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It feels silly being so negative about a season I led almost wire to wire, but god damn if I didn't do my best to fuck up a great keeper list.
I am assuming you all know the RJEL contract structure, it's pretty normal and I can't imagine there are too many users here who haven't been exposed to it before.
Preseason trade:
Hunter Brown 2B and Carlos Rodon 13/2025 for Willy Adames 9X, since I had too many keepers and too many of them were pitchers. Assessment: pretty fair for both sides. Both of those pitchers had good seasons and if he'd extended Brown it would have paid off, and Adames was great.
Keepers:
Pete Alonso 13X
Vladimir Guerrero Jr 24/2026
Matt McLain 5A (got hurt the day after keepers were due)
Fernando Tatis 23/2026
Willy Adames 9X
Tarik Skubal 5B
George Kirby 5B
Clay Holmes 1X
Tanner Bibee 4A
Bryan Woo 3B
Mead, Luciano, and Tiedemann in the minors, all of whom I expected to contribute this year. (sigh) Pages did end up helping at least.
Auction:
Yelich 37
Will Smith C 17
Hader 28
Buehler 25
I had told myself I wasn't going to take an expensive SP but talked myself into Buehler somehow. Especially annoying in retrospect because I remember wanting to be in on Imanaga, who went for 14, but didn't really have room for him.
Buxton 27
He looked really good in spring training and I got excited. Doig pushed me way over what I wanted to spend but all of the top-end I wanted was gone by then.
Jorge Polanco 14 (oof)
Fraley 11
LaMonte Wade 3
Soroka 1
Minter 1
Houck 1
Tyler Freeman 1
Vierling 1
Both of them qualified at 3B, which I needed.
Jake Meyers 1
Heyward 1
Toglia 1
Manning 1
Brash 1
And then the fuckups started.
Transaction highlights:
Trying to fix 2B/SS/3B without McLain and Polanco
4/1: cut Vierling for Trey Lipscomb
4/8: picked up Ernie Clement
4/15: picked up Wenceel Perez.
4/22: cut Wenceel Perez
4/22: cut Toglia, picked up Buddy Kennedy
5/10: traded Jake Meyers 1A, Curtis Mead 5-minors for Orlando Arcia 6A
5/17: traded Harrison Bader 4A and a 4th round ML pick for Thairo Estrada 2X and a 6th
5/20: cut Ernie Clement to pick up Yoan Moncada, who was definitely just about to return
5/27: picked up Otto Lopez
5/27: picked up David Hamilton after someone else had picked him up for $13 and then cut him
5/27: cut Polanco
6/13: cut Arcia
6/24: picked up Daniel Schneemann
7/15: picked up Jose Iglesias
7/22: cut Otto Lopez
7/31: traded Houck 1A, Luis Garcia (HOU P) 1A for Ryan Mountcastle 6X, Ezequiel Tovar 7X
8/12: cut Iglesias, picked up Jonah Bride
9/2: picked up Urshela
9/9: cut Bride, picked up Taylor Walls
9/16: cut Walls, picked up Lenyn Sosa
I used about ten guys in that list and Hamilton was the only one who was better than the guy he replaced. Even Tovar was bad after I got him. I was way too attached to Tyler Freeman for a while. Lenyn Sosa did go on a nice heater right at the end of the season. Toglia would have been nice to have around at $1.
Good pitching pickups
4/1: picked up Jose Soriano $1, which was quite good when healthy
4/8: picked up Turnbull $2, which was good when healthy
5/20: picked up Luis Garcia (HOU P) $1, which was a good trade chip
6/3: picked up Poteet $3, which was good when healthy
6/24: picked up Ryne Nelson $2, which was great, right before his season turned
8/12: picked up Matt Boyd
8/12: picked up Seranthony Dominguez $4, right before he took over for Kimbrel
There were some bad ones also, but those guys gave me 277 innings of 3.29 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 14 W, 8 SV, 265 K, which is basically 150% of Max Fried's season.
Good hitting pickups
Literally none other than Hamilton's SBs and 41 at bats from Lenyn Sosa. I guess a couple good months out of Connor Joe early in the season. My combined hitting acquisitions, including trades, with one exception put up a combined .225/.274/.377 over 1734 AB with 52 HR and 42 SB, 26 of which were Hamilton..
Other trades
4/22: traded Marco Luciano (5-minors) and Ceddanne Rafaela (5-minors) for Luis Castillo 17X, mostly because I didn't really have room to activate either of them and Rafaela's Statcast numbers were awful. Assessment: Castillo was fine but I didn't really need SP help. There were a lot of weeks where having Rafaela would have helped fill in a lineup hole and he was very good other than OBP. But it's hard to find people already willing to sell in April and Castillo was the best useful player I could get.
5/26: traded Tanner Bibee 4A for Edwin Diaz 11B right after Diaz had a few bad games in a row then got hurt or suspended, I forget which came first. Turned out fair for both sides.
Really the only move that mattered
5/5: traded Matt McLain 5A, Samuel Zavala 5-minors, 3rd round pick for Shohei Ohtani 52X, Harrison Bader 3A, 5th round pick. Rick had both Ohtani and Betts available and Betts would have fit my team better (see that whole section about 2B above) but I couldn't resist Ohtani. Andy made a much better trade than I did for Betts but then he got hurt for a long time and Ohtani did his thing.
Ended up second in all of the pitching categories except tied for first in wins, second in OBP/R, 7th in HR, 6th in RBI, 4th in SB. Ohtani's September alone was worth 10 points in the standings.
