moonslav59

I will say, our offense has a lot of potential. That is not the same as proven talent. While a sophomore slump is possible for Anthony, Narvaez, Mayer, Campbell (maybe he already had his slump) and the rookie pitchers (Dobbins, Early and Tolle,) I think we get more from them in 2026 than 2025. For one thing, they should play way more than this year- just about all of them, except Narvaez. Our approach, this year, after the Devers trade was to try and have a more balanced offense, and not one with 2-3 studs and not much afterwards. It worked to varying degrees, but we really could use a beast or two. Bregman barely qualifies, but his slump makes being a "beast" 2026 a question. Anthony and Abreu might become a beast. If Duran could repeat 2024, he'd be close to being one. That's a lot of ifs, but having 4 or them is better than some teams have, and that's before we might add a big bat over the winter. We have 10 guys with an OPS+ over 103, but two were mostly platoons on the short side (Ref & Romy) and two are Lowe and Eaton. We could view it like we have 6 or 7 for 2026, depending on Breggie: 138 Anthony (sophomore slump in '26) 129 Bregman (back in '26?) 121 Abreu + 134 Ref platoon in RF 115 Duran 109 Lowe + 132 Romy platoon at 1B 105 Narvaez 103 Story That leaves DH, 2B, and CF as sub 90. Mayer offers some hope at plus 100 at 2B. Casas and Yoshida offer some hope at DH. Ideally, we add a real big bat on top of brining Bregman back. 1B, 2B or DH makes the most sense. Alonso (1B) Saurez (1B or 3B no Breggie) or Schwarber (DH) Marte via trade (2B) If no Breggie, we can play Mayer at 3B and Marte at 2B.

All 3 of the batters with higher OPS+ are also better on defense. Abreu and Anthony are also pre-prime and have a higher ceiling.

We handed Devers away as a salary dump. I'm not handing Duran or Abreu away. I see Joe Ryan as an ace or near ace. We can see how Crochet made us a force. Adding another top pitcher will help a lot. The other way I look at it is this: step up vs step down. The step down from Duran to Anthony, Abreu or Rafaela has a value. The step up from Jow Ryan over Crawford/Dobbins or whoever our 5th SP'er has a value. Which value is larger? (I'm not sure, but there is some sense in trading from an area of depth.) Now, we can argue all 4 OF'ers can play, if we DH one, and that changes the value of the trade-off. We can argue Early, Tolle and others will more than make up for losing Gio, Houck and Buehler from the rotation and the upgrade from Early to Ryan might be a negative value. It probably makes sense to trade Rafaela and just not get Joe Ryan back. Maybe trade Rafaela, Clarke and Romero, Mullins or Sandlin for Mitch Keller.

I hope we upgrade, but if we trade an OF'er and don't sign a 1Bman or DH, like it or not, Yoshida might be our best option vs RHPs at DH, especially if we trade a LHB OF'er. Let's assume we trade Abreu: LF: Duran CF: Rafaela RF: Anthony 1B: Casas and or Lowe DH: Yoshida v RHPs and Romy v LHPs (Ref, if he does not retire.) Who else is there? Maybe Lowe at 1B and Casas at DH? Maybe Jh Garcia? (He's a RHB who may not outhit Masa v RHPs.) I'm not happy about it, but they are paying him $18M, and we can see how much they want to play him, even when he's not hitting .750+. Maybe they keep all OF'ers and DH one over Masas.

I get that. I worry about decline as Duran ages, but his control years end about the time when decline begins. Previously, I had concerns about his attitude. The comment he made to the fan and missing time in TOR due to not getting vaccinated. That's not enough for me to want to trade him, and that doesn't bother me, anymore. He is a spark. I agree. I like Abreu because he is younger, has more control years, hits more homers and plays more D than Duran. Does "spark" outweigh all that? Duran vs Rafaela is apples to oranges. I fully understand anyone who wants Duran. I do, too. To me, it's the return that might tip the balance.

I fully expect Masa to be back, next year. He's virtually untradeable. If we trade an OF'er like I expect we will, I might be fine with Masa as our DH. I'm not a Masa hater. I thought we had better options, this year. I did not like the way they handled Masa, this summer. He should have played in AAA longer. This is not about his 40, 50 or 150 sample size. I actually think Masa is better than this. I think he can and will hit .750+, next year. If that is better than I expect from someone else, I'll support him staying in the line-up.

I have suggested trading Rafaela several times- not Duran and Abreu. The return will not be as much, but we would have a better offense. Duran or Anthony (or Garcia) in CF is a drop in defense, but the offense bump should outweigh that. It would come down to the return we get for Rafaela vs Duran or Abreu on deciding what is best for the team. What else we do to beef up the offense is part of the equation, too- like keeping Bregman or not and adding another bat (1B, DH, 2B with Bregman or not.) It could come down to this: Rafaela plus 2 from Early, Tolle, Valera or Dobbins for Joe Ryan vs Duran or Abreu plus 1 from Early, Tolle, Valera or Dobbins or none but adding Clarke, Sandlin & Mullins If you had to do one, which would it be?

Maybe not at all, too!

Facing a lefty means R & R could be keys to a win (Romy & Ref.) I'm projecting this line-up: 1. R Romy 1B 2. R Bregman 3B 3. R Story SS 4. R Refsnyder DH 5. R Narvaez C 6. L Duran LF 7. R Eaton RF 8. R Sogard 2B 9. R Rafaela CF Last time, they used Wong with Early, so maybe Wong catches and Narvaez DH's, again. Then Refsnyder would be in RF (no Eaton) or LF (no Duran and a 9 RHB line-up.)

