1 Offseason Do-Over Every MLB Team Wishes They Had
With the added benefit of nearly two months' worth of hindsight, we're taking a look back on the 2025-26 offseason to identify the one move (or non-move) where each team would like to have a mulligan.
For a few teams, it was a challenge to even pinpoint a clear misstep.
For a lot of teams, though, the difficulty was choosing from the several do-overs they would love to have, based on how things have played out through the first almost-one-third of this season.
Teams are presented in alphabetical order by location. Unless otherwise noted, statistics are current through the start of play Tuesday.
Arizona Diamondbacks
1 of 30
Offseason Regret: Not trading Ketel Marte
Could have gone a number of different ways with the first team on our list, as Arizona's decisions to re-sign both Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly haven't exactly gone according to plan. As it turns out, banking on 40-year-old Carlos Santana as the primary first baseman—when he had already regressed considerably last season—wasn't the soundest strategy, either.
But after all that winter meetings scuttlebutt about possibly trading away the six years and $103.5M left on Ketel Marte's contract—before he earned full no-trade rights in mid-April—the Diamondbacks opted to just let it ride with their three-time All-Star second baseman, hoping that the .887 OPS he had accumulated over the past three seasons would be a major piece of their puzzle for 2026 and beyond.
Instead, he has been one of their weakest links with a .654 OPS. And if he doesn't turn things around, that's going to become a bad contract that they are just stuck with through 2031.
The silver lining to this slow start is that June and July are typically when Marte does his best work. Perhaps Tuesday's walk-off home run was the beginning of him catching fire.
Athletics
2 of 30
Offseason Regret: Non-Tendering JJ Bleday
Parting with JJ Bleday before his first season of arbitration eligibility was an understandable move by the Athletics.
He had a modest .723 OPS in his three seasons with the franchise, and he wasn't providing much value on defense. Meanwhile, they had center fielder extraordinaire Denzel Clarke, as well as both Tyler Soderstrom and Lawrence Butler to man the corner outfield spots. It didn't make a ton of sense to keep Bleday at a projected price tag of $2.2M.
In hindsight, though? Oof.
Clarke has been on the IL for a month and had a .417 OPS when he got hurt. Both Soderstrom and Butler have been healthy, but unproductive, both batting below the Mendoza Line. Each of those three primary outfielders has amounted to a negative bWAR.
And then there's Bleday, who got scooped up by the Reds and posted a 1.120 OPS for a few weeks at Triple-A before racking up six home runs and a 1.241 OPS in his first 17 games back in the majors.
Atlanta Braves
3 of 30
Offseason Regret: Not Extending Drake Baldwin
When Ronald Acuña Jr. won NL Rookie of the Year in 2018, Atlanta locked him in on an eight-year, $100M deal the following spring.
When Michael Harris II and Spencer Strider battled each other for NL Rookie of the Year in 2022, they extended the former on an eight-year, $72M contract in August and inked the latter to a six-year, $75M deal in October.
However, after Drake Baldwin won 2025 NL Rookie of the Year, the Braves failed to (if they even tried to) come to terms with their young catcher on one of those pre-arbitration extensions that have become all the rage these days.
And whatever that price tag would have been before the season began, it has only gone up.
Prior to landing on the IL with an oblique strain on Tuesday, Baldwin had been neck-and-neck with Matt Olson for the title of "most valuable player on what has been the best team in baseball," playing every single game and boasting an OPS 121 points better than what he managed en route to ROY.
.png?w=256)
Baltimore Orioles
4 of 30
Offseason Regret: Re-Signing Zach Eflin
2025 had already been a mess of a season for Eflin.
He missed a month early on with a lat injury and missed the final two months due to surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back.
When he wasn't on the IL, he had a 5.93 ERA in 14 starts.
Tough to win with any sort of regularity when that's what you're getting from your Opening Day starter.
And yet, the Orioles brought him back for $10M—only to lose him to Tommy John surgery after one appearance in March.
Neither trading for Shane Baz nor signing Chris Bassitt has gone according to plan, either, but at least there's some hope that they'll be able to turn around their ERAs north of 5.00. Eflin is just a sunk cost on their balance sheet once again.
Boston Red Sox
5 of 30
Offseason Regret: Penny pinching in the infield
With the outfield quartet of Jarren Duran ($7.7M), Roman Anthony ($7M), Ceddanne Rafaela ($2M) and Wilyer Abreu ($810k) only costing the Red Sox a combined sum of $17.51M in cash this season, they were in the perfect position to do some splurging on their infield.
