RosterResource Chat – 6/11/26

Jason Martinez: Welcome to the RosterResource Chat! With the new requirement of having to log in to ask questions, we are still having some technical difficulties. Please let us know (via twitter or bluesky) if this continues to be the case.

For those of you who are in the chat, here we go …

procters1: Mick Abel had his first rehab outing and it went well. He should be back soon. How does the Twins rotation shake out with his return?

Jon Becker: Should be a pretty easy swap with Abel in and Paredes/bullpen game out. It gets tougher when another starter like Rojas or Ober is back, but there’ll be plenty of time to evaluate others in the meantime because neither of those two has a timetable for his return.

Ragbrai: Who puts up better numbers the ROS, Baty or Winn?

Jason Martinez: I’d take Baty to have better numbers and Winn with a little bit more volume (better counting stats) just because Baty might sit occasionally vs LHP and could sit a bit more often once the team is back to full health.

70-75% of the pitching in the league is right-handed so a left-handed batter is usually going to be in a better position to put up better numbers. Baty also has more offensive upside than Winn. Both should be good. Baty has been inconsistent but has shown he could be a bit more than just good.

Zachary Bergman: Is Jared Young a starter for the Mets ROS? Any chance he’s at 1b opening day next year?

Jon Becker: I think he is, at least against righties. Melendez has cooled off and they can’t rely on much of anything from Polanco due to his recurring bursitis, it seems, so Young’s got a good hold on the strong side of the 1B platoon. Ryan Clifford could come into play sometime next year but the strikeout rate in Triple-A is over 35%.

Thomas Nguyen: Where do the Giants trade Arraez once Heliot Ramos is back?

Jason Martinez: Giants are going to set a high price tag on Arraez and won’t back down anytime soon. They won’t worry too much about how many at-bats someone like Ramos or Drew Gilbert is getting. Schmitt will continue to move around — Lee in CF, Schmitt in RF isn’t ideal but might be a temporary option — until they have a permanent spot for him.

I think they will end up trading Arraez in early July, weeks befor the deadline, just because the price might come down if they wait it out. Because he’s such a unique hitter, he fits well into most lineups — especially now that he’s a good 2B — so there should be plenty of interest. Giants are in a good spot to shed his remaining salary and get a good prospect.

Zachary Bergman: Is Matt Chapman on the block?

Jon Becker: He’s been hot lately but I’m sure the Giants would love to find a taker for the 4y/$100M he’s got left on his deal after this year (and would have to pay down some of it). He’s actually pacing to be a little bit better than last year (which was a good year) but they surely signed him to that deal with the intention of contending this year and last, and that hasn’t happened. If someone else wanted to take on his ages 34-37 seasons and hope he doesn’t decline too much, I’d be surprised, though.

war2d2: What do the Cubs even do at this point? They don’t have any help coming in the minors, they’re losing pitchers left and right, and they can’t hit the side of a barn. They owe Bregman $150m and he looks cooked. No real question just…gaaaaaah.

Jason Martinez: My favorite team (Padres) is 3 games over .500 and I can’t believe how bad they are. Maybe the worst lineup of all time. But the reality is that a lot of teams are really bad right now and all but 2-3 are in the mix for a playoff spot.

Cubs have been terrible and setbacks to Boyd and Steele are concerning. Their young hitters are going to be inconsistent, especially when they’re not in the lineup regularly. I think the plan, similar to a lot of bad teams still in the playoff hunt, is their core players turn things around over the next few weeks and the front office can focus on adding impact talent at the trade deadline. Good news for the Cubs is that their farm is in good shape and they have a lot of emerging prospects (Kepley, Hartshorn, Ayers, etc.) who will have very high trade value if they want to make a big splash.

Jon Becker: After the Cubs won the World Series in 2016 I decided to not really care how they did despite growing up a big Cubs fan, and I’m glad I made that decision. This season would really be trying my sanity.

Ragbrai: Woodruff was up to 68 pitches in has last “start.”  What do you think he is shooting for before being activated? Will it be based more on his pitch count, control, pain or a combination of those before returning to Milwaukee? What should they expect from him ROS? An injury just waiting to happen?

Jon Becker: Combination of the three, but most important is that he’s feeling good and is built up. They don’t care how many pitches he can throw if there’s any pain or discomfort from pitch one (and I assume there isn’t because I haven’t seen anything since he last pitched, and I think the Brewers will slot him in soon). I don’t view it as an injury just waiting to happen per se because there seem to have nipped this one in the bud before it turned into something bigger, but there’s of course increased risk for someone with his injury history. But they have arguably the most SP depth in the league so they just want him to be effective when he’s healthy, however often or rarely that ends up being.

Ragbrai: We have had a lot of call ups so far this year.  Who are you looking forward to seeing come up in the next month or so pitching and batting wise?

