RosterResource Chat – 8/27/26

Jason Martinez: Welcome to the RosterResource chat! 5 more days until rosters expand to 28 and 1 more month until regular season ends and I start work on offseason pages. My expectation is that this offseason will be similar to the last one that was interrupted by a lockout … roster chaos right before the CBA expired and more roster chaos after the lockout ended. Fun. Stress. Relief. More fun.

Here we go …

Christopher: I think I know the answer, but Fried can’t be added as the 27th man Saturday only for someone else to be sent out after, right? Assuming they need Elmer for another start before the off day, I guess that means a reliever sent out for Fried and another added as Man 27?

Jon Becker: He could be the 27th man in name only, actually — we just saw the Twins do this with Buxton for the Field of Dreams game. But I think it’s likelier that Fried starts game 2 so they can activate him in between games rather than having him active for a game in which he’s definitely not pitching. So they could add a 27th man to help the bullpen both games, have Elmer in the bullpen for G1 just in case and then send him down for Fried between games, hypothetically.

aes96: How excited should I be to have Sean Keys stashed at 1$ in an AL only keeper league? Do you think he makes an impact in Sept and/or 2027?

Jason Martinez: Not sure there are enough at-bats for him in September unless there is an injury or the Jays fall far enough out of the playoff race to start looking ahead to next year.

Sounds like he’s going to get a look in LF. Might be better to get those reps in AAA and the Jays can get a better assessment of whether he can be more than a 1B/3B/DH. Regardless, his chances of making an impact with his bat in 2027 increase with Springer off the roster. Positional versatility will help. Lefty bat with power who can play mutliple positions should be valuable.

Christopher: Just a followup, can the 27th man be someone like Hanner or do the usual rules apply re how long he has to stay down absent an injury?

Jon Becker: It can be Hanner, those rules don’t apply as the 27th man! At least a couple instances this year of a team optioning an SP knowing he can come back up as the 27th man. Once he’s returned to the minors from being the 27th man, the 10/15-day clock doesn’t restart, either, it goes off the original option.

dirtypuer: Who’s your favorite Suarez destination off waivers?

Jason Martinez: I thought Seattle probably would’ve been the best fit as a 3B vs LHP (with occasional at-bats vs RHP). But it sounds like every team passed and he’ll remain in Cincinnati. Taking on $3MM (I think that’s the remaining amount) for 1 month of a likely part-time player probably wasn’t worth it despite the power and the good vibes.

Justin: I’ve noticed when Francisco Alvarez catches, he bats 9th but when he dhs he bats 5 or 6. Have you ever seen anything like that before?

Jon Becker: I think this has more to do with the handedness of the opposing pitcher than if Alvarez is catching or not. Looking at their Platoon Lineups page, you can see that Alvarez is mostly DHing against lefties to accommodate Torrens and catching against righties with a rotating DH. Alvarez has actually been quite a bit worse this year against lefties (76 wRC+ vs. 114) so it’s a little interesting to see him hit higher against them, though in a larger sample size going back three seasons his splits are more traditional (117 vs. L, 104 vs. R), and I tend not to read into single-season platoon splits too much.

armstrongmi: Mets haven’t made a roster move in 8 days. Is everything OK? What’s the longest that a team has gone this year without shuttling a reliever or putting someone on the IL?

Jason Martinez: Not sure of the exact number but I know some teams have gone at least 2 weeks without making a move. Mets are on a roll, which is a big reason. No injuries helps. And the bullpen is full of interesting guys right now and they’ve all been pretty good. So no reason to keep auditioning new guys. Duarte and Lavender have been great. Nuñez looked like he was gonna be a reliable late-inning option before his injury and, of course, Yan is fun to watch and he’s a lefty who throws high 90’s.

I’d expect to see Soto, Vientos, and Devin Williams at some point in the next couple weeks so it won’t last too much longer.

dodgersfansteve: Just watched Dodger LF Teo Hernandez butcher another ball last night. Right fielder Kyle Tucker is a serial flyball mauler, too. Is there a defensive metric for an entire team’s outfield? Meaning: Where would the Dodgers rank defensively (would likely assume Pages was in center) across all of MLB? It’s like watching Greg Luzinski.

