JotCast | RosterResource Chat

RosterResource Chat - 6/5/25

Jason Martinez

2:01

Welcome to the RosterResource Live Chat! We have officially moved from Friday to Thursday, allowing us to focus on this chat on the slowest roster day of the week instead of the busiest. As long as there are questions coming in, we can stick around longer than the normal 60 minutes.

Here we go ...

Lowe Distribution System

2:01

Ha-seong Kim getting reps at 2B in rehab. How much do you think he plays there in the majors?

Jon Becker

2:02

I don't think much at all, it's just part of his rehab/throwing progression. Can't recall seeing this done with a position player on arm/elbow/shoulder (in his case) rehab but the idea is to give him less challenging and shorter throws before sliding him over to short for the rest of his rehab.

Red Sox

2:03

Blaze Jordan coming out of nowhere through the Red Sox system. Any chance he's their 1B by season end?

Jason Martinez

2:05

I actually added him to the playing time projections yesterday ... https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=ALL&teamid=3

Only a few % just because anything can happen. Interesting profile (has some pop; doesn't strike out much) and at least has a chance to force himself onto the roster if he continues to mash at AAA.

Pokey Reese

2:05

Roki Sasaki worth stashing? What do we expect upon return?

Jon Becker

2:07

With the disclaimer/caveat that this isn't a fantasy chat, neither of us play fantasy, and we don't know your league/roster situation, I'd say yes as a general matter, though I'm not expecting much different from him when he comes back. I don't think he was dealing with the shoulder all season so I don't think he's going to be automatically pumping 97+ when he's back. He and the Dodgers have a lot of work ahead of them making his non-splitter pitches viable, work that's best done in the offseason .

Fantasy Fiend

2:07

Any dudes that could be in line to become set up/high leverage guys and get a lot of holds that I should keep an eye on?

Jason Martinez

2:09

Two guys that I most recently tagged as "Reliever On The Rise" on the Closer Depth Chart are Brad Lord (WSN) and Braxton Ashcraft (PIT) ... https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/closer-depth-chart

And I'll probably take a much closer look later today to see if a few others should be.

Brandon Hyde

2:09

Predict the Orioles 2026 opening day lineup -- not projecting free agent pick ups, just the current churn of roster? Is Bradfield CF?

Jon Becker

2:11

If you're holding me only to internal guys, I'll say:

Holliday 2B
Adley C
Henderson SS
Westburg 3B
Cowser CF
O'Neill LF (he's not opting out at this rate)
Mountcastle DH
Kjerstad RF
Mayo 1B

I'm a big fan of Bradfield but he just hasn't been able to stay on the field (only 23 games this year in AA), so going from that to Opening Day CF next year doesn't strike me as very likely.

Jason Martinez

2:12

I'll only add that trading Mountcastle (if not this season, in the offseason) should open at-bats for Basallo at the DH spot.

Guest

2:12

what's the RR standard for a platoon, or is it by feel? Barger was sitting vs LHP, then got 3 straight starts, then sits again today. I see currently he's not marked as in one, I assume that happened at some point during the 3 in a row?

Jason Martinez

2:15

I look at every lineup and determine as best as possible if it's going to be the plan moving forward or just a one-day thing for some reason or another. Blue Jays have faced a lot of lefties lately and Barger has been in there. For an early game facing another LHP today, I think it's just an opportunity to give him a rest so I won't make a change. But we'll see what happens next time.

M. Elias

2:15

Andrew Kittredge has looked good so far -- should/will he become the primary set up guy, or sharing duties with cano? Seems like he may have better stuff. Or maybe he slides into 'high leverage whenever it happens' role?

Jon Becker

2:17

He's their most reliable setup guy for sure, but teams are by and large going away from "primary setup men" anyway. When starters only go 5-6 innings it's more a question of "who's in my circle of trust to get to the closer in the ninth?" and "who are my guys to use when we're trailing?" with of course other considerations for who needs work, who's pitched too much lately, who's got something nagging, etc. That bullpen doesn't have much variance (Bautista himself has looked the shakiest at times, and he's the closer!) so there's going to be a lot of mixing and matching depending on matchups and freshness.

Bullock

2:17

There are zero ways the Guardians can get Santana, Manzardo, and Fry in the lineup at the same time, right? Seems such a waste to have Fry as a small-side platoon

Jason Martinez

2:20

Correct. But I think Fry is back sooner than expected so the Guardians had to plan in the offseason to be without him for at least the 1st half. Haven't heard anything definitively about Fry's ability to throw, but I wouldn't expect him in the OF or C anytime soon. So that situation isn't changing barring an injury or trade.

Chicks Dig the Fundamentals

2:20

Pete Crow-Armstrong has started every game at CF for the Cubs, and they really don't have another obvious CF candidate on the roster. If PCA missed time, who is the the most likely to get the lion's share of the CF reps?

Jon Becker

2:22

Depends how much time, I think. If it's a "he's sick and he's out for a day" or "he's banged up so he'll miss a couple days but we're not making an IL move" it would probably just be Bruján out there. If he had to hit the IL then Alcántara is the most plausible call-up since he's on the 40-man, though he's been below-average at AAA. Christian Franklin is also at AAA and playing plenty of CF, though not on the 40-man.

Deep-Fried Twinkies

2:22

Word is Pablo López will miss 2-3 months with David Festa getting the call to take the spot in the rotation. If another Twins starter goes down, who is next up from AAA in your opinion? Simeon Woods-Richardson, Travis Adams, and Marco Raya are all on the 40-man; Andrew Morris isn't but he's another option from St. Paul as well.

