubles, 34 homers, 97 RBIs, and 29 stolen bases. He has immense raw power, but is also a talented hitter, making consistent contact and keeping his strikeout rate relatively low for his profile, at about 25%.

Burke struggled initially upon his promotion to Triple-A, but that experience will be valuable for him to make adjustments over the offseason. He could come into spring training with a legit opportunity to put himself in the roster mix. Even if it’s not for Opening Day, Burke is likely to see big league time in 2027 and he can play a big role as a masher in the middle of the lineup.

SS Jesus Made

Jesus Made is the number one prospect in all of baseball. The ceiling is crazy high as the Brewers may have found themselves another Jackson Chourio-type of player, a young Venezuelan phenom that can flip games on a dime. Made has followed the Chourio path through the minor leagues so far, with some aggressive promotions and spending the year in Double-A as a 19 year old, when most prospects are a freshman in college.

Made’s elite bat speed and exit velocities lead to very high projections for his bat as he matures. In Double-A this year, Made hit .271/.344/.430 with 24 doubles, 14 homers, 91 RBIs, and 37 stolen bases. He dropped his strikeout rate from 20.5% in 2025 to just 14.3% in 2026.

Made didn’t quite make Triple-A this year, but that’s because the Biloxi Shuckers made it to the Southern League Championship Series and the Brewers didn’t want to take him away from helping that team and having that postseason experience.

There’s a real chance the Brewers offer to extend Made this offseason. That’s what they did with Chourio after his age-19 season in Double-A and that deal has worked out well so far. Chourio spent just six games in Triple-A. He had to prove himself to Pat Murphy to make the Opening Day roster, and Jesus Made will have to do the same, but it won’t be long until Made is up in 2027.

RHP Tyson Hardin

It was mostly the Brewers hitting prospects that made the noise in the farm system in 2026. But the pitching development pipeline is still solid and the development of former 12th round pick Tyson Hardin has been fantastic to watch.

Yes, the 5.34 ERA looks bad. But there’s more to pitching development than just ERA. Hardin struck out 139 hitters in 119.2 IP, that’s good for 10.45 K/9. He also walked just 37 batters, a 2.78 BB/9, which is very strong.

The pitch metrics on Hardin are very good. He comes from a lower release point, which adds to his deception on his mid-90s fastball. He gets good ride on that pitch, allowing him to pepper the top of the zone. Hardin has a full arsenal with three different fastball variations and six total pitches. The Brewers do love pitchers with multiple fastballs and have proven to be able to find ways to make these pitchers effective by mixing and matching them

It’ll certainly be a crowded rotation picture in Milwaukee next year with so many young arms the team has acquired and has under control for several years. But injuries always happen and opportunities always arise for young pitchers in this organization. The Brewers are the “land of opportunity” for young players as Pat Murphy has said. There will likely be an opportunity for Hardin in 2027 and he has a good chance to take it and run.

3B Andrew Fischer

There was no way a list like this could be made without mentioning Andrew Fischer. The Brewers minor league player of the year in 2026, Fischer hit bomb after bomb, slugging 50 home runs in total between the regular season and postseason for Double-A Biloxi.

Across High-A and Double-A, Fischer hit .273/.413/.654 with all those home runs, 114 RBIs, 102 walks, and nine stolen bases.

However, he also struck out 185 times, a 33% K rate. That’s incredibly high. Fischer has a contact rate of just 63.4%, which would be one of the lowest in MLB. The strikeout concerns are the thing dragging down his profile, but to this point, even against Double-A pitching, it largely hasn’t affected his production.

Kyle Schwarber and Munetaka Murakami the most successful hitters right now in MLB with contact rates that low. Could he perform like those guys have? Sure. Could he also fall short of that against the advanced pitching he’ll face in the big leagues? Also very possible.

But even with the strikeouts, Fischer is just going to keep pulverizing baseballs like this until he reaches a level where pitchers figure him out enough or are able to execute enough to slow him down. So far, that hasn’t happened. Fischer will likely start in Triple-A next year and if Triple-A can’t slow him down, then it’s on to the big leagues to see if big league pitchers can slow him down. And if they still can’t? Then the Brewers just might have their next big masher in the middle of the lineup for years to come.

Provided that Fischer can mash against Triple-A pitching in 2027, we’ll see him in the big leagues next year and he could propel the push to get back to the World Series.