Whether that meant a reunion with Alex Bregman, a big signing of Pete Alonso or Bo Bichette, taking a chance on one of the two Japanese sluggers or swinging big on the trade block for someone like Ketel Marte, we all rather expected a big splash here.
Instead, they made their splashes in the starting rotation while trading for Willson Contreras and Caleb Durbin to address their corner infield vacancies (one of which has panned out nicely) and opting to do nothing about a middle infield that has (like Durbin) operated at a replacement level.
As a result, they rank dead last in the American League in scoring, recently held to four runs or fewer in 11 consecutive games.
Chicago Cubs
6 of 30
Offseason Regret: Adding another former Astro to their bullpen
One of Chicago's biggest regrets from the previous winter was trading for Ryan Pressly. After 6.5 mostly solid seasons with the Astros (5.0 K/BB, 2.63 FIP), he couldn't accomplish much of anything for the Cubs (1.7 K/BB, 5.05 FIP) before getting released right after the trade deadline.
Chicago decided this past offseason to sign another reliever who had logged the largest chunk of his innings pitched with Houston, bringing in Phil Maton on a two-year, $14.5M deal.
It is not going well.
Maton has an 8.78 ERA, and it wasn't just an implosion or two. He has been tagged for multiple earned runs in six of his 15 appearances.
What's bizarre, though, is that he was almost untouchable in each of the three times he entered a game protecting either a one-run or two-run lead, yet to blow a save in 2026. Maybe the nonsensical solution is to only use him in save situations?
Chicago White Sox
7 of 30
Offseason Regret: Only giving Munetaka Murakami two years
At the time, it's plausible that two years was the max that either party was willing to go here.
Chicago would've had to pay a larger posting fee for a longer commitment to a slugger whose swing maybe wasn't going to translate to Major League Baseball, while Murakami maybe didn't want to ink a long-term deal with a franchise that had suffered 324 losses over the past three seasons.
Knowing what we know now, though, how badly do you suppose the White Sox wish they had just gone all-in on the Babe Ruth of Higo right away?
His American League-leading 17 home runs have given this franchise a legitimate pulse for the first time in a long time, even though the pitching staff still leaves much to be desired.
We'll see if they can work out an extension before he hits free agency for a second time.
Cincinnati Reds
8 of 30
Offseason Regret: Re-Signing Emilio Pagán
Kind of hard to argue with the decision here. Emilio Pagán had a 2.88 ERA and a career-high 32 saves last season for the Reds, including ending the year on a 10-inning scoreless streak as Cincinnati eked out that last NL wild card spot on a tiebreaker.
Getting to bring that guy back for $10M with a $10M player option for a second season was kind of a no-brainer, especially while relievers like Brad Keller and Seranthony Domínguez were signing for similar amounts elsewhere.
It hasn't worked out for the Reds, though.
Prior to landing on the IL in early May with a grade two hamstring strain, Pagán had a 6.43 ERA and had blown three of his nine save chances. (Though, by virtue of their early voodoo magic in close contests, the Reds still won two of those three games in extra innings.)
And without him, things have gotten even worse for a bullpen that had a ghastly 7.48 ERA in Pagán's first two weeks on the shelf.
Cleveland Guardians
9 of 30
Offseason Regret: Tinkering with Steven Kwan
One benefit of Cleveland rarely making big transactions is there's not much to regret. They did make a shift that they might wish they could undo, though.
For several years, the Guardians had a great thing going with four-time Gold Glove left fielder Steven Kwan. Save for one random 10th inning in center field last July, he had not played anywhere else over the past three seasons, with Fielding Run Value rating him as the most valuable defensive left fielder in the majors by a laughable margin.
For some reason, though, they decided to make center field his new primary home.
And while his glovework has been OK, he is suddenly a shell of the offensive asset he used to be.
It's probably unrelated and he's just in an early slump, slugging .263 compared to a .390 mark over the past four years. Kwan is also stealing bases far less often than before, despite an on-base percentage (.332) nearly identical to what he ended up with last year (.330).
Why risk messing with a good thing, though?
Colorado Rockies
10 of 30
Offseason Regret: Signing Michael Lorenzen
Before we discuss just how poorly this particular acquisition has aged, we need to first commend the Rockies for actually spending some money on free agent starting pitchers for the first time in decades.
