The Great Hambino

I briefly thought about that event (I'm assuming this was before the Friday Padres game?) but life got in the way. Sounds like it went exactly how I thought it would. But did he really say he's waiting for the ownership situation to finalize? And then he'll start ... what, exactly? Picking a direction? Updating his resume? Doesn't sound good for those hoping for a competitive 2026

If they were planning on using their prospect pool to acquire relievers in trade, they wouldn't have dealt the entire bullpen in the first place - especially not Varland. They're not going to turn around and make the same trades in reverse just a couple months later. If you want to realistic plan for rebuilding the bullpen, I think you have to limit it to internal development and free agents. I'm on record what I think about the viability of this plan, but I'll play along here. First, the rotation needs to be sorted out, since the excess from that process will be your internal bullpen options. Lopez/Ryan (they're not keeping both, so let's split the difference and say they keep one and the other brings back some hitting), Ober, Matthews, SWR, Bradley are the leaders in the clubhouse for the opening day rotation. From there, you need to identify who of your excess starters you want to keep developing as such to be the next men up from St Paul, and who maybe profiles better as a reliever. Abel and Rojas to me are locks to at least continue to be developed as starters - probably Culpepper too - while I think some of the guys with arm talent but injury issues should be sent to reliever bootcamp immediately. There, I'm thinking Prielipp and Festa. Even if they still have starter potential, if the goal is to be competitive next year, then you can't just wait on the rotation sorting itself out. Some have to go to the pen straight away. And putting the injury risks in the bullpen just seems like a smart way to play the odds. Hopefully in short bursts their stuff plays up to something approximating closer/primary setup man results. And you're going to need to find some relievers of that caliber from your starter prospects right away, because you're not finding that in the current bullpen options. Sands and Funderburk (if you're relying on Topa, you're not competitive) may very well be able to fill bullpen roles, but not to be one of your top 3 high-leverage shutdown relievers. So we now have 4 relievers in Sands, Funderburk, Prielipp, and Festa. That leaves 4 spots that need to be filled either from free agency or whomever is left behind in the starter development race. If you get a couple free agents, at least one has to be of the closer/primary setup variety - and historically the results of that are mixed at best. Internally, that leaves guys like Raya, Morris, Adams, Ohl, and who else - is Canterino still alive? - that you're hoping can swiftly transition from starter development to being an effective piece of the bullpen. And that's why building a competitive bullpen for next year is really a tough needle to thread - you have to identify the guys you want to transition from starter AND they have to become effective in their new role in a short time frame. You can't wait until June to identify them as you might already be out of contention by then, and it's a pretty tall ask to expect multiple prospects to go from starter to effective reliever immediately. Even the recent success stories like Duran, Jax, and Varland didn't make the switch overnight. It will probably take some time. Anyway, that's my best shot at a realistic (again, I don't think keeping all the starters and dealing prospects for relievers is realistic) bullpen for 2026

Good point about penalizing longevity. Derek Jeter is massively overrated as a defender (he coasted a long way on reputation due to one heads up play in the playoffs and a purdy-looking jump throw), but is he the worst fielder of all time (as fielding runs in the bWAR calculation would suggest)? No, not by a long shot. In his case, it just means he was allowed to stay at SS for waaaaaaay too long. I think it also penalizes, in a way, versatility. Playing a position that is not your finest in order to help the team put its best lineup out there has some value that I think could be captured in some way. I'm thinking about Cuddyer here

At least you got a souvenir

I did that once at the dome as part of a fundraiser. We got a (I'm sure it was small) percentage of the sales. There are worse places to spend an afternoon than the back of a Metrodome kitchen. I'm not sure what they are, exactly, but I'm sure they exist

Sox should use a position player here

It's from this documentary I saw about how the 1939 New York Knights turned their season around. They made a book out of it. Completely changed the ending. Made no sense

For me, the rut is silent

That's ... really specific (my volume is off if that's a broadcast reference)

He entered the game with an 18.00 ERA. I figured there'd be some regression to the mean. Now I'm afraid I was right

They're definitely related right?

So you're saying Tonkin's the problem? It all makes sense now

Noah Davis, about time he gets a look!

WOW that is one empty ballpark

Very plausible

No one does. The production truck couldn't be bothered to track the last homer until it already landed in the bullpen. Even the dogs look bored

Down the Hatch A double shot of jack

I feel like they've been featuring Pablo a lot with their charity and human interest stuff on broadcasts, like with the dogs and him roaming the concourse talking to fans. I've been pretty convinced that they're going to trade him ever since The Purge, but I'm now starting to get the feeling that they're going to keep him next year. Just a gut feeling. They'll think that qualifies as catering to the fans

And the umpire slides safely into third

A real Cesar Tovar

Flipped it on just in time to see Fitzgerald blow one right by Martin. Maybe he can be an answer in the bullpen

First Arch, now Belichick - not a great weekend for hype trains

Might as well have brought up Matt Mikulski I guess if you really want to squint hard enough you could see Adams auditioning for a bullpen slot making sense. He sure as hell isn't cracking the rotation unless things go terribly wrong next year. The others ... why do we even bother?

Not possible. Seppuku is an act of honor But, yeah. For what? Just a reminder for those that insist bullpens can be easily rebuilt on the fly: all the plans where that takes place that have been discussed here rely on at least two of Funderburk, Topa, and Sands being reliable late-inning options, at least in the first part of next year. That's what you're banking on happening.