Jason Martinez

2:24

Boring answer but they'd probably just go back to SWR. Of all their SP prospects, only Morris has been pitching 5+ innings. They're being cautious with all the others. A lot of 3-4 inning outings. So SWR or Morris would be my guess. If it's just a spot start, I can see Dobnak getting the call.

Lowe Distribution System

2:24

Assuming Devin Williams is still combustible, who'd be next up?

Jon Becker

2:26

Cruz has been great all year and (homer to Manzardo on a pretty decent pitch notwithstanding) looked great yesterday in his return from the IL, and they've got the depth in the bullpen to withstand taking him out of his fireman role and installing him as the closer if Williams just can't string together a few good outings in a row.

Jim

2:27

Should Kristian Campbell go down to AAA for a bit? Looks like he needs a reset.

Jason Martinez

2:29

Campbell probably does need a reset. But not sure there is another option that is worth risking him losing some confidence if demoted. Would swapping Campbell for Vaughn Grissom help? I think they're hoping that moving him to the bottom of the lineup takes some pressure off and gets him going. But if demoting him helps get Roman Anthony to the majors (move Rafaela to 2B?), maybe it's worth it.

2:30

When will the yankees start platooning goldschmidt? He hasn't hit against RHP at all

Jon Becker

2:32

I knew he was mashing lefties, but didn't realize how drastic the platoon splits were until I checked... 313 wRC+ against lefties and 88 against righties! Whenever Jasson's finger feels better I think they should start considering sitting Goldy more against righties, and if Stanton looks good upon his return they're almost going to have rest Goldy a lot more. I'm sure Goldschmidt wouldn't love that but they need to do what's best to win games, of course.

George

2:33

How would you go about the Nats OF logjam? At some point soon, Wood, Crews, Hassell, Lile, Young, and Call could all reasonable be competing for major league OF ABs. Especially if Bell stays locked into DH until at least the deadline.

Jason Martinez

2:36

Hassell and Lile both have a sub-.300 OBP and it sounds like Crews is gonna be out a while. So, I'd think this is a late-season question where the Nats are really trying to get a better idea of whether or not they should add an OF this offseason to go with Wood and Crews. Can Young hit enough to be more than a 4th OF. Hassell and Lile are young so the struggled can be expected. But both should have a good chance in Aug/Sept to prove they can be a starter in 2026.

NTK

2:37

Bradish is head to the MiLB soon, any chance he gets called up in July, or do you think August is the soonest?

Jon Becker

2:39

Even August might be early — sounds like he's not even going to throw live BP until early July, and then from there he'll need at least a month on rehab (and TJ patients can get 60 days instead of 30 on rehab). So maybe mid August to early September, and considering that they're unlikely to be in contention they might not want to push him too hard to bring him back this year at all.

Lowe Distribution System

2:39

A reasonable team would trade Taylor Ward this year. Do you think the Angels do it?

Jason Martinez

2:42

Reasonable strategy, in my opinion ... Don't shop him right now because they're only 5 games out in the division. But keep an open mind because they are 5 games under .500 -- the price tag should be very high. However, Ward's value is peaking because of his last month and they'd risk it going down if they wait until late July.

In all likelihood, they're going to wait until mid-to-late July and trade him if they determine that they are a non-contender. You never know with that division. They're not a bad team. If Joyce and Stephenson were healthy, that bullpen would be scary and I'd like their chances. But they're not healthy and the bullpen is not the strength it would've been otherwise.

Dan

2:42

How much do you think losing a strong hit tool/great approach guy like Freddie Freeman is responsible for the failings of the Braves' lineup? Freddie's a line drives over the shortstop guy in BP and I think was probably a bit of a coach on the field. Feels like their priority should be getting a strong hit tool in that lineup. Maybe even if it means trading a guy like Harris...Tell me if I'm being dumb though, please.

Jon Becker

2:44

I think it's easy to look at what Freeman is doing in contrast with what the Braves are doing and say that Freeman would fix a lot, but remember, they had one of the best offenses in post-integration MLB history in 2023 without Freeman. I don't want to completely discount the value that Freeman can have as an example for other players or something of an extra coach, but at the end of the day he's not standing in the box for Harris to make the swing decisions for him.

Tito

2:45

Where is Noelvi Marte ? And When will he return to my lineup ?

Jason Martinez

2:48

He had an oblique injury in early May and still hasn't even started a rehab assignment. So it probably wasn't a mild strain. I'd still expect him back by end of this month. Even with Jeimer Candelario back soon, I'd expect Marte to get the starting 3B job back when he's healthy. After that 10-RBI game, his confidence was high and he was pretty good for about 2 weeks before the injury.

Sacremento Sadness

2:48

A's cleaned house over the last couple weeks, significantly shaking up the roster and lineup, but they've continued to lose. Any last-ditch levers you see them trying to pull to stop the bleeding? Absolutely nothing has worked so far.

Jon Becker

2:50

They're kinda running out of levers to pull, right? They got aggressive with Kurtz (who was heating up before getting hurt) when they actually were winning, Muncy and Clarke haven't hit (though Clarke is delightful to watch in center), and the pitching pipeline isn't really there at the high levels, though I suppose they could bring Luis Morales up. A Gage Jump recall would be a whole other level of aggressiveness but maybe they decide to do that, anyway.

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