Not since Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle in 2001 had Colorado invested more than $5.5M in a single starting pitcher in free agency, but they gave $8M to Lorenzen, $6M to Jose Quintana and $5.1M to Tomoyuki Sugano this past winter.
They might still lose 100 games this season, but it was good to see them take a step in the direction of at least trying to build something. And both Quintana and Sugano are well on their way toward generating some trade deadline buzz.
Lorenzen, on the other hand, ranks dead last in the majors in both hits (76) and earned runs allowed (38), saddled with an ERA north of 7.00 and a WHIP of nearly 2.00.
Detroit Tigers
11 of 30
Offseason Regret: Extending qualifying offer to Gleyber Torres
If the Tigers remain a sub-.500 disappointment, their biggest offseason regret will be doubling down on Tarik Skubal's final season before free agency instead of selling him to the highest bidder. However, we're not ready to go that far just yet.
But if they had known in November that Kevin McGonigle would be as good as fast as he has been in the majors, there's no way they would've offered Gleyber Torres $22.025M to stick around for another year, right?
Torres hasn't performed poorly, at least. Prior to landing on the IL in early May with an oblique strain, he had more walks than strikeouts and was playing some of the best defense of his career at second base.
That money could have gone somewhere else, though, and might have helped keep the Tigers out of the current predicament in which they find themselves.
Houston Astros
12 of 30
Offseason Regret: Giving Tatsuya Imai two player options
Heading into the winter, the expectation was that Tatsuya Imai would get a nine-figure contract. Over his final three seasons with the Seibu Lions, he had logged 495.0 IP with a 2.24 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 9.6 K/9.
Not quite Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but big things were certainly expected.
So when the Astros landed him for $18M per year for up to three seasons, it felt like a big win for a Houston team that desperately needed some starting pitching in 2026.
Unfortunately, that success in NPB hasn't translated to MLB, as Imai has struggled with his control and has an 8.31 ERA in the five appearances that have bookended more than a month on the IL.
His plan with this contract was undoubtedly to have a strong debut year and then opt out in pursuit of the mega deal that evidently never transpired during his signing window. Based on how things have gone thus far, though, he might be sticking in Houston for a few costly years.
Kansas City Royals
13 of 30
Offseason Regret: Non-Tendering Taylor Clarke
It's not often that you see a player get non-tendered after the best season of his career, but the Royals surprised pretty well everyone with their decision to non-tender Clarke.
From 2019-23, he was a replacement-level pitcher with a 5.03 ERA. But in 2025, Clarke made 51 appearances with a 3.25 ERA and 0.85 WHIP. And the arbitration estimates didn't even have his projected cost at $2M.
Nevertheless, they sent him packing, and he has been even better back where he started his career with Arizona, making 21 relief appearances with a 2.18 ERA and 0.73 WHIP.
Probably the biggest reason they punted on Clarke at the non-tender deadline is because they had signed Alex Lange the previous day. And he has a 5.40 ERA, yet to pitch in a single save/hold situation.
They also later in the offseason traded for Matt Strahm and signed Eli Morgan to fill bullpen voids, so a little more planning ahead might have been in order here.
Los Angeles Angels
14 of 30
Offseason Regret: Trading Taylor Ward for Grayson Rodriguez (without a physical)
To be sure, this was always a "hopefully building toward something in the future" type of move by the Angels. Ward will be a free agent this winter while Rodriguez is under team control through 2029, so let's check back in a couple of years to see if this is still regrettable.
However, considering G-Rod lost all of 2025 (and a good chunk of 2024) to a variety of elbow/lat/shoulder injuries—this after also missing about half of 2022 with a lat injury—it was rather jaw-dropping news that the Angels didn't even insist upon any sort of physical to get the trade done.
He did recently make his Angels debut, though, only after landing on the IL with shoulder inflammation during spring training.
If he's mostly healthy for the next 3.5 seasons, no one will ever remember that initial hiccup. But let's just say there's probably a reason the Orioles were all too ready to part with what might be Mark Prior 2.0.
Meanwhile, Ward has been rock solid for the O's, and the player the Halos later traded for to replace Ward (Josh Lowe) has put up darn near the worst OPS among all players with at least 120 plate appearances.
