So your take here is that we were going to cut or bench a 4.1 bWAR Story in favor of a 3.2 bWAR Bichette (or equivalent)? And his $42M+ contract? C'mon, everyone knows that Story was the presumptive starter.
Every GM has default starters from the previous year. The idea that any GM would bench Story and bring in someone like Bichette, or any other SS, is a non-starter.
And that's always the problem. I'd say roughly 20% of the teams know if they are contenders or out of it. If I were the RS, I'd start adding on the cheap. Maybe another RP who could be flipped at the deadline, if necessary. Or maybe a RH slugging DH with no other skills.
Probably because we are starting to hit.
Over the past 28 days, 14th in OPS.
Over the past 14, #16.
Over the past 7, #8.
The past 7 & 14 are BABIP influenced, but the last 28 looks legit.
Unless I missed something, the RS still had a challenge left on Yoshida's 2nd pitch. Not using it there is a waste. That would've made it 2-0. That's a huge difference. Past that, good game.
The FO/manager has to talk to these guys. It's like baserunning, where every decision requires a minimum level of success. First inning, you need to be about 99% certain.
If they were to re-rank the prospects, but included Tolle's 2026 results, he'd probably be top-10, maybe top-5. Trading him to enhance our chances of making the playoffs in 2026 is just one more fantasy.