Putting on John Henry's hat.
There was an article that mentioned Red Sox and the Orioles as two teams having good operational income on the baseball front. I was bit surprised by mentioning of the Orioles. So maybe that was the more of reason we decided to spend money last winter. I have no explanation for the Orioles new ownership being cheap.
We gained about $3M for 2026 by trading Devers' contract with Crochet's new contract that starts in 2026.
Buehler's $21M won't be coming back. Maybe we fill that internally, Pat Sandoval is already being paid $9M for 2026 (it's already baked in for 2026 tax payroll). Say Crochet, Bello, Dobbins, Kutter, Houck, Kyle Harrison, Fitts, Criswell and maybe Tolle and Early will materialize during 2026. Keeping Giolito may end up eating up all of savings from Buehler. Kutter and Houck may get a slight arbitration raises to combined $10M.
The big ticket item will be replacing Chapman's $11M contract. I would love to see us sign him to a multiple year deal.
So assuming Buehler, Giolito and Chapman all leave, that gives us about $30M to acquire a closer and/or another high level starter. Arbitration raises to Houck and Kutter will be covered by leftover from getting rid of Dever's contract, net of Crochet raise.
Jordan Hicks from Giants will add $10M to our payroll for 2026. It's nothing if we don't sign a closer and go internally.
It's possible we'll have Slaten, Whitlock, Weissert along with Houck and Kutter as possible back end relievers.
This is the area I'll give Breslow much credit. He has given us many options.
Do we go with another Buehler type signing for 2026 and then go all out for Boras client Tarik Skubal in 2026? That's what I would do. Downside is Detroit does have money to retain him.