Los Angeles Dodgers
15 of 30
Offseason Regret: Signing Edwin Díaz (and not at least perusing his Facebook history)
For two weeks, the Edwin Díaz signing looked great. He saved four games during the Dodgers' 9-2 start to the season, allowing just one run in a non-save situation.
The Achilles' heel that plagued Los Angeles last season—unreliable bullpen/closer—seemed to be fixed.
Then the wheels came off.
Díaz got tagged for three earned runs against the Rangers and three more by the Rockies more than a week later, with no appearances in between. He subsequently landed on the IL after undergoing one of those "loose bodies in the elbow" operations that have been happening a lot this season, expected to be out until around the All-Star break.
Adding insult to injury, Díaz was recently the subject of a USA Today report that linked him to alleged illegal cockfighting activity in Puerto Rico, based on social media posts and newspaper articles dating back to early 2018.
Whether he will face any discipline from Major League Baseball in response to the report remains to be seen, but the start of his Dodgers tenure has already veered sharply off course.
Miami Marlins
16 of 30
Offseason Regret: Signing Chris Paddack
This one is actually a three-pronged regret, because Miami never would have bothered scooping up Paddack for $4M in mid-February if it hadn't spent the first half of January trading away both Edward Cabrera and Ryan Weathers.
In the span of a week, they went from a borderline surplus of options for the rotation to a rather clear deficit, pending the spring showings of Braxton Garrett and Max Meyer (both returning from surgeries) as well as top prospects Thomas White and Robby Snelling.
Well, of that quartet, only Meyer was ready to take the mound within the first six weeks of the regular season, leaving the Marlins little choice but to keep throwing Paddack out there and hoping for the best.
In seven appearances before getting released, he went 0-5 with a 7.63 ERA. And when they called up Snelling to replace him, that rookie southpaw made one start before landing on the IL with a UCL sprain.
Meanwhile, both Cabrera and Weathers have made nine mostly respectable starts in their new homes with division leaders. And of the seven prospects Miami got for them, the only one to play in the majors thus far is Owen Caissie—with a negative-0.7 bWAR.
Milwaukee Brewers
17 of 30
Offseason Regret: Bringing back Brandon Woodruff
Woodruff has thus far spent his entire career with the Milwaukee Brewers, and surely most of that fan base was thrilled to have the present-day version of Ben Sheets accept that $22.025M qualifying offer back in November.
However, between that payday and the $10M buyout the Brewers already had to give Woodruff from the mutual option in his previous contract that wasn't exercised, this small-market club has had to invest a lot of money in a guy who had made a combined total of 23 starts over the previous three seasons—and who landed on the IL with shoulder inflammation just six starts into the current campaign.
Had Woodruff declined the qualifying offer, perhaps the Brewers wouldn't have felt the need to trade away Freddy Peralta, whose 3.31 ERA has been a key factor for a Mets team that might be starting to turn things around.
Moreover, maybe they would've been able to repurpose some of that Woodruff money to do something about a Luis Rengifo / David Hamilton third base situation that has left much to be desired, to put it lightly.
Minnesota Twins
18 of 30
Offseason Regret: Never picking a lane
Every winter, there's at least one of these teams stuck between a rock and a hard place; a good candidate for a fire sale that could lessen the duration of a seemingly inevitable rebuilding situation, but also a plausible contender if they actually go out and make a few noteworthy additions.
And more often than not, that team just chooses option C, which is sitting on its hands for five months and hoping for a brighter tomorrow.
Such was the path of the Minnesota Twins, whose "big" move was signing Victor Caratini to a two-year, $14M deal to backfill the expiring Christian Vázquez contract that had been weighing them down for three years.
Like the St. Louis Cardinals last year, all they have to show for their refusal to pick an offseason lane is a spot in no-man's land; not as hapless as expected, but also nowhere close to a serious contender for the World Series.
Byron Buxton is out to a fantastic start, which merely means another summer of wondering if he'll waive his no-trade clause for a team that figures to be selling.
New York Mets
19 of 30
Offseason Regret: A singular regret, you say?
Though the Mets are slowly turning things around, it still feels like darn near every offseason move they made was the wrong one.
Signing Jorge Polanco and Bo Bichette to play at positions they've never played before.
Trading Brandon Nimmo for Marcus Semien in the name of "run prevention."
Trading for Luis Robert Jr. and expecting him to stay healthy.
Trading away Jeff McNeil for a Single-A prospect when the outfield was already razor thin.
