Whelp, I don’t know about your rooting innerests but the Feesh have got some weird stuff to do this orfseason. They will be replacing an even dozen free agent or retirement holes in the roster, trying to protect their best bambinos from the depredations of the Rule 5 draft, and looking to sign some more overpriced scrapheap relcamations while still trying to appear frugal in the process.
Often being mentioned now as possible acquisitions are Howie Kendricks, Didi Gregorius, Eric Thames and maybe even Sergio Romo (redux).
A more likely acquisition than Kendricks might be Didi Gregorius, but I think he’ll find more enthusiastic “pillow contract” offers from more desirable markets than this one. This is the flip side of tanking, folks – you get a crack at the hot prospects but you continue to stink in the meantime, and guys like Didi – who might be amenable to being overpaid in other circumstances – are reluctant to wear the gauze mask even for the money, including the maybe 4-8% kicker from skipping state income taxes for 81 games. I give Kendricks a no chance, and Gregorius maybe 25%.
Romo? He’s got late and post season creds to strut. I find it hard to believe a more attractive offer won’t arrive on his doorstep than the one from the echo-forming cavern of Macondo Banana Massacre Field could offer.
As far as that 40-man roster issue, the team incredibly seems intent on hanging on to Louis Brinson for another season! Brinson’s slash line isn’t much better than a Z that stands for Zero. To protect him on the 40 man roster and let some other valuable prospect be taken instead doesn’t make sense to me. I once read that Juan Peron, the late unlamented Argentine dictator, had his infamous wife Evita embalmed and while he was in exile in Spain used to bring her pickled cadaver down to dinner with him and seat her at the table when “they” had guests. At this point keeping Brinson on the 40-man roster kinda reminds me of that story somehow.
Meanwhile, it sounds like allasudden the front orifice expects newly acquired former Brooze Rowson to play Annie Sullivan to Brinson’s Helen Keller. I don’t doubt he’s very good at what he does; he’s got the Brooze to prove it. Even so, there are good coaches and great coaches but I can’t think of any miracle workers behind the cage. He’s a coach, not a re-animator. If you’re going to keep Brinson regardless of how badly he’s failed, hell, just go whole hog and hire H. P. Lovecraft to mentor him. The Old Ones created baseball on Earth as a joke anyway.
So, how are your teams approaching the orfseason, folkses?
Fan Interference 
Rays have 37 players of the 40 man under control for next year, only three hitting free agency. They might re-sign d’Arnaud, which would then make 38. They might nontender Duffy and Zunino—but would then need a backup catcher. The Rays are considered a potential fit for Howie Kendricks—he’d be a massive upgrade at DH for not a lot of money, relatively speaking. They’ll also have $69-75M committed before signing any free agent. As a result, other than Kendrick, there’s unlikely to be much free agency shopping by them, even in the shallow end of the pool they normally inhabit. There may be a trade or two, but the 2020 Rays will closely resemble the 2019 ones. It’s expected they’ll try to get Meadows and Adames to sign long term deals—we’ll see if they bite. The 37 guys under control include 4 multi-year deals, 9 arbitration eligible players (including Zunino and Duffy), and 24(!) pre-arb players—most whom will make league minimum or close to it.
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Well, the Tigers have cut some chum, which they most certainly re-ingest at a lower payroll. I assume they will continue to be oblivious about constructing a bullpen and hope that we suddenly develop a starting rotation that can throw 8 great innings every time. That way they can continue to focus on the tryouts in the outfield.
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