This World Series matchup is truly a treat for the baseball nerds out there. It may not get massive ratings, but the Brewers and Rays provide a guide on how to build a winning team without a big budget. These two clubs have a lot in common, but one thing that ties them together is their ability to make a savvy trade.

When you look at the WAR breakdown of these two teams, it is easy to see how important trades are to these clubs, especially the Rays. Out of the 47.1 WAR that Tampa generated this year, 31.2 of those came from trades. Stars like Junior Caminero, Yandy Diaz and Drew Rasmussen all came to Tampa via trade. It is not as extreme for the Brewers, but they also made plenty of big moves as well.

Being active on the trade market and constantly looking for ways to upgrade the roster is how these small market teams stay competitive. It is a formula the Nats have used in the Toboni era and under Mike Rizzo. After all, the Nats two best players came over in the Juan Soto trade. Sometimes these tough and painful moves are what sets a team up for long term success.

At the trade deadline, the Nats made some unpopular moves that signaled the team was punting on the 2026 season. They traded Foster Griffin, Luis Garcia Jr., and Curtis Mead despite being within shouting distance of the playoffs. Those moves were made with an eye on turning the Nats into a sustainable winner like the Rays and Brewers. It is too early to say if those moves will work out, but that is what the plan is.

While the Brewers lean more on homegrown players than the Rays, they made a couple painful moves which helped them in the long term. Josh Hader and Corbin Burnes were both stars in Milwaukee, but they were approaching free agency. The Brewers decided to trade both, which gave them multiple pieces which have been valuable in the playoffs. Here are some of the players the Brewers acquired via trade.

Robert Gasser has stepped up in a big way this postseason. The Brewers acquired the lefty from San Diego in the Hader deal back in 2022. Gasser missed time with injuries, but now he is showing why the Brewers wanted him. The Corbin Burnes trade netted Milwaukee Joey Ortiz and DL Hall. Ortiz is a defense first player who has been a solid starter while Hall is part of the Brewers stacked bullpen.

One thing I like about how the Brewers operate is that they don’t trade their stars until they are about one year away from free agency. That allows them to get the most out of their homegrown talents while still netting value. They still got plenty of great years out of Hader, Burnes, Devin Williams and Freddy Peralta, but they also did not lose them for nothing. 

The Rays are even more trade heavy than the Brewers. In fact, most of the Brewers core pieces are homegrown and the depth of the roster is built by trades. On the other hand, much of the Rays core has been built by trades, as we have mentioned. These trades are both big and small. 

One thing the Rays are masters at is finding hidden gems in deals that nobody pays attention to. Junior Caminero is the best example of this. The Rays traded Tobias Myers to Cleveland for an 18 year old Caminero. At the time, this was a minor move, but it had massive consequences. Caminero blossomed into a superstar in the Rays system and is now the face of the franchise.

Rays mainstay Yandy Diaz is another case of Tampa fleecing Cleveland. The Rays do not spend much money at all, even compared to the Brewers. That means they need to be creative on the market. They have mastered the art of being a small market team over the past 18 years. In addition to Caminero and Diaz, Bryan Baker, Liam Hicks, Freddy Peralta, Drew Rasmussen and Victor Mesa Jr. all came in trades.

With how active Paul Toboni has been on the trade market in his first year on the job, this is certainly a model that he follows. You will not win every trade, not even the Rays do, but if you make enough smart moves, they stack up. The Nats should be spending more money than the Rays, but that model is one that has proven to be effective.

Hopefully the likes of Connelly Early, Harry Ford, Will Dion and minor leaguers like Devin Fitz-Gerald can play big roles on the next great Nats team. This offseason will also be an interesting one to follow. Toboni has a tough decision to make with CJ Abrams. Will he trade him with two years of control like he did with MacKenzie Gore or will he hold onto his star. 

Those are the types of decisions that shape the future of your franchise. It seems like the Nats are following a Brewers and Rays type model. Fans have looked at that pejoratively, but now these are the two teams in the World Series.

It turns out that formula works and it starts by making smart trades and developing talent. The two smartest teams in the league are squaring off in the World Series, which is very fun to see. Hopefully the Nats can be among the league’s best and brightest soon. Under Paul Toboni, they at least seem to be headed in the right direction.

The sky is blue, the water is wet, you never get anywhere on the Major Deegan, and Brian Cashman is the Yankees’ general manager. All these things are true. All these things will continue to be true.

