Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober Are Not Inspiring the Most Confidence This Spring

[jmlease1]

On 3/14/2026 at 4:37 PM, PatPfund said:

I get not offering Ober arbitration was a bit of a hot take, BUT… this team has a budget issue, and paying Ober (who may be washed up) and Larnach (who is MLB-mediocre on O and defensively unplayable) $9 million is a waste of money. You could have signed Ober for less (with performance bonuses), let Larnach go, and had enough money to sign someone like Littell or Giolito to fill the gap that popped up.

Technically, this is true, but the reality is when you decline to offer arbitration to a player, they are gone. If nothing else, pride gets in the way (as seen by Eddie Rosario and other players across MLB). They'll take less from someone else rather than go back to the club that "didn't believe in them".

And frankly, it's exceptionally likely that someone else would have made an offer on Ober that would have been at least at his arbitration number, considering the shortage in starting pitching across the league. As disappointing as Ober was in 2025, there are still plenty of teams that would have killed to have him as their 5th starter.