When they made the trade, they had already placed Newcomb ahead of him on the depth chart and others, too- like Fitts & Dobbins. They expected Giolito (1st start 4/30) , Sandoval and Crawford back, later in the season and still had Criswell, Winck and others maybe behind Priester. I'm not defending the trade: the statement "You can never have enough pitching" is true nearly every season. As it turned out Early and Tolle joined the depth chart, as did Harrison after a later trade. We still ended up needing to trade for another SP'er (D May) and have had 3 pen games, this year. Had we kept Priester, we might be leading the AL East, so the hindsight call is a big bust for that trade- same with the Sale one, except I doubt Sale gets us into the playoffs in 2024.

Again, I did not want Yoshida at DH before PA 1. The next 40-50 then 150 just made it worse.

We had 3 LHB OF'er and Rafaela penciled in at CF. They all hit RHPs better than Yoshida. I'm fine if you disagree, but you seem to not understand my point. As long as Yoshida is te better choice over others vs RHPs, I'm all for him DH'ing vs them. We started the season with LHB Devers at DH. We had 4 healthy OF'ers, when Devers was traded. I did not want Yoshida DH'ing on the big club as his rehab assignment. THEN, he started hitting .550-.625. It had nothing to do with a 40-50 PA sample size, which is not much bigger. I kept asking "how long a leash?" Now, with Anthony and Abreu out, I'm not against Masa DH'ing vs RHPs.

Had Mayer and Anthony started the season on the big club, they would not have gotten hurt. Campbell would have been called up after the Devers trade and would be hitting .775, right now, as our 1Bman. The butterfly flapped its wings.

So, Early v ATH Gio v ATH Bello v ATH Crochet at TBR Tolle at TBR Early at TBR OFF Gio at TOR (+1 day rest) This sets us up nicely for TOR. Bello at TOR (+1) Crochet at TOR (+1) Our best 3 SP'ers- all with an extra day Tolle/Harrison v DET Early v DET Gio v DET (if needed) or Harrison/Tolle If we make the playoffs, we could start with our top 3 SP'ers then Early.

HOU Beat TEX. I kinda wanted TEX to knock HOU out, but this is better on paper. We are now 1 down on NYY 1/2 up on HOU (We have 1 less loss.) We are... +3.5 on CLE (3 in loss column) and TEX (4 lin loss column)

Wow, MN beat NYY!

With 13 man staffs and injuries up the yazoo, it's not really surprising. With a 40 man roster, it still seems like a lot. This adds some explanation: 10-12 On IL: Crawford, Sandoval,Hendriks, Perales, Houck, Dobbins, Fitts, Criswell, Winckowski, Guerrero (back from IL: Murphy, Moran) 4 No longer on team or 40: Buehler, Newcomb, Burdi, Fulmer, Stock

Romy has faced more RHPs than LHPs, this year, and is over .700 vs RHPs. He may be morphing into a FT player. BTW, Romy is ahead of #8 Ref in 2025. Ref is 8th and Romy is 2nd, but over the last 3 years, Romy is not ahead of Ref. Last 3 years (300+ PAs vs LHPs) 7. Ref .913 (421 PAs) 15. Romy .890 (304 PAs)

The biggest remaining series that may shape the AL WC standings: TEX at HOU (starting tonight: loser of series might end up out.) SEA at HOU BOS at TOR BOS v DET SEA at KCR SEA v LAD TEX at CLE (might be out by this last series in season)

When you look at the options available for the everyday positions, these look like our highest need positions: 3B: It's Bregman or Mayer. There is not much depth after that, unless you steal Story from SS. 2B: Has been a sore spot since Pedey. We could see Mayer at 2B, if he's not at 3B, or Story at 2B, if we decide to have a healthy Mayer at SS. Romy is an option. I doubt Campbell is an option. (DHam might be traded.) 1B: It's Casas or Lowe with Romy as a possibility, even FT. Campbell might have a shot. DH: If we don't trade an OF'er, once could DH. If Ref does not retire, he could be a platoon DH. Romy could DH, too. Of course no discussion of DH can occur without Masa mentioned. Back-up Catcher?

Hasn't the talk been about Cora moving up into the front office? Is 2026 that time?

Agreed. When your big strength is three four starting pitchers and 2 RP'ers, a day off is a good thing.

And then what? Replace DHam with..... .... Rafaela? LOL.

How many pitchers have 10+ IP in 2025? 25 (Early at 5.0 & Harrison at 3.0 might pass 10.) 17 have over 25 IP 13 have over 40, but Houck, Dobbins & Fitts are on the IL and Buehler & Newcomb are gone. In 2023: 23 over 10 IP, 14 over 25 and 14 over 40. In 2022: 23 over 10 IP, 17 over 25 IP, 14 over 40 2018: only 23 pitchers used: 20 over 10 IP, 15 over 25 IP and 14 over 40 IP 2013: 26 Total, 23 over 10, 17 over 25 and only 10 over 40. 2007: 20 TOTAL!!! 18 over 10. 14 over 25 and 13 over 40. In 2004, we had 5 SP'ers with 178+ IP. That helped lead to just 17 pitchers at 10+ IP, 10 over 25 IP and 8 over 40.

Same as 2024: 32 + Dom Smith & Pablo Reyes. Same as 2023: 32 + Pablo Reyes We used 28 in 2022 + 4 position players. In 2021, we used 33 + 4 position players.