We’re heading down the stretch in Arizona, as less than two weeks remain in the regular season for the six teams playing in the desert. The Salt River Rafters have fallen to 11-10 after a hot start and seem doomed to have to get through the postseason the hard way, but there’s still plenty of time to fix that. They’ll need the Yankees’ contingent to be a big part of it; they had an up-and-down week headlined by some titanic tanks from Kyle West. As a reminder, if you want a quick rundown on who’s in the desert this month, check here.

October 24 (Rafters 3, Saguaros 5): The Rafters started the week with a sluggish, seven-inning loss that was shut out until pretty late. Dax Kilby got things started by going 2-for-4 with a pair of singles and a stolen base. On the mound, JT Etheridge struggled with command, allowing two runs on four walks in three innings. Mack Estrada worked around a pair of walks in a scoreless fourth, as did Antonio Gomez in the fifth, as he got his fastball up to 98. The highlight of this game was West, who annihilated his first home run of the spring at 111.9 mph and 409 feet late in the game.

October 26 (Rafters 20, Saguaros 4): Do you think Salt River was angry about how the game on Saturday went? They put up a staggering 20 runs in a blowout on Monday, partially from the Yankees’ contingent. Core Jackson went 0-for-5 with a walk, RBI, and four strikeouts; Anthony Mena tossed a pair of scoreless innings late in the blowout, but the star was once again West. He pummeled a pair of home runs a combined 912 feet. He ended the day with three hits, two homers, a double, and four RBIs with exit velocities of 112.0, 109.2, and 100.4.

October 27 (Rafters 0, Desert Dogs 1): One day after scoring 20, the Rafters were shut out across nine innings. That’s baseball, Suzyn! Kilby went 0-f0r-4 and Chris Veach tossed two scoreless innings to continue a strong month down in the desert. Not much going on here.

October 28 (Rafters 4, Scorpions 0): A second straight day of strong pitching vaulted Salt River to a shutout victory on Wednesday. Kilby went 1-for-3 with two walks and a few hard-hit balls, including a roped 107.9 mph single. Jackson went 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout, West went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, and Gomez had his best day in a while on the mound, striking out two in a scoreless inning. His velocity was a lot more stable around 98 and generated a lot of called strikes.

October 29 (Rafters 5, Solar Sox 21): Ouch. Not a great way to finish the week, especially after the games were cancelled on Friday. Fortunately, the Yankees weren’t really at fault. Kilby tripled twice, including with a 109.3 mph, 409-foot booming shot off the wall in center field. He did make a pair of errors at shortstop in an ugly game for Salt River’s defense that included one from West as well. In an ugly game for pitchers, Estrada didn’t allow a run in two-thirds of an inning.

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AFL totals thus far

Dax Kilby: 17-53 (.304), 2 HR, 8 RBI, 6 2B, 3 3B, 6 BB, 7 K, 5 SB
Core Jackson: 5-40 (.125), HR, 3 RBI, 2B, 3B, 14 BB, 16 K, 10 SB
Kyle West: 11-46 (.239), 3 HR, 10 RBI, 2B, 7 BB, 11 K, 3 SB
JT Etheridge: 9 IP, 7 H, 6 R (5 ER), 7 BB, 13 K
Mack Estrada: 5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 7 BB, 2 K
Chris Veach: 9.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 BB, 12 K
Anthony Mena: 9.2 IP, 9 H, 4 R (3 ER), 5 BB, 7 K
Antonio Gomez: 5.1 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 6 BB, 5 K

Signing MJ Melendez was a very interesting idea that simply was relied upon a little too much for the Mets; which was very much a microcosm of the offseason David Stearns had prior to the 2026 season.

Melendez was exactly the type of signing a team makes to try and win on the margins. Melendez, who was 27 going into the season, was a former Top 100 prospect by all three major publications (Baseball Prospectus, Baseball American and MLB Pipeline). He had two around league average offensive seasons in 2022 and 2023 as a rookie and season year player with the Royals respectively. After a worse 2024 and a disastrous 2025 for Melendez, he was released from the Royals and made his way to Queens.

Melendez, on the whole, was not that bad for the Mets. His .191 batting average pops out of the page for all the wrong reasons, but he got on base more than you think (.315 OBP). He slugged .350 0n the season, and all in all had a 91 WRC+ on the year. While obviously not a starting caliber player, he did enough as a bench guy to keep his career afloat.

The weirdest part of the season for Melendez was, at one point, he was a shining beacon while the Mets could not hit water from a boat. Due to a myriad of injuries, the Mets played Melendez a lot in April, and to his credit he delivered. He had a 191 wRC+ that month, though he had literally no help, as the team notched a league-low 77 wRC+ that month with Melendez’s 191 wRC+.