The Yankees just conducted their end-of-season press conferences, and during the media sessions, Cashman confirmed to reporters that he had a new deal with managing partner Hal Steinbrenner, who was sitting with him: “We’ve agreed on a new contract, we just have to bang out some minor stuff on the back end of it. But yeah, we’re locked and loaded.”

Cashman signed his previous deal after the 2022 campaign, and the four-year contract was set to expire at the end of October. But there was never any real doubt that Steinbrenner would bring him back. Cashman has Hal’s full, complete trust after decades of working together. Cashman has been with the Yankees so long that Hal was still in high school when the former first joined the organization as an intern before gradually ascending to an assistant general manager role and then the top job in February 1998.

Cashman is the longest-tenured GM in baseball, and it’s all but understood that the Steinbrenner family is comfortable with him in the job until whenever he decides to step back. Cashman will turn 60 in 2027; at 70, the Phillies’ Dave Dombrowski is the oldest head of baseball operations in the league. So whether or not you like Cashman, he’s probably in it for the long haul.

Under Cashman’s watch, the Yankees have never finished with a losing record, which is not nothing considering that every other good franchise around the league has had multiple awful seasons during his 29-year reign. If you ask people in front offices around the game, they are sincerely awed by that. But expectations are higher in the Bronx, and Cashman has added to the Yankees’ World Series trophy collection just once in the past 26 years. That was in 2009, which is already long enough ago that the only remaining active(-ish) MLB players from then (Max Scherzer, Andrew McCutchen, and Carlos Carrasco) could very well retire this offseason.

Cashman has also been steadfast in his support of the recently-confirmed-to-return Aaron Boone. Eyebrows were raised when the Yankees let Joe Girardi’s contract expire and instead selected Boone to manage an upstart team that went from a playoff absence in 2016 to within one win of a World Series berth in 2017, despite the latter having no coaching experience whatsoever.

On my most generous day, I will acknowledge that for the most part, Boone has been a succesful regular season manager; they’ve made the playoffs in eight of his nine seasons, they’ve reached the ALCS on three occasions, and they at least snapped their pennant drought in 2024. By that measure, only the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts is better. However, they’ve also only won three AL East crowns, with midsummer swoons forcing them to accept Wild Card berths in multiple seasons this decade that have put them in bad position under the current playoff format, and while they could have overcome it anyway, they promptly fell pretty meekly to the actual AL East winners—the Blue Jays and Rays—in the ALDS. That’s to say nothing of the lapse in fundamentals that seem to occur annually at this time of year, which were ugly to watch in 2025 and 2026, but never more miserable than in that lone World Series appearance two years ago. Boone’s full playoff record is under .500 at 27-30.

Much like Steinbrenner has been steadfast in his support of Cashman, Cashman has been resolute in his support of Boone. The 2027 season will be his 10th as big-league manager; no one in franchise history has been allowed to manage this long without a championship. Cashman did let Girardi go after a decade on the job when his contract expiring; perhaps he’ll do the same with Boone next year assuming another quiet October.

We won’t find out until then. All we know is that while Steinbrenner’s pointed comments about the offense mean that the Yankees’ roster won’t “run it back” to the same degree that they did last offseason, the management apparatus will indeed remain the same. So… huzzah for them, I guess.

The first trade rumor of the Guardians’ offseason is a bit unexpected, as rumors are percolating about Stephen Vogt potentially interviewing for the job of managing the Seattle Mariners.

To be abundantly clear, as I am NOT trying to clickbait anyone, we have no confirmation from Vogt or from any team sources that he is even interested in the Mariners’ job. What we do have is speculation from Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com and Zack Meisel of the Selby is Godcast and the Athletic that Vogt to Seattle MIGHT be a possibility, without any indication that it is anything but a slim one. With that said, Stephen Vogt is openly a very committed husband and father (to three young kids) whose family lives in Olympia, Washington during the school year and then comes and stays with him in Northeast Ohio during the summer, meaning he is with them only approximately eight months of the year. “Why don’t they just move here?” Well, folks… I love Cleveland, but, if I had to move anywhere else, I’d probably move to the Pacific Northwest, too. And, if that’s where my wife’s family was located, and I had the financial means to make it work, it would probably push the Pacific Northwest to the top of the list. Vogt and his family are human beings and the opportunity to manage in Seattle is not guaranteed to come open again any time soon. Teams WANT to find mangers to retain and Seattle is not going into some kind of rebuild (they’ll be aiming for 85 wins annually, as P.O.B.O. Jerry Dipoto once famously let slip).