Hoping for the best with both Devin Williams and Luke Weaver as high-leverage relievers after they both had a rough go through 2025 with the Yankees.
Just about the only move that has panned out was trading for Freddy Peralta. However, if they don't make it back to postseason contention, do they trade away the rental they gave up two key prospects to acquire?
Of the bunch, though, the biggest kick in the teeth was giving Bichette a three-year, $126M contract with opt outs both this winter and next—after watching Baltimore sign Pete Alonso away from them for less than 75 percent of Bichette's AAV.
Alonso hasn't been his usual self thus far with the Orioles, but at least he hit more than two home runs within his first 46 games. And the Mets theoretically could have kept Alonso and signed Kazuma Okamoto for about $15M less per season than they're spending on Bichette and Polanco. So, there's that.
New York Yankees
20 of 30
Offseason Regret: Extending qualifying offer to Trent Grisham
At the time that qualifying offers were due to eligible players, the Yankees didn't know for certain if they were going to be able to re-sign Cody Bellinger. And after spending the previous offseason replacing two of their three primary outfielders from the 2024 campaign (Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo), they decided to extend Grisham a qualifying offer to at least get something in return if he exited stage left.
He accepted the offer, but has been painfully unable to build upon his breakthrough campaign from last season.
Grisham had 34 home runs and an .811 OPS in 2025, but his production thus far in 2026 (.639 OPS) has fallen much more in line with the struggles from 2022-24 (.651 OPS) that probably would have gotten him non-tendered two winters ago if not for the aforementioned departures of two of New York's main outfielders.
If either Jasson Domínguez (when he returns from the IL) or Spencer Jones could establish that he deserves to be playing on an everyday basis, the Yankees would surely consider benching Grisham, if not just outright releasing him. Until then, though, they're just going to keep playing him basically every day.
Philadelphia Phillies
21 of 30
Offseason Regret: The entire Nick Castellanos saga
For the most part, the Phillies spent the offseason making sure they could run it back again with largely the same cast of characters from last season.
One big exception to that rule was Castellanos, who was still owed $20M for 2026, but who the Phillies openly had no intention of keeping, thanks to the combination of his dreadful defense, his declining offense and just the general roster/clubhouse fit at this point in his career.
Even after signing Adolis García in mid-December, though, they waited nearly two months to actually release Castellanos—followed almost immediately by a handwritten letter in which he discussed the "beer in the dugout" incident in Miami—as though they were expecting some angel investor to volunteer to take that salary off their hands.
Alas, they had to eat it. And between the $20M they owed him and the $10M they're paying García, that's a combined $30M going toward right field—which might be the biggest weakness on this roster.
Pittsburgh Pirates
22 of 30
Offseason Regret: Signing Marcell Ozuna
Credit where it's due, Ozuna has at least shown some signs of life in May, posting an .871 OPS with three home runs in his first 12 games after entering the month at .467 and two, respectively.
If he can continue to hit like that for the next four-plus months, consider this regret rescinded.
On the whole, though, we're still talking about a sub-.600 OPS from a $12M designated hitter who was north of .900 in each of 2023 and 2024.
And remember how the offseason started out?
With some substantial rumblings about the Pirates wanting to sign Kyle Schwarber and/or Josh Naylor before they both opted to re-sign where they ended last year?
The latter hasn't been much more productive than Ozuna, but could you imagine if they had Schwarber right now?
Granted, it wouldn't have been a one-for-one swap. It would've taken north of $30M per year to wrestle Schwarber away from the Phillies, which means the Pirates likely would've also had to pass on either Ryan O'Hearn or Brandon Lowe, who are the team leaders in OPS at the moment.
But how much better would this team be if it were getting legitimate production from the DH slot?
San Diego Padres
23 of 30
Offseason Regret: The mid-February flurry of buy-low starting pitchers
In the span of three days in mid-February, the Padres signed Griffin Canning for $2.5M, Germán Márquez for $1.75M and Walker Buehler to a minor-league deal which ended up costing them $1.5M thus far. (All three contracts have some incentives that could drive up the cost a bit.)
It was as if the Padres had their pitchers report to spring training, realized they didn't have anywhere near enough arms and quickly began to scour the depleted list of remaining options.
That trio of afterthoughts has made a combined total of 19 starts for San Diego, and the results haven't been great, saddled with a cumulative ERA of 6.00.
