Breaker’s 2027 Payroll Blueprint: $157M Central Division Champs

[Breaker]

Sign Ryan Jeffers to a 3-year, $57M deal; trade Victor Caratini for a bag of sunflower seeds and eat $5M for the pleasure of doing so. Even if Lackey is ready by the beginning of 2028 (which is an awfully aggressive assumption), you can still cash in 2 years of Jeffers. or 1.5 years at the 2028 trade deadline. Or 1 year... you get the idea.

Trade/non-tender Royce Lewis, Trevor Larnach, Bailey Ober, and Cole Sands. Save yourself $19.6M. Trade/non-tender Austin Martin, too - it's time for something new.

Sign 3 relief pitchers for about $30M: Iglesias, ($17M) Soto ($10M), and take a flier on Alvarado ($3M). Put Zebby in the bullpen and have Reyes, Raya, and Festa pitching as 1-inning relievers in St. Paul as the next men up. Option Funderburk & Adams, if possible, or DFA them if not.

Give a 1-year, $10M make-good deal to Eugenio Suarez as your first baseman. He's got nearly as much upside as Bauers for 2028 with 1/4 of the risk in both money and years. Let Clemens play 2B; I don't want to go long-term with any 2B free agents with Marek Houston on his way up. 

The outfield & DH spots are a rotation of Buxton (CF/DH), Keaschall (LF/DH), Jenkins (RF/CF), Rodriguez (DH/all) & Roden (DH, COF). The 3 remaining bench spots go to Alex Jackson (C), Ryan Kreidler (SS, Util) & Gabriel Gonzalez (OF) to get another RH bat option.

Lopez, Ryan, and Bradley are, when healthy, a strong top 3. Kremer is a steady SP4, and Prielipp is a promising upside SP5. Mick Abel is SP6 and ready to step in if/when we trade Ryan or Ryan gets hurt in the second half. Riley Quick is SP7. Add one, two or three scrap heap SPs that you can sign to minor league deals to fill out the Saints rotation for when the inevitable injuries happen.

That's my first thoughts... if Jeffers can't be gotten, and he likely can't be, then everything changes.

• C: Ryan Jeffers ($19.00M)
• 1B: Eugenio Suarez ($10.00M)
• 2B: Kody Clemens ($3.60M)
• 3B: Brooks Lee ($1.00M)
• SS: Kaelen Culpepper ($1.00M)
• LF: Luke Keashall ($1.00M)
• CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M)
• RF: Walker Jenkins ($1.00M)
• DH: Emmanuel Rodriguez ($1.00M)
• 4th OF: Alan Roden ($1.00M)
• Utility: Gabriel Gonzalez ($1.00M)
• Utility: Ryan Kreidler ($1.00M)
• Backup C: Alex Jackson ($1.60M)
• POS: Dead Money Here - Caratini ($5.00M)
• SP1: Pablo Lopez ($21.50M)
• SP2: Joe Ryan ($9.60M)
• SP3: Taj Bradley ($4.50M)
• SP4: Dean Kremer ($6.50M)
• SP5: Connor Prielipp ($1.00M)
• RP: Jeff Hoffman ($7.25M)
• RP: Raisel Iglesias ($17.00M)
• RP: Gregory Soto ($10.00M)
• RP: Tommy Nance ($1.20M)
• RP: Yoendrys Gomez ($1.00M)
• RP: Andrew Morris ($1.00M)
• RP: Zebby Matthews ($1.00M)
• RP: Jose Alvarado ($3.00M)
• POS: Add Dead Money Here ($0.00M)

Payroll is 8.01% over budget