Keep Larnach and DH him. OF should be Jenkins, Buxton and E-Rod. No need to worry about over-crowding because one of Buxton or E-Rod will probably always be in the IL
They pretty much have to decide between Ober and Kramer. It doesn't make sense to pay them both $7 million and block Preliepp/Abel. At the moment it would lean strongly in favor of Kramer.
Mathews and Festa should both move to the bullpen.
Clemons doesn't need to play every day. He's been mostly terrible for 2 months. Put Keashall back at 2B. Problem solved. Or just IL Buxton again, since he's clearly not right.
You were fortunate enough to have him clear waivers. Why on earth would you call him up and risk having to do it over again? Even if you are stupidly insistent on not calling up Jenkins, at least call up Gonzalez.
Put him back at 2B. His defensive stats are not nearly as bad there as in the OF, and he won't be competing with Jenkins and E-Rod for playing time in 2027 the way he will if you leave him in the OF.
For 2027, I would play him ~80 games at 2B and 60 at DH. I envision the DH starts as something like:
70 Larnach
60 Keaschall
15 Lewis
15 Buxton
Clemons starts ~70 at 2B and 40 at 1B.
Doing that would have left us with a $50 million payroll and zero fan base the season before a likely lockout.
You can't have such prospect blinders on that you completely destroy the business side of the franchise in pursuit of precious precious prospect lottery tickets, 80% of which will bust.
No. I want him to play CF every day until Buxton is back, LF against RH once Buxton is back and CF again when Buxton gets re-injured. Larnach/Bell can platoon the DH spot for however long Buxton is in the line-up.
Jackson is fine, but he's not playing at all. And keeping a career .174 hitting 3rd catcher on your roster for 2 months just because you'd like him to be your back-up NEXT year is very hard to defend if you fancy yourself as trying to make the play-offs. He's easy to replace in the off-season and there's a non-zero chance he'll pass through waivers again given his $2 million + salary.
If Ryan is back, I see them choosing between Ober and Kremer and only tendering one of them. They will both make ~$7 million and if you keep them both plus Ryan, Lopez and Bradley there's no spots for Abel, Prelipp etc.
I would still sign him to an extension. Albeit at a slight discount from where I would have been 3 weeks ago.
2027: $18 million (a ~$6 million premium on what he'd make in arbitration)
2028: $20
2029: $22
2030: $24
Total: 4 years/$84 million
Nice win. Would be nice to see them shore up some roster spots. Get Jenkins up here for Jackson. And Rogers is cooked and I've seen enough of Adams. Get Rojas and Raya up instead.
Martin has potential to be a good 4th OF'er but he does too many little things poorly. Can't get a bunt down. Doesn't score despite being waved in on Friday etc. He's out of options next year, and I hope Gabby Gonzalez is ahead of him as the RH bench OF'er.
I think Keashall ends up as a super utility. Something like 40 games at 2B, 30 in RF 30 in CF. He's not good on defense in any of them, he's tolerable as long as he's hitting.