Jon Becker: I was watching the Braves broadcast of the Dodgers/Braves game last night and they spent a good amount of time talking about how concerned the Dodgers are about the Pages-less OF defense, and they’re right to be, even with Thomas a very solid CF. By Statcast’s FRV they’re +1 and 13th-best amongst all OF, but that’s entirely propped up by Pages (+9). Tucker is -8 and Teoscar is -4.

Beano: Are Jonah Cox or Turner Hill possible regulars for SF in 2027?

Jason Martinez: A lot can happen during the offseason, but I’d say Cox is likely in AAA to begin the season and Hill would be in the mix for CF/LF but not the favorite. This would most likely be the lineup projection at the beginning of the offseason …

CF Gilbert/Bader
1B Devers
LF Schmitt
DH Eldridge
3B Chapman
RF Lee
SS Adames
2B Mayer
C Cavanaugh/Susac

I think that’s pretty good. Trading Schmitt while he has a ton of value might open up a spot. They also have a very good farm system so the window might be narrow for guys like Hill/Cox.

kphan34: Thanks Jason and Jon! With the Nationals falling out of the wild car race, how likely is it James Wood gets to play at all in September?

Jon Becker: I just saw a clip of him running this morning and I believe he’s been facing pitching of some kind (maybe not a real pitcher, though) and throwing up to 120 feet, if I recall correctly. So it would have to be some major stalling out/setback for him to not come back this year, and probably sooner than later. If it was an injury he was rushing back from there’d be some aspect of “let’s shut him down and protect him from himself” but I don’t think that’s the case here. There’s a lot to be said for getting him back into the everyday groove for at least a couple weeks and set him up for a normal offseason.

tmh198: ETA on Anthony Eyanson? mid 2027?

Jason Martinez: I think it’s trending that way. Even without making any additions (I think they will add 1-2 SPs) in the offseason, the Orioles have enough good pitchers to fill out the rotation in April and then will give Eyanson an opportunity to force himself onto the MLB roster sometime in May or June.

We’ve seen guys dominate in AA and then take a step backwards for whatever reason. But a good month in AAA would ease those concerns. He’s been one of (if not the best) pitcher in the minors over the past few months.

dirtypuer: Can we credit the 2026 Mariners with killing the public perception of run differential as a meaningful metric?

Jon Becker: I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon. Plenty of people still treat RBI as a meaningful metric, for example, even though it’s been proven to not really be correlated with anything besides getting a bunch of RISP/runner on base opportunities (and I will admit to liking when players reach 100 RBI, round numbers are fun!). In the Mariners’ case they’re just one of those “eh, well, run differential isn’t perfect” outliers, because by run differential they “should” be worse than they are. I think run differential is a good starting point but elides a lot of context like position players pitching, some managers being more willing to punt a game, etc.

Tyler Madsen: The Cubs are looking at a bullpen crunch coming up when guys like Hoby Milner, Justin Steele, Edward Cabrera, and possibly even Shelby Miller are able to come back into the fold. They’ve used the long relief guys pretty well the past few weeks, but there are definitely only going to be a few spots for a lot of guys with arms. Nice problem to have but it’s still a problem, no?

Jason Martinez: It’s not quite the Dodgers’ situation — shaky bullpen and it probably doesn’t matter because they have so many good SPs — but the Cubs might have to get creative if their bullpen continues to be shaky. They have 5 good starters right now so they can probably rely on at least one piggyback in the playoffs.

Using Edward Cabrera in a multi-inning role would help but he’s not very reliable. If Justin Steele can give them 2-3 innings at a time, that would be huge. Shelby Miller has looked dominant on his rehab assignment so that’s a great sign. But temper expectations for now. It would be a quick return from elbow surgery. Palencia has plenty of time to get back on track and they’ll hope that Webb can bounce back after a few bad outings.

I wouldn’t be too worried right now. Bullpen situations can change quickly. Dodgers ‘pen was a mess in ’24 and then they all figured it out by the post-season.

