RosterResource Chat – 8/20/26

Jason Martinez: Welcome to the RosterResource chat! Playoff races heating up and still several prospects who can potentially impact it. Should be an exciting next 11 days as teams decide who to make eligible for the post-season.

Here we go …

MF Luder: Its hard for me to understand the downside of keeping Quinn Matthews up and using a 6-man rotation. Help me understand what I’m missing.

Jon Becker: My best guess is that there are two factors at play here:

1. This is the first full season in a big-league rotation for both Leahy and McGreevy, and perhaps they think that putting them on a minors-esque six-man schedule would be detrimental to their development and ability to pitch a full season next year rather than keeping them in a five-man the rest of the season.
2. I think this is probably less likely than 1., but Mathews was really inefficient in both of his starts. Of course, the best way to get more efficient is to face MLB hitters more, but it’s a tough ask for a seven-man bullpen to keep picking Mathews up, especially when they’re keeping Leahy on turn but also limiting him to 5ish innings per start. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Mathews this year, though.

mike sixel: I get why some don’t like where we are with the AL wildcard…. But isn’t it better for the sport that lots of cities have teams in the race? Like, I recall the days where maybe two groups of fans had any reason to care at this point.

Jason Martinez: The downside is that there is a sub-.500 team currently in a playoff spot and a division leader that is 1 game over .500. But it’s highly unlikely it finishes that way. Still plenty of time for 1-2 teams to get hot and separate from the pack and with a good enough roster to compete against other playoff teams.

The other negative is that several playoff contenders that have exceeded expectations acted as if they were just happy to have exceeded expectations and didn’t really do much at the trade deadline.

Of course, this allows a team like the Dodgers to be the winner of the Skubal sweepstakes just like it allowed them to get Betts and sign Freeman and several other players because other teams were too cheap to retain their star players. Cheap owners who don’t try is still the biggest problem in baseball. But, overall, I think baseball is doing great with so many reasons to still be paying attention in late August.

aldrinbatistarocks: Watching Urquidy shove yesterday was beautiful. Any thoughts on similarly funny guys who could be really consequential to a team’s playoff push this year

Jon Becker: Look, Will Klein threw four shutout innings in a World Series game last year, so anything’s on the table. He’s been legitimately good for months now but it’s been cool to see Yoendrys Gómez be pretty central to the Twins’ surging playoff hopes after he was DFA’d by the Rays. Joey Ortiz has been the Brewers’ best hitter for a month now. It really takes a village to make it to the playoffs in a 162-game season and we’re going to get a lot of surprising performances down the stretch and into the playoffs.

drplantwrench: can the angels avoid bringing up yusei kikuchi? their pitching seems to be going well why intentionally ruin it

Jason Martinez: Kikuchi with 1-yr and $21MM remaining on his deal is actually something other teams would likely be willing to take on if the Angels want to trade him during the offseason. Even if he doesn’t throw another pitch in 2026, teams would be willing to bet on him bouncing back. But, as things stand, I doubt another team would take on the entire salary or offer much back in return. Now, if he does return in 2026 and is the good version of himself for at least a handful of starts, I think the chances of getting a good return increase. In addition, the Angels (especially Mozeliak) want to see for themselves what he looks like before they make that decision for 2027. They need to get a better understanding of how much they can rely on him.

mike sixel: A third catcher, or Gonzalez or Mendez or Ross or ? I know what I’d rather have on my bench…..

Jon Becker: To add context here, this is about the Twins bringing Alex Jackson back to replace Austin Martin on the roster instead of calling up Henry Mendez, Ben Ross, or Gabriel Gonzalez. We’ve seen teams use worse or less useful players for that 13th spot because it’s so little used, and I think that’s what the Twins are doing here. You don’t mind a guy like Jackson rotting on the bench (especially when you’re paying him anyway), but it could be actively bad for the others’ development to have them just hanging out.

NATS Fan: Josiah Grey of the Nats deserves to get a chance to start.  But Rumor is he won’t get that chance when he returns in 10 days.  He was a fv55 when he got injured.

Jason Martinez: I’m guessing he’ll get that opportunity in 2027. I think only Cavalli has a spot locked up and then guys like Alvarez and Irvin have a pretty good chance. Connelly Early would be in if healthy. And then I’d expect them to be aggressive in pursuit of another frontline SP. So there should be a path for Gray to be in the Opening Day rotation.