He fell off a cliff after that month, earning a 54 wRC+ in May, a 71 wRC+ in June, and spending the rest of the year in Syracuse. Melendez elected free agency in October, but he likely did enough to, at the very least, sign a minor league deal somewhere.

Melendez is a very apropos story of the 2026 New York Mets. His hot streak was poorly timed, just like the team deciding to look like a pretty decent professional baseball club well after the season was over.

The Texas Rangers have purchased the contract of righthanded pitcher Aidan Curry, the team announced today. Had the Rangers not added Curry to the 40 man roster, he would have become a free agent.

Curry was signed as an undrafted free agent in the summer of 2020. The 24 year old has worked as a starter through his professional career, though he hadn’t pitched above A-ball before 2026, when he started at high-A but spent most of the season at AA Frisco, with one start for Round Rock. For the season, he had a 4.93 ERA in 104 innings over 23 appearances at the three levels, with 128 Ks against 55 walks.

When I wrote earlier this month about the Rangers’ Rule 5 decisions, I mentioned that Curry could be added to the major league roster, but anticipated that the team would instead opt to re-sign him to a minor league deal, as they did with Gavin Collyer when he became a free agent last season. The Rangers apparently didn’t want to risk the possibility of Curry departing.

Imagine you are a last place Major League Baseball club, one devoid of both recent success or generational success. You also find yourself without a ready-made farm system that’s poised to step up immediately and begin to pick up the pieces strewn across the floor.

You’ve got a bona fide ace, albeit one whose elbow gave out for the second time already since you lucked into him in the draft. He’s going to miss the entire season after you just finished in last place, again.

You have the worst hitter in the sport on your roster. You traded viable pieces to actively go get him just a year ago, and it has turned into one of the more egg/face deals in recent memory. You even bailed out your fellow divisional cellar-dwellar to facilitate it.

Your starting catcher walked into free agency. You’ve got a former 1st round pick at 2B in whom you continue to trust who is three full years removed from a shoulder surgery that rendered him a completely different player than he was before, yet you just can’t bring yourself to admit it.

You’ve got the worst hitting outfield in the sport.

It doesn’t take too much effort to look up and down what you possess to understand that it’s a walking, talking organizational failure. If a house has peeling paint, rotted sills, a leaky roof, toilets that run, squeaky floors, knob & tube wiring, and mice in the walls, it’s not the fault of the house itself – it’s the people tasked with taking care of the place who’ve simply let every single aspect of it fall by the wayside.

You have, though, perhaps the best shortstop in the game. A 30/30 player who oozes 40/70 upside, a guy who’s just 24 years old playing the premium position on the infield who has a full decade of sustainable promise ahead of him. How you lucked into getting him the baseball world may never figure out, but in him you have one of the most singular, most dynamic players in the sporting world right there on your roster.

Front offices often go entire careers without the chance to have such a player under their control. The nature of the baseball contract system means that star has even been cheap – cheap! – for three full years already, and will remain that way for another three relative to the prices of even the most average of free agents. Major League Baseball, both the sport itself and the salary system within it, has given you a literal gold mine of opportunity within this unicorn, a baked-in cheat code given that rosters fix at 26 players and funds, in your case, are finite elsewhere.

In theory, there should be no other player in the sport today around whom it is easier to build a competitive team than that. He plays the toughest position, hits in the most important part of the order day in, day out. He’s cheap. Still, you get to look at yourself sitting in last place in the standings from the most recently completed season while also seeing that the basement is right where you’re projected to be next year, too.

It’s the kind of environment that pushes free agents away. Who, in their right mind, would want to prioritize playing for such a club when given the option of playing for 29 other franchises? Not even a ‘hometown’ kid could be persuaded to ride in to the potential rescue. Your ballpark is so tiny no pitcher in their right mind would actively choose to pitch there in half their games, an unnecessary self-own you’ve handed yourself on top of all your other issues.

Yet there he is, your star shortstop – the one thing you somehow managed to get correct amid the rest of the shambles. He sticks out like a sore thumb within all this, so much so that it’s impossible for every other franchise in the sport not to notice. Not just notice, really – it’s impossible for the entire rest of the sport to do anything other than stare and gawk.

It had been the case for a series of years that it was impossible for them not to dream. At this juncture, though, it’s impossible for those other clubs to not stare reality in the face.

