Building a Team from the Remaining Free Agents

April 12, 2022

Each year, there is some talk about the expansion of Major League Baseball. Typically, it’s around which city will be the next to get a team. I’m not talking about Oakland getting rid of all their players and heading to Las Vegas like Hunter S Thompson. I’m talking about new teams in the league. But one of the things talked about less is stretching the talent pool too thin. As I was spending the White Sox off day perusing the free agents, I thought it might be fun to compile a team from just the remaining guys. This should give us some idea of the guys who will likely be on rosters if there were two more teams.

Infield

The infield is pretty rough. I think this shows how much teams value the infield and how difficult it is to find big league talent. The Jordy Mercer retirement hurts at SS, something I never thought I’d say.

C – Wilson Ramos
1B – Asdrubal Cabrera
2B – Joe Panik
SS – Mike Freeman
3B – Starlin Castro

Designated Hitter

I don’t hate this platoon. Should be good for some power.

DH/1B – Mitch Moreland
DH/OF – Khris Davis (I know he’s in the Mexican League, but much like Jake Taylor I think we can bring him back to the bigs)

Outfield

The outfield has some decent names. Will it have decent production? Who knows

RF – Michael Conforto
CF – Jarrod Dyson
LF – Justin Upton

Bench

We are praying that our Short Stop does not get injured.

C – Kevan Smith
OF – Brett Gardner
OF – Brian Goodwin
UTIL – Eric Sogard

Starting Pitcher

Oh boy, this is where we’re gonna have problems.

SP – Brett Anderson
SP – J.A. Happ
SP – Trevor Cahill
SP – Mike Foltynewicz
SP – Jake Arrieta

Relief Pitcher

This is always a crap shoot, but a bunch of these guys have been at least ok during their careers. Let’s make some magic happen.

CL – Trevor Rosenthal (RHP)
RP – Tony Watson (LHP)
RP – Yusmeiro Petit (RHP)
RP – Brandon Kintzler (RHP)
RP – Evan Marshall (RHP)
RP – Josh Tomlin (RHP)
RP – Ross Detwiler (LHP)
RP – Tommy Hunter (RHP)
RP – Luke Farrell (RHP)

The Squad

This is a bad team. But there are some decent players in here, which makes me wonder why some of these guys have not found a job. Also, this team can probably be improved as teams go back down to 26 man rosters and shed some out of options players. Overall, I’d say that currently, there is not enough talent to field 2 extra teams. But what do I know? It could be that more open spots allows for more players to be developed and we’ll get more surprise stars. I’m all for that. Though I’m guessing you’ll just see an overall decline in talent.

Oh did I mention, I hired Rick Renteria to manage the team.