RosterResource Chat – 6/4/26

Jason Martinez: Welcome to the RosterResource chat. Whatever is happening with your favorite team, just be happy that they’re still in the playoff race. Unless they’re the Rockies or Giants.

Here we go …

Ragbrai: Thoughts on Elridge this year? Occasional ABs each week or works his way into full time ABs? How about next year?

Jon Becker: He’s basically an everyday guy now that they’re comfortable enough with Casey Schmitt in left field, but they’ve got a puzzle to short out when Ramos and Bader are healthy. Wouldn’t be too hard to just rotate days off, or make Bader earn back more CF time by actually starting to hit. As for next year (or after the trade deadline), Arraez is a pending FA so they can just have Schmitt play second with Eldridge and Devers splitting DH/1B.

oaktownblues: Does Lawrence Butler get sent down to AAA when they activate Muncy? If not, maybe when they activate Wilson?

Jason Martinez: Corresponding move to Muncy will probably be Alika Williams to AAA. Sending Butler to the minors will be unrelated. A’s just need to determine if it’s gotten to that point where he needs a reset. I think they’d want to replace him with another OF who can bat left-handed to balance out the roster. One internal option would be Cade Marlowe, who has a .937 OPS in AAA. He also has big league experience and is close to 30 years old so he could be fine in a bench role.

Dan99999: How many games do you think Ben Rice catches this year?

Jon Becker: I’ll say 15 or fewer. Wells and Escarra haven’t hit at all and I haven’t so much as seen Boone mention thinking about Rice catching right now, even before Stanton and Judge got sidelined with injuries and DH/1B was more clogged up than it is now. A bunch of Yankees fans want them to go and get Ryan Jeffers at the deadline assuming he recovers okay from hamate surgery, and I think he’d be a great fit.

F0gel: The Pirates bullpen is giving away most if not all the gains from the bats. Any help coming from Indy or hope that the staff can sort out Santana?

Jason Martinez: As far as an impact high-leverage reliever, I don’t think there’s help on the way unless Isaac Mattson (currently in AAA) can return to his ’25 form. That’s why Mlodzinki to the ‘pen was probably necessary. Dotel looks great so far in the long relief role and we’ll see if he starts working in shorter 1-inning, high-leverage stints and eventually capable of working back-to-back days. Barco and Antwone Kelly are important SP depth but I can see either of them also getting a shot to help out in the bullpen if it continues to get worse. Kind of a mess right now and that’s with Gregory Soto being way more consistent than expected.

opifijikl: The Sox started bello again and he gave up 5 in the first. They’ve had success using an opener with him. Weissert always allows runners inherited to score. Usually inherited from bello. Why not use weisser as an opener and bello after that? Any thoughts?

Jon Becker: I don’t think Bello is this bad as a starter nor is he this good when following an opener (I think there’s like an 11-run gap in ERA depending on role for him this year), but having him avoid the top of the lineup for his first inning has certainly proven helpful, yeah. Ideally Weissert is the fireman-type you can bring in against a string of righties with runners on but to your point he just hasn’t worked out in that role this year. Not sure how predictive of future performance that really is (LOB% and inherited runners scoring % are both pretty noisy, I believe) but if the opponent’s best hitters are righties he’s a good option, sure.

Christopher M Wilde: I guess this one will prob be fielded by Jason, my god has any team ever had a worse long term payroll outlook than the Pads?

Jason Martinez: I’m biased because the Padres’ current payroll situation affects my mental health on a regular basis. It’s more frustrating because there are always cheap and effective ways to improve their roster but they rarely try to shake things up or take flyers on players who might be able to give them a spark. Taking a flyer on guys like Profar, Solano, and Peralta in 2024 is why they were so good offensively that season. Going into this season with only 3 left-handed batters when 70% of the pitchers in the league are right-handed is crazy.

With that said, I’m guessing some of the Angels’ bad long-term contracts in the last couple decades probably felt similar.

Beer:30: Hamilton has provided some coverage by getting on base about 32% of the time with adequate defense but the Brewers are still plenty deficient on the left side of the infield. How soon do you think they make a move and call up either Jett or Pratt or both? If just one, who do you think is the likelier option, given Pratt is on the 40 but Jett is playing a position of need at third.