Howeever, he has only thrown a total of 6 innings (all rehab assignment) over the past 2 seasons and he just made his 1st appearance of 2026. I think he can probably build up to 3 innings and possibly become a piggyback option in mid-to-late September. Not enough time to do much more than that. And then I’d imagine he won’t cost more than $2.5MM for his final season of arbitration so they’ll likely keep him around. But he’d be a bullpen option if he’s not one of their best starters. So I imagine the Nats also want to see how he looks out of the bullpen, even if it’s only a few appearances.

Pinstripe Power: What’s your solution to the Yankees outfield (and I guess infield) jam once everyone is back healthy. Can’t platoon everyone and I’d imagine they’d limit Judge to a lot of DH time upon his return…Bellinger, Grisham, Spencer Jones, Ramos in the OF. If Judge is DH’ing you’d want Rice at 1B for the bat.

Jon Becker: It might not even be that big of a logjam if Ramos and Jones continue to slump; Jones would be easy to send down at at that point and perhaps Ramos gets shielded from more righties when Bellinger is back. There’s still the question of whether they’d send down Caballero or DFA Rosario if it came to deciding one or the other, but that’s a weeks-away decision at best and these things often have a way of working themselves out anyway.

shaunypat: It’s rare that someone in 6th place in a Dynasty Roto feels as smart as I do right now, but I traded for Susana, Melton, Mason Montgomery at my trade deadline for this year only assets. Did I get two top 25 starters and a good closer, fells like I did?

Jason Martinez: Don’t know about all that roto stuff but you got a guy in Melton who is establishing himself as at least a solid No. 3 starter with potential to be more if he can miss more bats, a guy in Montgomery who might be the Pirates’ current closer and will be the projected closer in 2027, and a guy in Susana who will be one of the most anticipated arrivals in 2027 if he can stay healthy

. He’s returning from a lat injury but I believe he had been previously shut down with an elbow injury. All starting pitchers have injury concerns but he’s barely pitched in the last few seasons and tough to imagine him not having innings limitations in 2027.

betob: I think Senga will be super fun as a closer. Do you think he sticks as a high leverage guy in the future?

Jon Becker: I’ll take a shot and say he’s either a reliever for the Mets or starting for another team when the season starts next year. He’s taking to the one-inning role really nicely and they no longer have to accommodate him with a six-man rotation. Plus, they’ve got McLean, Scott, Manaea locked into rotation spots for next year, Thorton has a leg up on the rest of the competition, and Megill returning from TJ. And that’s before any external additions. Tough to see Senga getting a spot there anyway.

warpath: I’ll ask the seemingly weekly question about how the Cubs’ pitching staff seems to be shaking out as guys come back from injury and get new ones. They currently have 7 viable starting/bulk guys on their roster, with another in Cabrera that should be back relatively soon it seems. They also have a whole bullpen’s worth of relievers coming back. Who loses this game of musical bullpen spots?

Jason Martinez: Sounds like Cabrera will be returning in a relief role and Peterson will be the No. 5 SP with Assad and Rea the other rotation options the rest of the way. I think they are going to trust Counsell on figuring out bullpen usage. They are going to have so many high-leverage options between Palencia, Webb, Cabrera, Ben Brown, and Shelby Miller (if he avoids the common setbacks that occur during recovery process; so far, so good). Their lefty options aren’t as good but mixing and matching with Milner, Thielbar, Peterson, and Rolison is fine. They’ll be important in a series vs the Dodgers. Justin Steele returning would obviously be a potential difference-maker.

I think it’s going to be an underrated part of their playoff roster, especially if Cabrera and Brown can show some level of consistency.

eandy: If either Campusano or Fermin get hurt. Who do the Padres go with Salas or Duran?

Jon Becker: I think it really depends on which of the two got hurt in your scenario. Fermin is playing a little less than Campusano anyway so if he got hurt I think they’d just go with Duran, who profiles similarly. But Campusano provides a lot of offense and if he went down, perhaps they’d go bigger and call Salas up.

ItalianMeatball: Jensen or Kirk for the rest of the season?

Jason Martinez: I’m assuming this is a Danny Jansen vs Alejandro Kirk question. Kirk struggled a bit earlier in the season but his numbers are nearly identical to 2025 and he’s slashing .282/.350/.425 with 22 HR over the past 2 seasons. Super reliable and getting the majority of starts over rookie Brandon Valenzuela.

Jansen has been bad but he should get the majority of starts over Elias Diaz and you never know when the power surge will come.

I’d still pick Kirk over Jansen.

GatorKen: Has Grant Taylor secured a spot on the roster for next year?  Closer, Starter, or something else?

