The infield would look a lot better next year if it was Tork/Torres/McGonigle/Keith…. Anything less than that and we are grasping at straws trying to get league average production.
Nothing against Lee and Anderson, but we need to see what they can do pretty soon and the longer we piddle around with Sweeney/Ibanez/McKinstry/Vierling/Kriedler/etc., the more likely it is that they all regress to below replacement level. Jung needs to put it together next time he’s up in Detroit or he’s gonna end up Manning’d.
If we don’t make a deep playoff run this year, then I feel like the strategy needs to start shifting away from all of these plug and play types and start going more towards guys who can put together good at bats vs RH AND LH pitching consistently and less with the platooning. Carpenter is an obvious exception. A lot of these other guys have been good bridge guys to get us more competitive, but the next step will need to be taken by Spring 2027 at minimum with McG/Clark/Lee/Anderson/Briceno/Liranzo/etc. If we make it to ALCS and make that competitive at minimum, then you can justify running back all the Swiss Army knife players another year.