You have gone nowhere. You aren’t going anywhere. You’re not going to make it where you hoped before this one special player is eligible for free agency, and you’ve failed to sign him to a contract to further open than window. Your own organizational and tactical failures have now foisted themselves onto both of his shoulders, the weight of it all too much for even the most deserving and capable players out there.

You have failed to win with him. You have backed yourself into such a horrible corner that there’s zero chance you’ll win with him next year. It’s so obvious that every other team out there now realizes you’re cornered, the two lone moves being either thumb your nose and lose like an idiot out of spite or cave, the hope being in the latter scenario that someone gifts you the multiple pieces of coal out of which you can mold a few diamonds.

You are the Cincinnati Reds. You’ve gotten away with it to this juncture, but the gendarmes know right where you are. They’re circling, they’re barricading. They’re asking again for you to come out with your hands up, though their tone is getting a bit more focused.

Your gig, as they say, is up.

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While concrete rumors surrounding Cincinnati Reds superstar shortstop aren’t there, that hasn’t stopped the immediate rumblings across the baseballverse. He’s entering arbitration and will command a salary of some $8 million in 2027, with two more seasons after that remaining before reaching free agency. He has reportedly turned down a contract offer from the Reds already, and the Reds – without Hunter Greene yet again – have a roster that scares few AAA clubs heading into 2027.

Trading a superstar for a blockbuster return must sound enticing to a Reds front office that has no other methods to build a team at this point. They have failed in so many other areas – the draft, in development, in free agency, internationally – that One Big Patch™ must be appealing to them at this point even if making that call would be just about the only other way in which they could disappoint those who’ve trusted in them all these years.

Those who’ve worked within the industry know it. Those who’ve never seen a baseball before know it, too, since why in the world is there a player this good still on a team that’s consistently this bad?

Leatherpants is getting a lot of credit for being the person breaking the concept that Elly could ‘absolutely’ be traded this winter, but let’s be real here – the consistent and thorough failings of the Reds front office and ownership group for the better part of two decades are what is ‘breaking’ this news as a reality. Absolutely nothing they have done whilst being in charge for 20 years has suggested they should, would, or could have any idea what to do with a player of his caliber, let alone one who is finally about to get paid what he deserves.

But they’re precisely the kind of front office and ownership group who knows they need not one, not two, not three lottery tickets to even attempt to replicate such a gold-mine find. They need four, five, six, and the longer they hold on to Elly the lesser the chances of asking for that much become. They are running steadfast into the tipping point of not getting peak value for the most talented player they’ve ever come across, as well as the realization that going beyond that point would be the latest, greatest failure on top of all the others.

I don’t know how they’ll rectify that. I don’t know if the spite will be so embedded that they’ll simply shrug it off, keep Elly around for another year of 90+ losses, and show the baseball world they still have the upper hand they think they hold. I don’t know if the Los Angeles Dodgers, or the Boston Red Sox can woo them with a toolsy prospect package big enough to make them flinch this winter.

What I do know, though, is this – the Cincinnati Reds never had any clue how to manage what they had in Elly De La Cruz, and they aren’t going to going forward. And giving him away for anything – anything – is as much an admission that they should be giving control of this franchise to someone else who knows how.

With a young core of MLB ready players under team control for many seasons to come, a highly touted farm system, and a bottom of the league payroll, the Cleveland Guardians have many resources and means to improve a team that just went to game 6 of the ALCS against a legitimate contender. The Guardians have plenty of spending room (given payrolls we’ve seen the team run out in the not so distant past) to take on salaries of veteran players, and plenty of talented young players in the farm system to use as pieces to acquire controllable talent for the upcoming seasons.

Today we are going to look at a few players as trade targets that could be difference makers or reasonable improvements to turn the Guardians into a legitimate postseason threat for 2027 (if there’s a season) and beyond. For the purposes of today, we will just be going over some players and the advantages and disadvantages of bringing them on. Hashing out exact trade packages is not part of this exercise, as I firmly believe that the Guardians have the talent to acquire any of these players, and believe it’s best to leave hashing out the details of the transaction to the professionals.

Shortstops

Zach Neto

Neto is a RHH SS who’s posted a career 113 wRC+ and 12.0 fWAR in about 3.5 seasons with the Angels. He’s got 3 years of arbitration left on his contract, so he wouldn’t come cheap, but he would be a strong candidate for an every day player in the middle of the lineup. In 2026 he posted a well above league average 11.9 Barrel % and posted his 3rd consecutive 20/20 season, so he can steal some bases as well. His range at SS has been well below average, but the offensive production would almost certainly make up for it.

