Three Players Who Seized An Opportunity In 2025

[Tjwalsh65]

Assuming we keep Ryan and Lopez I think trading Ober would be a good idea.   He may well have peeked.  Get bullpen or lineup help.

[Doctor Wu]

22 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

To me, it’s the 4 guys from last year in the rotation (Looez-Ryan-Ober-SWR) along with Bradley.

Matthews to the PEN in a Griffin Jax, high leverage role. Can throw hard in short bursts and would only need 2-3 effective pitches & there’s a big hole. He has options if they need to adjust on the fly.

Abel, on paper, is the 6th rotation guy…….Festa being next if healthy enough?

Matthews - Sands - Funderburk - Topa - Roya - Prielipp - Morris - Adams - Lawyerson & couple FA’s in the PEN mix.

I hadn't thought about Zebby as a bullpen piece, but ... hmm .... that might work!

[Doctor Wu]

20 hours ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Agree. Funderburk is a lock for the 2026 bullpen, might even get closing opportunities if we can get another LH like Coulombe in the off season. What about Cody Laweryson? Small sample size for sure (5 app, 7.2, IP, 1.17 ERA, 0.53 WHIP), but he looked the part of a competent reliever, maybe even a late inning guy. That's a major step up for a guy who aa 27 year old afterthought going into this year. Also, Ohl's stats weren't great because of a couple of blow ups early, but he looked like a real potential bullpen option the last month.  

You are right, Laweryson did look very good in his short stint in the bullpen. Is it sustainable? Only one way to find out. And as you noted, Ohl might be a useful piece next season too. We need to find more bullpen arms from somewhere, and we might have a few keepers already. 

[Chembry]

On 10/6/2025 at 11:48 AM, srlarson said:

Sorry Clemens is a AAA player.....  hitting .218 is not a mlb bat.........  Martin is at best a platoon player, 4th outfielder......first year in a long time...didn't get to a game....not sure about next year....

First, let me say that we agree that Clemens shouldn't be an everyday starter, but I do think he is a decent bench piece. 

I think perceptions on batting average need to change a bit.  MLB league wide batting average was .245 for 2025. The days of multiple guys having averages >.300 with 30+ HRs are long gone. This year only 7 guys in MLB had averages at .300 or above (Judge, Bichette, Jacob Wilson, Springer, Jeremy Pena, Trea Turner, and Yandy Diaz).  Compare that to the year 2000 (I just picked a year). League average was .270 and 53 players hit at or above .300...

Clemens really wasn't that far off from league average in terms of batting average.  The difference between hitting .250 and .300 is about 1 hit/week.  Put that in terms of Clemens batting average.  He played May through September (5 months). Figure 4 weeks/month, that would be 20 more hits in 2025.  Those 20 hits would bump his average up to .270, which is well above league average.  He would have only needed 11 more hits over 5 months to be at league average.  That tells you that the margin is very thin. 

There are other stats that support your statement (wRC+, xBA, etc...) that show he was at replacement level.  But batting average is such a thin margin that our viewpoint can be a bit skewed.