Yesterday, I wrote up the information that David Robertson had signed with the Phillies. In my (and, I assume, everybody else’s) favourite paragraph, I discussed that a number of groups had reportedly been in on the veteran right-hander. Ken Rosenthal and Jon Heyman mixed to say curiosity from the Mets, Yankees, Crimson Sox, Tigers, and “many others.” Relying in your perspective, this marked both the final We Tried of the 2025 free company interval or the primary of the commerce deadline interval. As a fast refresher, We Tried is a catch-all time period for any time we discover out, after a participant has ended up with one group, that one other group additionally tried to land them. In its purest kind, the We Tried is a entrance workplace’s bid for partial credit score, an try to curry favor with the followers by demonstrating that it’s making an attempt to construct a winner for them. I spent the offseason documenting every one in a disturbingly complete spreadsheet.
I didn’t make a meal of this yesterday, primarily as a result of Robertson’s free company was an actual outlier. The offseason ended months in the past. He’s a 40-year-old reliever who didn’t get a proposal he liked, so he stayed in form and spent the spring hanging out along with his household, then held a exercise for groups on Saturday with a view to signal earlier than the deadline. Numerous groups had been in on him and plenty of groups confirmed as much as watch him pitch, so phrase of who was there was sure to come back out sooner or later. It positively represented a We Tried, however it didn’t appear earth-shattering, and it was certainly not a typical one.
Then I checked my telephone this morning. Each Craig Goldstein and Daniel R. Epstein of Baseball Prospectus had tagged me on an article by Tim Healey of the Boston Globe, and people, I can verify that discovering your individuals is an excellent feeling. Right here’s the headline that made Craig and Dan consider me:
It appeared like we had been veering into conventional We Tried territory. Not solely had been the Crimson Sox in on Robertson, we had been getting what feels like basic team-speak about how very arduous they tried. Once I first launched the idea of the tracker, the Crimson Sox had been extensively predicted to be the favourite, and so they greater than lived as much as that billing. For no matter motive, the Boston entrance workplace has lengthy held a coverage of radical transparency, a minimum of relating to whiffs on free brokers. This coverage predates the Craig Breslow period, however it has definitely continued below his steely gaze. Over the offseason, the Crimson Sox led all groups with 13 We Trieds, and the Padres and the Blue Jays had been the one different groups to succeed in 9. The Crimson Sox had extra We Trieds than the underside 14 groups mixed.
Understanding all that, if all you learn of Healey’s article was the headline, you’d understandably assume that this was extra of the identical, however that’s not what occurred. The Crimson Sox didn’t leak it. The Phillies occurred to be enjoying the Crimson Sox on Monday, and Robertson spoke to reporters within the dugout at Residents Financial institution Park earlier than the sport. The truth that the Crimson Sox had been in on him had already been reported, so it was comprehensible {that a} Boston author would ask about it. Robertson confirmed that Breslow himself was on the exercise on Saturday, persevering with, “Bres is a good man. The Boston Crimson Sox are an excellent group. It didn’t work out for my household to go there this yr. It was an excellent pitch. Everyone had a superb pitch. I simply needed to go the place I felt snug and the place it felt proper for me and my household.”
That makes Robertson simply the second participant to substantiate his personal We Tried since we began this train. The primary was Carlos Santana, one other extremely regarded, closely recruited elder statesman. Evidently solely when you attain your late 30s are you allowed to sound like a human being and inform the sincere reality about your decision-making course of throughout free company. Robertson additionally talked about that one of many causes he waited till now to signal was that he didn’t wish to be moved on the deadline, revealing that he thought of retirement after the Mets traded him to the Marlins in 2023. Understanding this, I really feel duty-bound to say that the Phillies have the possibility to do the funniest factor ever. They completely shouldn’t commerce Robertson on July 31. It could be extraordinarily uncool. It could be downright merciless. However it will even be fairly humorous.
As Robertson’s state of affairs illustrates, it’s arduous to say what number of extra We Trieds we’ll see over the subsequent week and alter. The motivations and the timeframe are very totally different at this level within the season. Through the offseason, everyone’s anticipating so as to add a minimum of a couple of gamers, so if you whiff on one, letting your followers know that you just had been in on them represents an implicit assurance that you just’ll get the subsequent one. The compressed timeframe of the commerce deadline, with tons of offers being introduced at and even after the final minute, means there’s no future to reassure the followers about. It’s the final probability. Both you traded for somebody otherwise you didn’t, and saying that you just had designs on a participant who went to a different contender is extra more likely to make it appear like you weren’t dedicated strongly sufficient to get the deal accomplished. It’s additionally trickier to execute a We Tried on a commerce. You don’t wish to alienate your personal gamers by saying that you just nearly traded them away or practically acquired somebody to take their spot. You don’t wish to upset different groups by saying that they nearly traded one among their gamers. You don’t wish to touch upon gamers or groups in your division or with whom you’ll be competing for a playoff spot.
For all of those causes, we’re not saying a “We Tried Tracker, Commerce Deadline Version: F— It, We Ball” – a minimum of not but. However I will probably be preserving my eyes open for We Trieds as deadline offers begin flying, and I humbly request that you just do the identical and let me know when you spot one. You possibly can attain me on Bluesky and you may electronic mail me at WeTriedTracker@gmail.com. As all the time, I remind you that it is a actual electronic mail deal with that I actually test. On that word, whoever is liable for the a whole lot of spam emails I’ve obtained, which consist nearly totally of climate updates for Cook dinner County, Illinois, and job postings addressed to a presumably fictional particular person named Michael Anderson, you’re formally lifeless to me.
In order that’s the place we’re. We aren’t beginning a We Tried Tracker for the commerce deadline, however we’re formally interested by it, so I would like you to place the phrase on the market that we again up. Presumably. I would like you to place the phrase on the market that we could presumably be again up. I can’t say for sure that it’s going to occur, however I can promise you that I’ll attempt.