Eshan Mehere: Would playing Luis Garcia at 3B to accomodate having all 4 of Judge Grisham Bellinger and Jones in the lineup make sense

Jon Becker: I don’t think this’ll happen. García’s been 1B-only all year and was an atrocious second baseman so I can’t fathom how bad he’d be learning 3B on the fly. Jones has been a lot better lately (after multiple weeks of me saying he was in risk of getting optioned down, whoops) but I think Judge getting activated will cut into his playing time more than anyone else’s and they’ll just have to figure out how to juggle off days to get everyone in there.

Baseball Learner: Is heliot ramos down to being the short side of a platoon? Pretty sad considering the prospect capital it took to acquire him

Jason Martinez: Seems that way, at least while Spencer Jones is doing well. Yankees weren’t going to rely on Jones so adding Ramos, who was above-average vs RHP and LHP last season, seemed like a better option even if he hasn’t done much vs RHP in 2026.

At the very least, he fills a bigger role vs LHP now that Stanton is unlikely to return. And he’s under team control thru 2029 so the price was going to be costly. He’ll still have some trade value this offseason if they don’t think he’ll be a fit going forward.

Mo: Will Trevor Story get his starting SS job back?

Jon Becker: I think he’ll have to earn it, even if he’s there for the first few games upon activation. I don’t really care too much about how a player performs on rehab but it’s nonetheless hard to ignore how bad he’s been, and Sogard/Monasterio have been pretty good lately. At the end of the day they should be putting the best lineup on the field, not the one with the biggest names.

mike sixel: How should a team handle a situation like Buxton, a guy who is hurt, but wants to play? Like, they are literally losing games because they refuse to IL him and are playing a guy in CF who has no business out there? This happens month after  month, year after year with this team, and they refuse to change.

Jason Martinez: We have a very similar example in Mike Trout, who became a full-time DH during his age-33 season. That is the age Buxton will be in 2027. With the expectation that Walker Jenkins will be on the roster for most (if not all) of 2027, moving Buxton to the DH spot on a nearly full-time basis is a strong possibility. Not only did DHing allow Trout to have his most PAs (556)  since 2019, he is healthy and playing CF again in 2026. So the results have been positive. Could be the selling point for Buxton to be fine with a change.

BirdsFan: Please rank who will be D-backs closer next year out of Garcia, Morillo, J-Mart, or someone else?

Jon Becker: Always the possibility of an outside acquisition of course, but of those three I’d say Martinez, Morillo, Garcia from most to least likely. It’s tougher for a lefty to emerge as a closer, I think, because teams really like to have that guy available for a pocket earlier in games if needed, and the D’backs don’t have a reliable second lefty unless Saalfrank comes back from his shoulder surgery without missing a beat.

Jacob Albritton: Jason- A follow up to the Campusano/Fermin/Salas question from 2 weeks ago. I agree on the points about the Padres valuing catcher defense. So couldn’t they have Campy and Salas split time behind the dish against righties and Fermin catch w/Campy at DH vs lefties? Each guy catches roughly 1/3 of games. They’d always have Campy’s bat in the lineup, a soft intro for Salas in terms of defensive responsibility, and amazing depth?

Jason Martinez: As good as Campy’s number are this season, they haven’t done this in 2026 and it’s not a common thing for any team. Even when a catcher plays almost every day as the C or DH (Raleigh, Goodman), their team doesn’t carry 3 catchers. Teams like having defensive versatility on the bench.

The Padres did temporarily go with 3 catchers a few weeks back and I don’t think Campy was the DH in any of those games. Fermin is also playing more often than him now and he’s in a 1-for-17 slump. Hopefully, he finishes strong and the Padres would be able to use whatever his final numbers are (800+ OPS) in addition to his improved defense to get a good return (if they choose to trade him).

It’s not out of the question to go with 3 but I do think they’re planning on either a Salas/Fermin or Salas/Campy catching duo. And I’d be pretty happy with either.

Jason Martinez: That will do it for today. We’ll be back next Thursday.