So, let me establish a few things, here:

1. I love Stephen Vogt and want him to manage the Guardians FOREVER

2. I don’t have any inside knowledge of his feelings about the opportunity to manage the Mariners

3. If Vogt would ask the team to let him interview with Seattle, find the job a good fit, and proceed to request a trade there, I wouldn’t hold the slight bit of resentment for a husband/dad trying to find a way to do an impossibly time-consuming job in a manner easier for him to fulfill the dual role all of us husbands and dads have to worry about.

Vogt signed a contract extension (terms not disclosed) following the 2024 season, so he is still under contract in Cleveland for 2027 and would need to be traded. What would the compensation for trading for a manager who has won three division titles in three years, reached two ALCS’s and won two manager-of-the-year awards look like? In 2012, the Blue Jays traded John Farrell and a middling relief pitcher (David Carpenter) for utility infielder Mike Aviles. The Blue Jays then traded Aviles to, you guessed it, the Cleveland Indians for reliever Esmil Rogers. Oh, the Blue Jays also threw in a minor league catcher… named Yan Gomes. So… needless to say, a good manager was not necessarily seen as much of value in onfield talent fourteen years ago, given the return Toronto netted, here.

Has the value of a manager changed since then? I don’t think we have any way to know the answer to that, for certain. We do know that Vogt is considered by players and, likely, executives as among the best managers in the game. So, whatever the top amount for a trade return would be, that’s what the Guardians would have to consider for trading him. We also know that the Guardians have been among the leading teams in MLB for compensating their managers in the past, so I would say it is safe to assume that Vogt is well-compensated for his work here in Cleveland. So… if Seattle wants Vogt, they will need to offer a notable trade return and be willing to pay Vogt in a manner commensurate with what he is currently receiving in Cleveland.

What is a notable trade return? I have trouble assuming it would be more than, AT MOST, a reliever with potential to be high leverage or maybe a platoon bat of some kind with defensive flexibility. As great as a manager can be, it’s hard to prove they have significant impact over a replacement level manager (i.e. if Seattle wants Stephen Vogt, can’t they hire one of his assistants or Kai Correa and get something similar in managerial production without giving up on-field talent?). The Guardians aren’t getting Julio Rodriguez, Bryce Miller or George Kirby for Stephen Vogt.

One more fun little piece of speculation for you – it’s pretty clear that managing Josh Naylor was not Stephen Vogt’s favorite part of the job in Cleveland. Would going to a team where Naylor is under contract for four more years be something he was willing to put up with to be closer to home? I don’t know that it would be THE deciding factor, but perhaps Naylor’s surliness could be a small additional reason for Vogt to stay put.

And, ultimately, the reason I think Vogt stays in Cleveland is because I doubt Seattle would meet Cleveland’s asking price to trade for Vogt. On the slight possibility that Vogt indicates he wants to be in Seattle at all costs, maybe the Guardians’ hand would be forced. But, I suspect it is far more likely the team indicates that they value Vogt higher than the Mariners do and that this is a factor that encourages Vogt and his family to know this is the place to stay.

Stephen, we love you here in Cleveland. Any possibility we can convince the family to move out here for longer periods of the year so you can be a dad/husband on a more regular basis? Let us know, because we’ve got a good thing going and we don’t want to lose it.

When the World Series concludes and the offseason officially begins, it’s hard to predict how the market will progress before a presumed lockout at the start of December. The free agent market could especially be slow as owners push for a salary cap and teams may be hesitant to commit to players before they know the economic landscape.

The position-player free agent class doesn’t exactly project particularly strong this offseason despite the abundance of decent players. It may take a very intriguing player to make teams splurge, but perhaps they are sure to be excited about another Japanese phenom making the jump to the big leagues.

It was just announced this week that Teruaki Sato of the Hanshin Tigers will be posted once the offseason begins, starting a 45-day window for him to seek an MLB opportunity. It’s worth noting that his posting window will freeze during the lockout and resume whenever it ends; otherwise, he would return to Nippon Professional Baseball for another year.

Sato isn’t just any international free agent — he’s coming off a monstrous 2026 season in NPB where he captured the Central League Triple Crown, slashing .306/.383/.609 with 39 home runs and 106 RBIs. That follows a 2025 campaign in which he won Central League MVP honors.