Jon Becker: I don’t think they’d call up both at once even though Ortiz has been really rough too because they like the glove so much, and to your point Hamilton has been adequate and really annoying to pitchers with all the bunt hits and steals. Jett’s been better of late but Pratt is still having the nicer year overall and he’s got the 40-man spot and contract already. I think Hamilton’s roster spot would be safe so then the choice there is between DFAing Rengifo or optioning Ortiz and keeping more depth around.

warpath: RosterResource currently doesn’t have a 5th starter listed for the Twins with their litany of SP injuries. Bullpen day planned for today it seems with Andrew Morris starting.

Do you think there is a medium-term plan here for filling that 5th spot with one guy, or will it just be mixing and matching and duct taping something together there? None of the injured SP seem particularly close to returning.

Jason Martinez: I don’t think there’s a plan other than try to piece together these bullpen days whenever necessary. Even before Adams and Morris were called up, they weren’t completely stretched out in AAA. Same with Kendry Rojas, John Klein and C.J. Culpepper. They’re working up to 3-4 innings in AAA but no one is being stretched out to 5+ innings. Seems like they should be looking to add someone who can do that.

Beer:30: If the Brewers were to buck tradition and make a run at Skubal, what pool of prospects do you think would work? Do you think they can pull it off without including Made, Pena, Lara or Pratt?

Jon Becker: I think they could pretty easily. Skubal’s awesome but he’s still a rental who’ll be coming off of a surgery. It’s a really deep system that also has Quero, Letson, Fischer, Adamczewski, and Jett, and MLB-ready prospects/players like Sproat, Henderson, Drohan, Gasser, Black.

GatorKen: Any hope for a post breakout breakout for Colt Keith?  He was dropped in one of my leagues and I may have room to stash

Jason Martinez: For sure. Just look at what former top prospects like JJ Bleday and Oswald Peraza are doing. Seems like we get a few of these every season. Keith was one of the best hitting prospects in baseball for a reason. Hitting is difficult and sometimes it could take a few years to really figure things out. Can Keith turn it around this season? I don’t know if the power is coming back in 2026. But he can rebound and be a solid contributor this season.

GatorKen: Re: Pirates bullpen question. Is Dotel the answer?

Jon Becker: He could be, but it’s a tough line to straddle with him and Mlodzinski with wanting to keep them both stretched out for multi-inning appearances rather than being “the answer” at closer. Soto was very very good for a good while until last night so I don’t think they’re going to make a knee-jerk reaction there anyway.

g4: You’ve had Marlins rotation at only 3 deep for a few days. Do you expect they’ll call up Garrett this weekend or push bullpen to its max?

Jason Martinez: Looks like they’ll need someone on Saturday or Sunday and it won’t be Garrett because he just pitched on 6/3. Dax Fulton started on 6/2 so he’s a maybe for Sunday. Bradley Blalock would be an option but he just gave up 9 ER in his last start. Sounds like they’re going to pitch both Gusto and Tyler Phillips tomorrow so Marlins don’t seem too worried about it. Might just be another bullpen day.

Person: does latest RHP lineup become RR RHP lineup? eg Garcia 8th for WAS

Jon Becker: Hard to say because it’s not really our job to predict with confidence when we change a team’s go-to starting lineup, it’s more so just reacting to what a team has done. And they had all nine starters in there, so we rearranged with Crews second and Garcia 8th, but it’ll take a few more games to see if that’s really what they’re going with or just tried something out based on matchups.

Jason Martinez: Rule of thumb is that if a team goes with all 9 hitters who are part of the “go-to” lineup, I’ll change the lineup order to whatever they’re going with that day.

Christopher M Wilde: How long til Yanks stop wasting a bullpen spot on 2 junkballing long men who only pitch in blowouts?

Jason Martinez: When I check box scores at the end of each day to monitor bullpen usage, I’m always surprised at how shaky the Yankees’ bullpen looks on paper. But it hasn’t really cost them too much, which is why there doesn’t seem to be a sense of urgency. Lagrange could be a beast out of the bullpen but he probably won’t be up anytime soon. And it will be tough to acquire a setup man in the next month. I think they’re gonna stick with what they got for now unless it gets really bad in the next few weeks. Not many teams selling just yet. They could probably get Senzatela now but asking price could be high.

warpath: Pedro Ramirez and Kevin Alcantara have both barely played since being called up a couple of weeks ago. Who do you expect to be optioned with Matt Shaw’s imminent return? Both are an odd fit for the Cubs right now as top prospects you want to get regular ABs, but that are blocked at the MLB level kinda both by starters and by Shaw in the superutility role.