In summary, that was a lot of typing to avoid going to bed. You should get Ohtani. I can't imagine what he'll go for next season.
I am assuming you all know the RJEL contract structure, it's pretty normal and I can't imagine there are too many users here who haven't been exposed to it before.
Preseason trade:
Hunter Brown 2B and Carlos Rodon 13/2025 for Willy Adames 9X, since I had too many keepers and too many of them were pitchers. Assessment: pretty fair for both sides. Both of those pitchers had good seasons and if he'd extended Brown it would have paid off, and Adames was great.
Keepers:
Pete Alonso 13X
Vladimir Guerrero Jr 24/2026
Matt McLain 5A (got hurt the day after keepers were due)
Fernando Tatis 23/2026
Willy Adames 9X
Tarik Skubal 5B
George Kirby 5B
Clay Holmes 1X
Tanner Bibee 4A
Bryan Woo 3B
Mead, Luciano, and Tiedemann in the minors, all of whom I expected to contribute this year. (sigh) Pages did end up helping at least.
Auction:
Yelich 37
Will Smith C 17
Hader 28
Buehler 25
I had told myself I wasn't going to take an expensive SP but talked myself into Buehler somehow. Especially annoying in retrospect because I remember wanting to be in on Imanaga, who went for 14, but didn't really have room for him.
Buxton 27
He looked really good in spring training and I got excited. Doig pushed me way over what I wanted to spend but all of the top-end I wanted was gone by then.
Jorge Polanco 14 (oof)
Fraley 11
LaMonte Wade 3
Soroka 1
Minter 1
Houck 1
Tyler Freeman 1
Vierling 1
Both of them qualified at 3B, which I needed.
Jake Meyers 1
Heyward 1
Toglia 1
Manning 1
Brash 1
And then the fuckups started.
Transaction highlights:
Trying to fix 2B/SS/3B without McLain and Polanco
4/1: cut Vierling for Trey Lipscomb
4/8: picked up Ernie Clement
4/15: picked up Wenceel Perez.
4/22: cut Wenceel Perez
4/22: cut Toglia, picked up Buddy Kennedy
5/10: traded Jake Meyers 1A, Curtis Mead 5-minors for Orlando Arcia 6A
5/17: traded Harrison Bader 4A and a 4th round ML pick for Thairo Estrada 2X and a 6th
5/20: cut Ernie Clement to pick up Yoan Moncada, who was definitely just about to return
5/27: picked up Otto Lopez
5/27: picked up David Hamilton after someone else had picked him up for $13 and then cut him
5/27: cut Polanco
6/13: cut Arcia
6/24: picked up Daniel Schneemann
7/15: picked up Jose Iglesias
7/22: cut Otto Lopez
7/31: traded Houck 1A, Luis Garcia (HOU P) 1A for Ryan Mountcastle 6X, Ezequiel Tovar 7X
8/12: cut Iglesias, picked up Jonah Bride
9/2: picked up Urshela
9/9: cut Bride, picked up Taylor Walls
9/16: cut Walls, picked up Lenyn Sosa
I used about ten guys in that list and Hamilton was the only one who was better than the guy he replaced. Even Tovar was bad after I got him. I was way too attached to Tyler Freeman for a while. Lenyn Sosa did go on a nice heater right at the end of the season. Toglia would have been nice to have around at $1.
Good pitching pickups
4/1: picked up Jose Soriano $1, which was quite good when healthy
4/8: picked up Turnbull $2, which was good when healthy
5/20: picked up Luis Garcia (HOU P) $1, which was a good trade chip
6/3: picked up Poteet $3, which was good when healthy
6/24: picked up Ryne Nelson $2, which was great, right before his season turned
8/12: picked up Matt Boyd
8/12: picked up Seranthony Dominguez $4, right before he took over for Kimbrel
There were some bad ones also, but those guys gave me 277 innings of 3.29 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 14 W, 8 SV, 265 K, which is basically 150% of Max Fried's season.
Good hitting pickups
Literally none other than Hamilton's SBs and 41 at bats from Lenyn Sosa. I guess a couple good months out of Connor Joe early in the season. My combined hitting acquisitions, including trades, with one exception put up a combined .225/.274/.377 over 1734 AB with 52 HR and 42 SB, 26 of which were Hamilton..
Other trades
4/22: traded Marco Luciano (5-minors) and Ceddanne Rafaela (5-minors) for Luis Castillo 17X, mostly because I didn't really have room to activate either of them and Rafaela's Statcast numbers were awful. Assessment: Castillo was fine but I didn't really need SP help. There were a lot of weeks where having Rafaela would have helped fill in a lineup hole and he was very good other than OBP. But it's hard to find people already willing to sell in April and Castillo was the best useful player I could get.
5/26: traded Tanner Bibee 4A for Edwin Diaz 11B right after Diaz had a few bad games in a row then got hurt or suspended, I forget which came first. Turned out fair for both sides.
Really the only move that mattered
5/5: traded Matt McLain 5A, Samuel Zavala 5-minors, 3rd round pick for Shohei Ohtani 52X, Harrison Bader 3A, 5th round pick. Rick had both Ohtani and Betts available and Betts would have fit my team better (see that whole section about 2B above) but I couldn't resist Ohtani. Andy made a much better trade than I did for Betts but then he got hurt for a long time and Ohtani did his thing.
Ended up second in all of the pitching categories except tied for first in wins, second in OBP/R, 7th in HR, 6th in RBI, 4th in SB. Ohtani's September alone was worth 10 points in the standings.
In summary, that was a lot of typing to avoid going to bed. You should get Ohtani. I can't imagine what he'll go for next season.