Naturally, MLB contenders across the league are licking their chops. But what about the Colorado Rockies? Should Paul DePodesta and the front office throw their hat into the ring for one of Japan’s most electric power hitters?

The offensive perks

Since debuting in 2021 at 22 with the Tigers, Sato has proven to be one of NPB’s premier sluggers. Over the course of his six seasons, Sato has slashed .271/.337/.514 across 803 games. He has been a dependable and durable player during his career, appearing in at least 120 games each season (NPB plays a 143-game schedule).

What has truly set Sato apart has been his knack for power, with 163 home runs in his career. He has managed at least 20 home runs a year in five seasons, including 79 over the last two seasons combined. The ability to generate bat speed and elite exit velocities was on display in a short five-game sampling with Japan in the World Baseball Classic last March, where he hit three balls with an exit velocity of 100 mph or better.

He’s not just a home run hitter, either, as doubles are his forte as well. In 2026, he had 40 doubles, which would have easily led the Rockies (Troy Johnston had 32), adding to his total of 185 career doubles alongside 25 triples. His career .851 OPS showcases a player who can punish opposing pitchers and provide the type of consistent thump that the Rockies didn’t quite have beyond Hunter Goodman last season.

During a time in which offense has been decreasing in NPB, Sato didn’t slow down and has put himself in line for another Central League MVP. Hitting from the left side, Sato’s offensive profile could benefit greatly from the altitude of Coors Field, but even more from the spacious gaps he would have to play with in the outfield.

What team wouldn’t want to add a second 40-homer bat into the lineup?

Defensive prospects

Sato primarily plays third base with around 262 appearances in the outfield during his career. He has mostly been able to hold his own, even going so far as to win a Golden Glove — the NPB equivalent of a Gold Glove in MLB — at third base in 2025.

Naturally, there is already some versatility built into his game, but there is concern about his long-term fit on the infield at third base.

He owns a career .941 fielding percentage at the hot corner, having committed at least 20 errors in two of the last four seasons. In 2026, he committed 18 errors, but that was after just six in his 2025 Golden Glove season. He has fared better in the outfield, but his overall defensive ability is a concern. Teams may be willing to swallow that because of the bat.

Seems that Sato may have to follow in the footsteps of Munetaka Murakami, who moved over to first base for the Chicago White Sox full time after signing with them. It would certainly make sense to then just let the bat do the talking.

The drawbacks

The defensive aspect of where to play Sato presents a problem for the Rockies, who are sure to focus heavily on improving defensively. Kyle Karros and TJ Rumfield have the corner infield locked down, and the outfield is crowded in the corners.

Sato could be plugged in as the designated hitter, but the Rockies like to use the DH spot as a cycling position, meaning players will constantly cycle through it. There is also the matter of Sato being left-handed, which the Rockies already have enough left-handed bats to utilize. It would also be another instance of blocking an opportunity for right-handed hitter Charlie Condon (No. 2 PuRP), who the Rockies are already having to try to find a spot defensively.

If there’s a red flag in Sato’s profile, it’s his contact consistency. Sato struck out 164 times in 143 games in 2026. High strikeout rates in NPB often translate to elevated swing-and-miss rates against elite MLB velocity and breaking pitches. Rockies fans know all too well how high-K profiles can get exposed when adjusting to MLB pitching while dealing with the “Coors Field Hangover” effect on the road. Looking again to Murakami with the White Sox, he saw a 28.8% strikeout rate over his last two NPB seasons balloon to 35.4% in his first MLB season. His ability to draw walks still translated, but can Sato do the same?

Then there is the monetary aspect. Because Sato is over the age of 25, there will be no restrictions on the money that can be offered to him. On top of a multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract, the acquiring team must pay a posting fee to the Tigers based on the contract’s total value. The Rockies have a lot of holes to fill, and unfortunately, spending big on Sato would come at the cost of a lot of other areas where the money could go. Having to compete with the financial might of many of the teams in the league hasn’t exactly worked out for the boys in purple in the past.

Should the Rockies pursue Sato?

Absolutely, the Rockies should pursue Sato, at least conceptually.

A young left-handed slugger at Coors Field is always a sight to behold. If the Rockies want to accelerate their rebuilding timeline and show fans a commitment to competing, making a splash in the international market for a marquee power hitter like Teruaki Sato would be a massive statement move.