Jon Becker: My best guess is Alcantara goes down. Got starts against the first two lefties they faced in this string of three in a row but not the third, and the PAs of his I saw were pretty noncompetitive. Ramirez being a switch-hitter gives him a leg up, too.

Solitaire: I’m a fan of your minor league power rankings as a quick way to see who’s playing well.  I wonder if there’s a way to add some kind of subjective “opportunity” grade to them to show something like their chances of promotion to the majors.  Hard to think of an automated way to do that, but I wonder if it’s something you’ve pondered

Jason Martinez: Glad to hear! I had a longtime column called “Knocking Down The Door” that started way back in the MLBDepthCharts days and it just became too difficult to write it up every week. So the MiLB Power Rankings was the best way to automate what I was looking at to come up with my picks. Filtering “AAA” and “Last 7/Last 14 days” highlights players who are putting themselves in the conversation for a call-up. The other part of “Knocking Down the Door” was explaining why there was a path to the majors. That’s what’s missing now. Ideally, I’d like to bring it back as a column or video each week. Not sure when or how just yet.

jdefrancesco5: Are the Giants worse off with Buster than Farhan?

Jon Becker: Hard to say because Farhan’s moves are still all over the roster and the front office didn’t change a whole lot otherwise besides the change at the top (Minasian has been there since 2019, for example). The huge moves Buster has made (Adames, Devers, and reportedly being the catalyst behind the Chapman extension when he was still with ownership) look super super iffy but he’s gotten some praise for the packages he got at the deadline last year. They’ve got an interesting future with Eldridge, Josuar, Level, etc., but their share of bad contracts for many years to come, too.

Hazmat Corntail: Looks like Angel Genoa is tapping into the power as people had hoped but the defense is still needs progress. How settled is Rocchio at SS and with Genoa on the 40-man already, is he either trade bait or someone who could get a chance later this year?

Jason Martinez: Have to think they’re fine with Rocchio (with some combination of Gabriel Arias when he returns from the IL) at SS for the remainder of the season. Rocchio’s defensive metrics aren’t great at SS (-3 DRS in 2025; -3 DRS and 2026) after he had 11 DRS/5 OAA in 2024 so I’m not sure what’s going on there. But it seems like he’s a very important part of this team. Along with Bazzana’s arrival and early success, it could make Genoa a trade chip. My guess is that they don’t really do anything interesting and revisit in the offseason.

Eminor3rd: How do you think the Rakuten Golden Eagles will handle the infield roster crunch when Rui Muneyama comes back from his wrist injury? The easy answer is Itsuki Murabayashi to third, Fumiya Kurokawa to second, but can they really afford to take Ryuya Taira out of the lineup with the way he’s been hitting? I could see maybe putting Kurokawa at first and moving Asamura to full-time DH, but that would involve putting Luke Voit out to pasture (maybe that’s fine) and keeping Carson McCusker in LF at least until he cools off. I actually wonder if Taira could handle LF, which would likely be a much better defensive outcome.

Jon Becker: So, I don’t follow NPB much at all, and this is the first NPB question we’ve ever gotten in this chat, outside of asking about players who’ve been posted to MLB. HOWEVER, I have always at least been vaguely intrigued by the idea of RosterResource but NPB (a more limited version, I think if we had to do the full suite of RR stuff for a second league that would be a problem) as a way to get me into it. So, if that’s something that you would follow and we get enough people asking about it enough times, I’d consider it more strongly!

ankoalec: What do you think Carrigg needs to do at this point to earn a call-up to Colorado? Sterlin Thompson has options and isn’t exactly on fire fifteen games in, but Johnston has been good and McCarthy has turned his average around. Just a waiting game at this point?

Jason Martinez: A lot to like about Carrigg, which is why there are questions about him each week. So, apologies if I repeat anything I’ve written over the past few weeks. But, like I said, people are asking about him for good reason. Switch-hitter with speed, plate discipline, and he can play 2 premium positions (CF, SS). I think the shorter window before Moniak/Doyle/Beck return from the IL works best for a guy already on the 40-man like Sterlin Thompson. Carrigg should require a bigger role with a longer runway when he is called up to the majors. Unless the IL stints to the aforementioned trio end up being longer than expected, I don’t think Carrigg will be up until late July/early August.

Jason Martinez: That will do it for today. Reminder that Jon is doing a new column called “FanGraphs Feature Focus” that is very helpful in explaining a lot of the many cool things we have on the site. Check it out if you can …

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-feature-focus-rosterresource-pro…

We’ll be back next Thursday. Have a great day.