Jason Martinez: I look forward to any top prospect getting the call. I think we’re getting pretty close to Kaelen Culpepper being the starting SS in Minnesota now that Brooks Lee seems locked in at 3B and Royce Lewis is getting time at 1B and 2B. I’m a big fan of players like Nelson Rada, who makes a ton of contact and can run. He’s hitting .444 over his last 10 games in AAA. Not sure if there is room in the Angels’ OF for both Wade Meckler and Rada, but that sure would be fun for me.

On the pitching side, I think the Rays could call up one of their top prospects soon (Ty Johnson or Brody Hopkins).

scioscia: Detmers has been unbelievable recently, if the angels broke from their recent trend and actually traded their prime players at their peak value what could they reasonably expect as a return?

Jon Becker: Two years of control after this year and I think he compares very favorably to MacKenzie Gore. Wasn’t quite as good of a prospect as Gore (almost nobody was) but is pitching better now than Gore finished last season by a ton and arguably better than Gore was pitching when he made the All-Star team. He’d require quite the Gore-like haul and I think that would surprise a lot of people who don’t look beyond the surface-level stats.

crazyhorse: Is Triston Casas going to make it back to MLB this year?  Does he even have a role with Red Sox?

Jason Martinez: As things stand, he seems a long way from returning. Latest update had him close to swinging a bat again. But let’s assume he’s ready to return in August. The Red Sox will have already made the decision to buy or sell. Depending on who was traded away, Casas’ path to playing time could be clearer. And if things have just gone horribly wrong and they’re not in the playoff race, it makes sense to just let him play every day so they have a better idea of what to expect in 2027 and beyond. He had an .838 OPS and 37 HR over 745 PAs between 2023-24. Need to find out if he’s still capable of being that kind of impact hitter.

jzmaxson27: Does JR Ritchie get back into the rotation this season? What does he need to do to stick there? Obviously pitch better, but how much better?

Jon Becker: It doesn’t sound like they’re banking on Schwellenbach coming back at all (maaaaaaaybe August or September) so there is a pretty up-for-grabs rotation spot with Holmes pitching shakily at times. Really he only has to be better than Holmes to hold onto that spot, and he didn’t quite pitch better than Holmes when he was up earlier this year. Walt Weiss has been pretty aggressive with pulling Holmes early in games so it’s possible there could be a piggyback scenario where Ritchie out-pitches Holmes and then keeps the spot.

PicnicLightning: Any guess on innings caps ROS for the Red Sox rookies?

Jason Martinez: Early had around 120 IP and Tolle had around 115 IP last season. So, I’d say somewhere in the 145-155 IP range sounds about right for either. Maybe a bit more if they happened to be in the playoff hunt. And maybe a bit less if they’re just way out of it and the Red Sox want to be on the safe side.

Christopher: How do they handle DH once Stanton returns? Goldy has looked great and I would be REALLY nervous about putting Rice behind the plate given how important his bat is.  Put Big G in RF against lefties? Even if that costs them its still less risky than possibly losing Rice to injury or fatigue.

Jon Becker: I’m sure they’ve kicked around the idea of Stanton playing some right field but not sure how seriously, and I don’t think you could rely on him to play the field more than maybe twice a week, if at all. But I think he’d require plenty of rest/maintenance days anyway such that Goldschmidt would still play plenty. And they’re still some time away from having to make a decision with Stanton and Goldy might cool off by then anyway.

Conrad Berris: Who do you think the padres send down or dfa when Bogaerts is activated from the paternity list? Will Wagner made a case to stay up and have a role against RHP. I’d be fine if it’s Johnson dfa. I don’t know who plays at the bottom of the lineup against lefties since Bryce Johnson, Jase Bowen (minors), Will Wagner, Song, Sheets all hit righties significantly better and at least one needs to be in the lineup vs Lhp

Jason Martinez: I think Bowen goes back to AAA for now. He brings more to the table than Bryce Johnson, but it’s a tough role for him (4th OF/platoon vs LHP) and I think they like him enough that they want him playing as often as possible in AAA.

And I think the Padres finally figured out that they really need more lefty bats in the lineup so Wagner and Song should stick around. I’d guess Song goes back to AAA once Cronenworth is healthy. Samad Taylor is out of options but that doesn’t matter. He is so valuable. Might have locked up a spot on that team for a while.

LenFuego: Any thoughts on when we might see Luis Lara now that he’s locked up on a contract?  How would that shake out in Milwaukee’s lineup?

Jon Becker: Judging by how they’ve handled Pratt since his own extension, I don’t think the timeline for Lara has changed, and they’ve been pretty committed to letting their struggling players work through things, whether it’s the infielders (Ortiz/Hamilton/Rengifo) or outfielders (Frelick). But Lara’s forcing the issue more than Pratt so don’t think seeing Lara become the starting CF or RF this year at some point is outlandish.