However, the financial uncertainty for the club, the commitment to internal development as much as possible, and the massive need for pitching make Sato a bit of a long shot. I’m sure the front office will do their due diligence and at least check in with Sato and hopefully continue building a reputation with the Japanese market (which was a bonus of signing Tomoyuki Sugano).

Wherever Sato ends up, it will be interesting to see what he can do in MLB after the splendid seasons of Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto this year.

In the meantime, the Rockies may want to take a closer look at the other Japanese stars looking to pitch in MLB in 2027.

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Last time, we reset the roster for the offseason. That was the easy part: cutting a bunch of guys we didn’t need anymore and bringing home our 60-day-IL journeymen. J.J. Picollo mentioned in the postseason presser that the team was prepared to make some painful trades, and while they wanted to be aggressive in adding to the roster, they preferred not to be aggressive in spending money. So I decided the next step for rebuilding the roster, doing things my own way but in accordance with the guidance ownership seems to have provided, meant I should start by making some splashy trades and then come back and do my free agency work once I saw what that did to my payroll.

In keeping with the old Offseason Simulation tradition, I chose to negotiate against another SB Nation writer rather than to simply write up some trades I liked. I chose my Royals Rundown podcast co-host Jacob Milham both because he was convenient and because I felt like I could trust him to force me to give up more than I might otherwise have been willing to do if I were negotiating against myself or just using Baseball Trade Values. You can listen to us negotiate together on the latest episode of Royals Rundown, but I was very pleased with how he pushed back on me, and not every deal I wanted to do was available to me, forcing me to pivot a couple of times. He’s planning to write why he did these trades from his own perspective later, so keep an eye out for that.

Ultimately, I still think I got some pretty good trades done, so let’s go over what we did, then we’ll figure out where that leaves the roster and the payroll before I start looking into what free agents I could sign next time.

Trade 1: Acquire Reid Detmers from the Angels for Blake Mitchell, David Shields, and Jack Slightom

It’s funny, this was probably the most painful trade, but not nearly as painful as I feared it was going to be going in. Sure, I gave up a couple of top-100 guys (or fringe top-100 guys, depending on the outlet) but I started my offseason acquisitions with a bang, acquiring the guy I expect to lead my pitching staff for at least the next two seasons.

Detmers has always been an exceptionally talented pitcher, and he finally put it all together last year for the Angels. He accrued 4.9 fWAR with a 20% K-BB% leading to a 3.36 ERA and 3.29 SIERA. He got off to a bit of a slow start, but from June on, he had a 2.62 ERA in 20 starts. He’s going to be my Opening Day starter, and if we went a bit deeper, I’d probably already be working on negotiating an extension for him. He only just turned 27, and he’s not been especially injury-prone; it just took him a while to figure out the big leagues.

I wanted an ace for the staff; Detmers was my first target; and I managed to get him without giving up either of my two most valuable trade chips. According to MLB Pipeline, I gave up the team’s #4, #5, and #12 prospects. I went into thinking I was going to have to give up at least one of Angeibel Gomez or Kendry Chourio, though, and I managed to keep both of them.

Trade 2: Acquire George Kirby from the Mariners for Ramon Ramirez, Lucas Braun, and Dash Albus

I initially approached Jacob as Jerry Dipoto, hoping to get the last year of Logan Gilbert. But Jacob wanted a lot for Gilbert, who has been the better pitcher the last couple of years. Unfortunately, the asking price was more than I was willing to give up for one year of him. Kirby hasn’t been quite as good the past couple of years as he was before, but he’s still been more than serviceable. I also think a change of scenery and introduction to a different, good pitching coach could help him find whatever it is he’s lost.

The Royals have experience with pitchers who throw the entire kitchen sink like Kirby. Though, honestly, looking at the above chart, I wonder if the answer might be as simple as throwing his four-seamer less and his sinker more.

Regardless, instead of one year of Gilbert, I got two years of Kirby. And even if he isn’t a guaranteed number-two quality starter, I think he can easily slot in as my third-best starter with some possible upside. That means two trades in, and I’ve already got a rotation with four starting pitchers I feel really good about.

Yes, I had to give up my other high-octane minor league catcher and the freshly acquired Braun, but I think Kirby’s certainty is higher than Braun’s likely ceiling, and after looking at how the Rays and Brewers constructed their playoff rosters, I think aggression in trading prospects for more known quantities in young big leaguers is the path forward. Kirby may not be that young at 29 next season, but he beats the 36 and 37 of Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo.

