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RosterResource Chat - 2/19/26

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Phil

2:52

Hmm. Not sure I see why Mayer would be expendable? I'm not counting on much from Campbell at this point, and Mayer would seem to be their best defensive infielder, no? I do think he'll be a floater without necessarily having a designated position, but a useful one, and lord knows Story loves to discover exciting new kinds of injuries.

Jon Becker

2:53

To be clear, there are definitely "degrees of expendability" so to speak. But even if you're not counting much on Campbell (and it sounds like he's more of an OF now anyway) my reasoning was more that they'd be getting Literally Ketel Marte back in the question that I answered and would still have Durbin and IKF. I didn't mean to imply Mayer is movable in a deal for just anyone.

Lionelsmirk

2:54

Who is the Dodgers opening day 2b?

Jason Martinez

2:55

Even though they'll be facing a RHP (Merrill Kelly) and I have Hyeseong Kim listed as the 2B vs RHP, I'm going to guess that Miguel Rojas gets that start. I believe he announced that this will be his last season and he just had one of the biggest hits in Dodgers' history (which is crazy to say) so it would be well-deserved. Even if he mostly plays vs LHP after that.

boog's

2:56

Last year the O's sat Colton Cowser frequently against lefties, but it wasn't a strict platoon, as he had 92 PAs against righties and 268 against lefties. You currently have him listed as a platoon L, but who is the R partner? Jorge Mateo is gone, so is Cows really in a platoon this year?

Jon Becker

2:57

You can see how teams line up vs. lefties in the Platoon Lineups view, so you no longer have to guess how the defense would realign against lefties. Even if Westburg is out, Alexander could still play CF against lefties with Mayo at third against both righties and lefties.

Closers

2:57

Between Edwin Uceta, Robert stephenmson, and Jose Ferrer, who's going to get the most save and holds?

Jason Martinez

3:01

None has a clear path to save chances, but probably Stephenson. Current projection ... Stephenson (15), Uceta (12), Ferrer (3)

If healthy, Stephenson should have the edge vs veteran guys like Yates, Romano, and Pomeranz. But we also don't know how he'll look. He's barely pitched in 2 seasons. And it sounds like Joyce is on track to return sometime in the 1st half. 15 saves might be best-case scenario.

Uceta is getting checked out for shoulder discomfort so his chances could be gone if he misses more than a couple months. He was a leading candidate but plenty of competition between Griffin Jax, Garrett Cleavinger, Bryan Baker, etc.

Mariners relied heavily on Muñoz last season. Unless their philosophy changes, Ferrer will probably only get occasional chances (5-10 saves max).

Interested person

3:02

Do you think furthering draft/IFA penalties could be an effective way to control high spending clubs instead of a salary cap? I have to think the Dodgers are too smart to punt the draft every year so they can pay for top talent via FA

Jon Becker

3:04

Yeah, I think in the absence of a hard cap/floor system — and my opinion has been and will continue to be that I'll believe one has any real chance of happening when I see it — we'll just see continued harshening of penalties for going over the various CBT lines. "Your top pick goes back ten spots" isn't really that big of a deterrent when there are countless incidents of draftees outperforming guys they got drafted behind

NRI (to clarify)

3:04

Wondering if you have any favorite "non-prospect" NRI guys...

Jason Martinez

3:07

Full list here, sortable by age, service time, projected PA/IP ... https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/opening-day-tracker?status=n...

So many relievers who have been really good at one time. Maybe for 1 season before an injury and then forgotten. For example ... Adbert Alzolay, Gregory Santos, Trevor Stephan.

But I think I'd go with Walker Buehler, partly because he plays for my favorite team now but mostly because he's probably the only NRI starting pitcher who has the ability (if he can figure things out) to be much more than a back-of-the-rotation starter.

Will

3:07

Help me make sense of the Nationals' waiver claim of Joey Wiemer. They already had too many OFs with Wood, Crews, J. Young, Lile and Hassell all competing for playing time. What's the logic there, especially when looking at their awful infield roster options?

