[Highlander]

Early Offseason Roster Moves/Contracts

Besides Luis Garcia, we had one other pitcher who I totally forgot that retired at season's end and seemingly was taken off the stat report because of that. Huascar Brazoban has officially retired and, while he spent the whole season with us, he was just awful. I tried to use him only in blowouts but because he was on the roster all year, he was forced into action more often than that. In 57 IP he had a 7.74 ERA! I don't understand why he wasn't released but David Stearns seems to like who he likes, the team be damned (MJ Melendez on the offense side is another!).

- We did not take the team option on Luis Robert so he will be a Free Agent.

- The following players appear to be heading to free agency as no extension has been signed as of 11/14/26- AJ Minter, David Peterson, Freddy Peralta, Brooks Raley, Tyrone Taylor, Luis Torrens, Mike Tauchman, Ben Rortvedt, Vidal Brujan, Joe Jacques, Austin Warren, Christian Pache

- The following players were signed to extensions or have an Auto-renew contract- Francisco Alvarez (5 years, 90.1M), Alex Faedo (Auto-renew at 2.4M...yuck!), Jared Young (Auto-renew at 1.1M), Kevin Kelly (1 year, 1.5M), Sam Moll (1 year, 1.3M...double yuck!!), Nolan McLean (Auto-renew at 792K), Adbert Alzolay (1 year, 2.6M), Brett Baty (1 year, 3.1M), Mark Vientos (5 years, 58.4M), Christian Arroyo (1 year, 1.6M...really?)

Everyone else either has an existing contract that keeps them with the team at least one more year or is still under team control. A few questionable decisions on Faedo, Moll and Arroyo, but the others I am good with. I'd like to see us sign Peralta, Torrens and maybe Peterson who did pretty well in a relief role and can be a swing man. We will see what Mr. Stearns has in store as the offseason progresses.

At this point, we seem to be in need of bullpen help (especially with Williams out to start the season and losing a number of guys from last season). Centerfield is a need with Robert being let go, but AJ Ewing had a strong year in AAA so maybe he is in the plans. With Tauchman and Taylor leaving, we will need OF depth as well. Infield depth could be better too. The bullpen is the only real place where I'd see a need for a real top notch pickup or two, though.