Jon Becker: He’ll absolutely have a spot, but remains to be seen in what role. Normally when a guy is doing this well out of the bullpen it’s tough to see him transitioning to the rotation, but unlike a lot of dominant young relievers, Taylor has a four-pitch mix that could actually be conducive to getting outs in the rotation. Wouldn’t surprise me to see him stretched out to at least some extent in spring training and then they go from there.

Christopher: Volpe has been playing almost all 2B since getting optioned. Assuming Jazz doesnt come back, can they go into next year with Volpe and Caballero as 2B options or do they need more certainty with a guy like Lowe (who is playing better D and might be a good fit at the Stadium)?

Jason Martinez: Once they promoted Lombard (and since), it was pretty clear that Volpe no longer has a path to be the Yankees’ SS. So it makes sense to audition him at 2B and keep their options open for 2027. They can’t predict how the offseason will go so they need to have an open mind. If they use their resources elsewhere (not 2B), they could probably feel good knowing that some combination of Caballero/Volpe would be decent.

My guess is that they’ll look to upgrade at 2B and will be open to trading Volpe (not giving him away for nothing) if they do.

Rayball: What’s your early feedback on Joshua Baez’s debut and role next year?

Jon Becker: Huge, legit power, a lot of swing-and-miss on breaking stuff from righties. A little Esmerlyn Valdez-ish but less plate discipline and better in-zone contact. I don’t think he’ll be handed a starting role for next year barring a great finish to the season (which he’s certainly capable of), but I don’t think they’re going to add a free agent to clearly block him, either.

GatorKen: Is Drew Gilbert the future CF in SF or will Harrison Bader be the man when he returns?

Jason Martinez: Bader earned a starting CF job with his performance in 2025 and that’s what the Giants signed him to be in 2026-27. But based on his performance and inability to stay healthy this season, I think he’s back to being a 4th OF/platoon in 2027. Gilbert’s performance (119 wRC+ vs RHP; adequate defense in CF) also has a lot to do with it. In all likelihood, I’d project a Gilbert/Bader platoon in CF in 2027 with Bo Davidson also in the mix at some point.

ado64: For the Brewers next season, Miz Harrison Henderson Priester seems likely – who among Gasser Drohan May (if they take his option) etc. stays in SP, and who bounces to RP / gets traded? With their SP and RP depth, they have a lot of options to do something unexpected.

Jon Becker: I’d push back on the idea that Priester is likelier than Gasser/Drohan because a lot hinges on how his TOS recovery is going and if he looks anything like his 2025 self, if he needs more time on the IL, etc. May has a mutual option and those never get exercised so we can toss him out. I’ve been most impressed by Drohan so I’d give him a leg up over Gasser and Priester if he shows up iffy. Also in the mix: Coleman Crow, Colton Gordon, Tyson Hardin.

Rayball: What’s the 2027 (CBA-willing) O’s rotation shape up as?

Jason Martinez: Projected rotation is easy/boring because they’ll only have 5 starters on the 40-man and they’re all MLB pitchers … Bradish, Baz, Young, Povich, Gibson

It’s the next wave of prospects that is super interesting with Forret, De Leon, and German all expected to reach the majors in 2027 and Ayanson and Dzierwa also capable of moving quickly. That’s already an impressive group but probably not enough certainty for the big league rotation. I think they’ll add another frontline starter and then still end up relying heavily on that deep group of young starters.

Phillip Denny: Dodgers playoff rotation – Yama, Skubal, Snell, Shohei opener with Glasnow following?

Jon Becker: That sounds about right to me, assuming neither Ohtani nor Glasnow is built up enough for full starts. I do wonder what they’d do if everyone is built up to 5ish innings. Does someone (probably Glasnow) go to the bullpen anyway? Is someone left off the roster entirely for a short series? Do they really get granular with matchups?

springer: Where do you see Seaver King playing once he’s called up? There’s a hole at SS if Abrams moves to 2B but they seem to view King as more of a utility guy.

Jason Martinez: Moving Abrams to 2B was going to happen eventually and I initially thought the timing could’ve been about Seaver King getting the call soon. But maybe not. This front office hasn’t been in a hurry with much and getting an early look at King might not be on the horizon.

I’m sure they expect Willits to move quickly (I’d guess 2028) and they also have guys like Devin Fitz-Gerald and Ronny Cruz who could be MLB shortstops. But I’m not sure if they’d go into 2027 with Nuñez as the starting SS unless they felt really good about King or Fitz-Gerald being ready to take over at some point. TBD.

Jason Martinez: That will do it for today. Thanks for all the great questions. We’ll be back next Thursday.