Whats up, and welcome to the mailbag! Matt Martell is taking some well-deserved
trip, so I’m piloting issues in his stead. This week noticed the new range flicker to life. The Mariners re-signed Josh Naylor to a five-year, $92.5 million deal, which impressed Davy Andrews to relaunch the We Tried tracker. The Orioles and the Angels received collectively on a stunning problem commerce, swapping Grayson Rodriguez and Taylor Ward, whereas the Braves introduced again Raisel Iglesias on a one-year, $16 million contract, then traded utility infielders with the Astros, buying Mauricio Dubón in change for Nick Allen.
It was additionally per week that noticed a wide range of roster-related deadlines come and go. Groups had till Tuesday to guard eligible prospects from the Rule 5 draft by including them to their 40-man roster, whereas Friday introduced the non-tender deadline. Tuesday additionally noticed 4 gamers settle for a qualifying supply. Brandon Woodruff, Trent Grisham, Gleyber Torres, and Shota Imanaga will return to their prior groups on one-year contracts value $22.025 million, eradicating them from the free pool. As Michael Baumann famous in his piece on the topic, that breaks the earlier report of three gamers set in 2015; 144 qualifying presents had been prolonged to pending free brokers within the first 14 years of the system, with solely 14 accepted.
We’ll cowl each main signing and commerce within the weeks forward, however this week’s mailbag isn’t targeted on transactions. As an alternative, we’ll ponder a participant who underperformed in 2025, the relative volatility of relievers and starters, and a controversial Corridor of Fame case. Earlier than we do, although, I’d wish to remind you that this mailbag is unique to FanGraphs Members. For those who aren’t but a Member and want to maintain studying, you’ll be able to join a Membership right here. It’s the easiest way to each expertise the location and assist our workers, and it comes with a bunch of different nice advantages. Additionally, for those who’d wish to ask a query for an upcoming mailbag, ship me an electronic mail at mailbag@fangraphs.com.