Braun is ranked as the Royals’ 16th-best prospect, and Ramirez as the 7th-best according to Pipeline. Albus isn’t ranked. At this point, I’ve made a couple of really big deals, but I still have holes to fill. Time for a smaller-scale match.

Trade 3: Acquire Ryan Feltner from the Rockies for Felix Arronde and Darwin Rodriguez

Ryan Feltner was someone I identified early on as a low-cost guy who I think might have traits that Brian Sweeney and friends can polish into a much better pitcher. It also probably wouldn’t hurt to get him out of Colorado, even though, by some measures, he’s been a better pitcher at home.

I was particularly interested in how the slider and sweeper – two pitch types the Royals have had a lot of success with – grade out well, but perform exceptionally poorly. I really like the extension numbers and his ability to pitch in the zone, too. I’m not counting on him to be in my rotation, but I’ll give him a shot to compete with Seth Lugo and Tony Gonsolin for the final spot, with the losers becoming swingmen and the first guys into the rotation when someone gets hurt.

This is kind of a funny trade because Feltner is a non-tender candidate for the Rockies, but Arronde – despite being the Royals’ 21st-ranked prospect by Pipeline – is a Rule 5 problem. I didn’t choose to protect him. So we’re both giving up players we didn’t think we were going to get to keep.

Trade 4: Acquire Dylan Crews from Nationals for Daniel Lynch IV and Sean Gamble

The Royals need a right-handed center fielder platoon partner regardless of which of their three current internal candidates for the position they have – though, again, I’ve traded Kyle Isbel, so I’m down to two. Dylan Crews has a huge prospect pedigree, but he hasn’t lived up to it. Trading for Crews means I don’t have to spend the money in free agency it would take do something like bring back Lane Thomas, with perhaps more future upside if he can finally play up to the talent that got him drafted second overall in 2023.

I initially thought about trying to deal Yandel Ricardo straight up for Crews, but Jacob made me aware that if I tried that, he’d simply hang up on me. There were other options I could target, but Crews felt like the move I could make with the highest upside. So I decided to bite the bullet and offer Sean Gamble, too. Then Jacob surprised me. Turns out the Nationals need some bullpen help as they want to try to be a bit more competitive next year, so they wanted the Royals’ most reliable reliever from last season. That was an easy call for me because I feel like Lynch is cruising for a relief collapse, especially since he’s made it clear he wants to be a starter, and I wonder if that could affect his excitement for the game if I shoved him back into a relief role. Daniel Lynch IV was never going to make it to 2027 with the Royals if I had anything to say about it, and he did way more for me than I thought he could when Jacob-as-Anirudh Kilambi asked for him to get this deal done.

The new 26-man roster and fallout

Before I start trying to sign some free agents, it’s time to pause and see where we’re at, how much we still have left to do, and see how much money I have left to do it with. I’m not using a hard-and-fast limit because John Sherman says he’ll always listen for the right deal, but I’m probably aiming to be around $160-$165 million in payroll.

The roster

The position players:

• C Salvador Perez
• C Carter Jensen
• 1B Vinnie Pasquantino
• 2B Michael Massey
• 3B Maikel Garcia
• SS Bobby Witt Jr.
• OF Jac Caglianone
• OF Carson Roccaforte
• OF Dylan Crews
• OF Isaac Collins
• OF John Rave
• UT Nick Loftin
• UT Tyler Tolbert

And the pitchers:

• SP Reid Detmers
• SP Noah Cameron
• SP Michael Wacha
• SP George Kirby
• SP Seth Lugo
• RHP Ryan Feltner
• RHP Lucas Erceg
• RHP Nate Pearson
• RHP Steven Cruz
• LHP Connor Thomas
• LHP Anthony Gose
• RHP Nolan Hoffman
• RHP Tony Gonsolin

The 40-man roster crunch and current salary

I’ve added four players to the 40-man roster, but I only traded away two. I had two spots open, though. So that leaves me at 40! When I sign free agents, I’m going to have to start DFA-ing guys, but that’s a problem for next time.

Using MLB Trade Rumors projections for all of the arbitration-eligible guys, and factoring in Carlos Estévez’s buyout, my payroll is currently sitting at just a touch under $126 million. I’ve still got plenty of room for at least one big free agent and some smaller ones. What do you think so far?