Jon Becker

3:08

My guess is that the plan is to try to sneak him through waivers if he doesn't play well enough in spring to get a spot on the opening day roster. They've certainly got a logjam out there (and still no real first baseman...) but it's not as if the back of the 40-man is deep anyway, might as well see what he can do.

bkgeneral

3:08

Is the Reds OF deep enough to get closer to 90 than 80 wins?

Jason Martinez

3:12

Sure. Projections for their main group (Friedl, Marte, Bleday, Benson, Myers) aren't bad at all. Just an average group. If that holds up, the Reds are talented enough elsewhere to win that division with 87+ wins. But they could also be bad enough that the Reds are a sub-.500 team. They need Friedl to stay healthy again. Need Marte to take a big step forward and they need Bleday to be closer to his 2024 version than 2025. Benson is always hot and cold so Francona just needs to manage that.

Chris

3:12

What do you think happens in Brewers rotation? Does Sproat or Henderson make it?

Jon Becker

3:14

The way I see it, Woodruff, Priester, and Misiorowski (assuming his command hasn't totally backslid) have three spots locked down and then it's two spots for a whole bunch of guys, with Patrick probably having a leg up for a spot and Sproat, Henderson, Gasser, Harrison, Drohan among those fighting for what could be just one spot. I don't think who wins the last spot is a huge deal, they'll cycle through a bunch of starters as the year goes on and I'd expect everyone I listed to make an impact.

Ryno

3:14

The Rays are always a tough team to figure. Even split fair to project between Walls and Williams? What is it going to take to get Seymour in the rotation with Matz and Martinez making actual money?

Jason Martinez

3:18

I currently have Williams with 434 PA and Walls with 238 PA (as a SS). Projected playing time here ... https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=ALL&teamid=12

And in the case of Williams, I'm expecting the Rays to be cautious with when they call him up again since he struggled badly last season. So 434 PA is assuming he's called up sometime in June to be the starting SS for the remainder of the season. We'll see how things play out. Will be interesting to see if Ben Williamson gets a look at SS. Sounds like he'll get a lot of time at 2B vs LHP.

One of the reasons why Martinez is so valuable is that he has been able to seamlessly bounce back and forth between starting and relieving and has not been on the IL since returning to the majors (4 seasons ago, I think). So that gives the Rays the ability to move him to the 'pen in a scenario where everyone is healthy and a young pitcher like Seymour or Boyle is dominating and deserves a look in the majors.

Rule 5

3:19

Got any favorites among rule 5 guys this season?

Jon Becker

3:20

I'm a sucker for R.J. Petit, just because he's a massive dude and I'm a big fan of extreme players by any definition of the word "extreme." Carter Baumler should also have a good shot to make the Rangers' bullpen.

3:21

Padres have made some keen depth moves of late. You buying a wild card berth for them this year?

Jason Martinez

3:25

Yep. Still need more to go right than wrong for them to get into that WC range (88-92 wins). But I do think the roster is very good and the depth is better than in previous seasons. A full season of Laureano (last year's version) could be huge. Merrill staying healthy and bouncing back will be huge. King-Pivetta-Musgrove can be a strong 1-2-3 in the playoffs. They need one other SP to step up, whether that's Vasquez, Buehler, Marquez, or even someone like Marco Gonzales. Can't expect 90 starts and 500+ innings from the King-Pivetta-Musgrove.

Jay

3:25

With early season injuries on LAD, do you think they'll move Mookie around or leave him alone at SS? Him losing OF & 2B are making my keeper decision much more difficult...

Jon Becker

3:26

Don't think so. They made very clear with every injury last year that he wasn't moving off SS, and I certainly don't expect Edman being out for a little bit of the season to change their plans there. If anyone's going to move around in response to injuries, it'll be Edman himself once he's back.

Ding a ling

3:28

Has Dillon Dingler learned how to hit? There's a huge variance between what he did last year and what RR projects him to do this year.

Jason Martinez

3:31

Projection systems aren't going to assume he's that good again (109 wRC+) because it was only one season and the BB/K rates weren't good. Most have him slightly below average (96-98 wRC+), which is still fine for what the Tigers need him to be. But you never know.

3:32

That will do it for today. Thanks for joining us. Always a fun time. Baseball games this weekend!!!

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