CJ Abrams

Abrams is coming off a career year offensively. He had his first career 30/30 season in 2026, and he was one homer in 2025 and 2 homers in 2023 short of having 4 straight 20/20 seasons (all of which he stole over 30 bases in). His wRC+ in 2026 of 124 was significantly higher than the 105 and 104 marks he put up in the previous 2 seasons, but even with some regression, he looks to be a reliable 20/20 guy that also could fit in the middle of the Guardians lineup nicely. Defensively he’s a weaker option than Neto, but if he can be more like the 2026 version of himself going forward, he could also make up for the weaker defense. Abrams also wouldn’t come cheap, as he has 2 years of arbitration left on his contract, but definitely is an option worth considering.

Jeremy Peña

Peña is in the final arbitration year of his rookie contract and is by far the most experienced SS on this list. In his last 2 seasons, he’s put up a 136 wRC+ and a 124 wRC+. The home run numbers don’t blow you away, but he’s missed almost 90 games in those 2 seasons combined, and having an .800 OPS both years is of course very good. He’s also below average defensively at SS, but like the others, if his bat can be as good as it’s been the last couple years, it should make up for the poorer defense. As long as he can stay on the field for this season, he could be another option to target in a trade.

First Base

Alec Burleson

Burleson has 2 years of arbitration and is coming off back to back 124 or better wRC+ seasons. He also played in 160 games in 2026, showing he’s able to play every day if needed. Burleson is a LHH who can’t hit LHP, but his thump vs. RHP cannot be denied. And with an offense that is consistently near the bottom of the league in all major categories, you’ll take every extra bit of power that you can. Burleson also was a well above average defensive first baseman in 2026.

Spencer Steer

Steer, like Burleson, also has 2 years of arbitration remaining on his contract. While I’ve listed him as a first baseman, he’s played all over the field for the Reds. He doesn’t have quite the defensive ability of a guy like Daniel Schneemann, but he does have that level of  defensive versatility. Steer also mashes LHP. In 2026 he had a 188 wRC+ vs. lefties. His career splits are a little more modest at 128 wRC+ vs. LHP and 97 wRC+ vs. RHP, but both of those are very playable, and he could even be a serviceable bat vs. righties too.

Outfield

Brandon Marsh

Marsh is coming off a bit of a down year in 2026. After having wRC+ totals of 124, 106, and 115 the previous 3 seasons, he dropped to a 90 mark in 2026. He’s a bit in the Burleson class, as he’s a LHH who’s struggled vs. LHP in his career, but he’s on the final year of arbitration in his contract and could be a great addition if he can find his way back to his 2023-2025 form. He’s also been a solid defender (apart from in 2026), which he would also need to recapture to be a contributor to a contending team. But given multiple seasons of success in the past, it’s not unreasonable to think he can do that.

Wyatt Langford

Langford would likely be one of the most expensive pieces listed here, but it’s hard to deny he’s worth the price. With 3 years of arbitration still on his contract, he has a lot of team control. Despite dealing with off and on injuries this season, he almost had a second 20/20 season in a row, and ended with a 115 wRC+ in 2026 (right on pace with his career average). He has a career 126 wRC+ vs. LHP and 111 vs. RHP, so he’s very capable of being an everyday contributor.  Langford is also a plus defender in the outfield.

Pitching

Reid Detmers

Detmers had a career season in 2026 and has 2 seasons of arbitration on his contract. He pitched 185 innings in 2026, with a 3.36 ERA, a 3.01 FIP, 211 strike outs, and just 48 BBs.  The Angels have finally started to look like they’re willing to make more reasonable deals, and as far as SP options, there weren’t too many better than Detmers in 2026.

Logan Gilbert

Seattle is in a bit of an in between situation. They looked like they were poised to be a contender again with their SP, but after underperforming in 2026, a lot of their offensive pieces are headed to free agency, and Logan Gilbert is on the last year of his contract with them. Gilbert’s 2026 was a bit lower than average for him, but 186 innings with a 3.73 ERA and 205 Ks is hardly anything to scoff at. He would be a very nice compliment to an already solid looking Guardians rotation.

I’m not going to hold my breath on the Guardians’ front office going all out to acquire any of these guys, but if we’re talking hypotheticals, we might as well swing for the fences. If there was ever a time to unload the farm system and make a real run for the Guards, now is the time. The core is young, under control for an extended amount of time, and they all look Major League ready. It’s time to bring in some experienced players, round out the roster, and take a real shot at ending baseball’s longest active championship drought.