Christopher: It blew my mind reading that the avg RH hitter has an OPS below 700 this year.  I know things tend to improve once weather warms but at some point do we need to consider lowering the mound or something?

Jason Martinez: I remember watching the 1998 Padres facing the Astros in the playoffs and realizing that the Astros’ right-handed heavy lineup had no chance against Kevin Brown despite having Biggio/Bagwell. In recent years, there have been really good hitting teams who were right-handed heavy (Blue Jays and Yankees come to mind) and they were dominated in the post-season because they faced a right-handed ace.

These days, it all kind of seems like some version of that to me. 70-75% of the league is right-handed and most pitchers have high-velo/high-spin fastball/sinker and can throw a breaking pitch that gets a lot of swing-and-miss from right-handed batters. Hitting a baseball is more difficult than ever. The adjustment from teams should be to add more lefty contact hitters but maybe there aren’t that many good ones. Arraez is a very unique hitter. But there are guys like Antonacci (CHW), Ewing (NYM), and Meckler (LAA), not to mention a few top prospects who can also control the strike zone (McGonigle, Wetherholt, Emerson, etc.), who I think teams will value more and more.

Lowering the mound is drastic. Not sure the league will do anything like that. Just expecting teams to adjust so the pendulum swings back in their favor.

Phillip Denny: Are these are other obvious sellers right now other than SF, CO, LAA? Of those, who are the interesting players who might be moved?

Jon Becker: I don’t think so, no. The teams who were expected to be good (or at least better) but have been bad like the Royals and Red Sox aren’t committing to anything just yet. The Angels should be open for business (and no I don’t think that includes Trout, who has been adamant for years about not wanting to be traded) but they pretty consistently are only willing to move rentals and convince themselves they can contend again the next season. Antonio Senzatela has turned into a really good reliever, he should be the most available good arm between the three teams. And the Giants have good rentals (Arraez, Ray) and bigger contracts they ought to at least listen on though I doubt anyone would want very much (Adames, Devers, Chapman).

CHRISTOPHER BRABLC: Does Nate Lowe continue to get at-bats? Also what do you think Braves do with Kim?

Jason Martinez: Definitely. Speaking of right-handed heavy lineups, the Reds went into the season with one lefty (Friedl) and a switch-hitter (EDLC) in their starting lineup. And now I can’t imagine they’d want a lineup without JJ Bleday and Lowe (152 wRC+ vs RHP) in it.

Kim takes a while to figure things out and then he’s really good once he locks in. I think he’s been bad enough to where they’ve had to sit him vs RHP and let Mateo play SS for the time being. But Mateo is also a guy who can be really streaky. Their best lineup has Kim in there as the everyday SS and I think they’re hoping he’ll be fine in a month or so.

thomasduncan94: I’m in a dynasty league and I have Yordan and have been offered Soto, what are your thoughts, should I accept, who does better ROS and long term

Jon Becker: Not a fantasy expert here but I like the general question within this so I’ll say Yordan will be better for the rest of the season because he’s been the best hitter in baseball and it’s hard to go against that, but Soto will be better long-term. Too many injuries for me to feel great about Yordan as he ages and he’s actually almost a year and a half older than Soto.

Phillip Denny: Why on earth have the Rockies carried 3 catchers on the 26 man for basically the whole season? The two catchers not named Hunter Goodman have been absolutely dreadful.

Jason Martinez: Goodman is their best hitter so he’s the DH on the days he doesn’t catch. On those days, their catcher (Sullivan or Fulford) will likely need to be pinch hit for at some point. Instead of losing the DH spot by moving Goodman to catcher, they can just substitute their 3rd catcher. Ideally, they’d get more offense from Sullivan or Fulford. Both have hit well in AAA. But it’s a tough gig as a part-time player in the big leagues.

PC1970: Looks like Detroit is going with a 6 man rotation of Skubal/Mize/Flaherty/Valdez/Montero/Melton starting Saturday. Question is-What do you do with Verlander when he’s ready in the next week or so?

Jason Martinez: Their bullpen really needs some help and Melton/Montero have a chance to be impact high-leverage arms. My guess is that they give Verlander every chance to settle in while they temporarily go with a 6-man rotation and Montero (probably) goes to the ‘pen. In a scenario where Skubal, Valdez, Mize, Flaherty, and Verlander are all healthy and pitching effectively later in the season, Melton and Montero pitching in high-leverage bullpen roles isn’t out of the question. But at least for the next 2 months, I’d expect they’d want at least one of Montero/Melton to remain stretched out.

Jason Martinez: That will do it for today. Thanks for joining us!