Not to be deterred, though, they also scooped up Lucas Giolito for $3M in late April and have already cycled him into a rotation that they're hoping will eventually feature both Joe Musgrove and Nick Pivetta again at some point.
San Francisco Giants
24 of 30
Offseason Regret: Investing in Adrian Houser
A lot of the regrets on this list at least looked like respectable decisions at the time.
But San Francisco giving Adrian Houser a two-year, $22M contract was questionable from the start.
Houser did have a remarkable seven-week run with the White Sox in 2025, making his season debut in late May and entering the All-Star Break with a 1.56 ERA in nine starts. Take out that brief surge, however, and he had a 4.77 ERA over the past four seasons and was released by four different teams in a span of less than 10 months before the 14-34 White Sox said "Sure, why not?" and stumbled upon a nice trade chip.
The Giants decided that was good enough for an eight-figure salary on a multiple-year deal when they could have gone any number of other routes, including just handing the No. 5 starter reins to any of Blade Tidwell, Carson Whisenhunt or Trevor McDonald.
Instead, Houser has a 5.25 ERA to go along with the worst strikeout rate, worst home run rate and worst xERA (5.81) of his career. San Francisco has lost six of his nine starts.
Seattle Mariners
25 of 30
Offseason Regret: Trading for Brendan Donovan
Donovan hit well out of the gates, but he is already on the IL for a second time with a groin injury and has a .657 OPS dating back to April 3.
Meanwhile, Leo Rivas hit .114 in his 25 games played at third base, so the Mariners have already sent him back to Triple-A while handing the reins to 20-year-old top prospect Colt Emerson for the foreseeable future.
Maybe that ends up being just the jolt they needed. Emerson did homer in a win on Monday night, after all.
But the bummer here is what Seattle gave up to bring in Donovan for this season and next.
They could have just held onto Ben Williamson and gotten an even better batting average from the hot corner than they have thus far. Instead, they gave up Williamson, switch-pitching wunderkind Jurrangelo Cijntje, 2023 first-round pick Tai Peete and a compensatory pick in the upcoming draft, all in the name of upgrading a spot in the lineup that hasn't improved.
St. Louis Cardinals
26 of 30
Offseason Regret: Trading away Sonny Gray
The Cardinals' offseason fire sale was a long time coming.
Heck, we expected it to begin the previous offseason, but it took a year longer than expected to finally work out that elusive Nolan Arenado trade.
They also spent this past winter unloading the contracts of Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray before parting, too, with their final two years of team control of Brendan Donovan, in what was the unofficial sign that even they didn't have any plans of contending in 2026.
Lo and behold, Jordan Walker broke out, JJ Wetherholt has been a fantastic rookie addition and we would be forced to take the Cardinals seriously as a contender...if they just had a guy like Gray anchoring the rotation.
Alas, he is pitching for Boston, and both of the starting pitchers St. Louis got back in that trade (Richard Fitts and Brandon Clarke) are currently on the IL, Fitts out for the year following lat surgery and Clarke several years away from the majors, even if he was healthy.
Tampa Bay Rays
27 of 30
Offseason Regret: Signing Cedric Mullins
Even Tampa Bay didn't seem to know during the offseason whether it intended to put up a fight in 2026.
The Rays signed Mullins, Nick Martinez, Steven Matz and Jake Fraley while also non-tendering Christopher Morel, declining their club option on Pete Fairbanks and trading away (among others) Brandon Lowe, Josh Lowe, Shane Baz, Jake Mangum.
By some miracle, they have turned that mixed bag of buying and selling into the best record in the American League, albeit with little to no help from the $7M they invested in Mullins.
The center fielder did recently have a four-hit game in a win over the Marlins. However, he entered that rare night of production with a .433 OPS for the season—which was dead last among qualified hitters by a wide margin.
Even when he does get aboard, he is also having a dreadful year on the bases, already caught stealing more times (five) than all of last season (four), and taking extra bases at by far the lowest rate of his career (20 percent).
If Jacob Melton hadn't injured his ankle in late April, he possibly would've taken Mullins' spot in center field by now.
Texas Rangers
28 of 30
Offseason Regret: Trading for MacKenzie Gore
Speaking as the Washington Nationals fan of our staff, I initially felt like the Rangers fleeced the Nats in this trade. Texas didn't have to part with either of its top two prospects in order to get Gore in this classic "five dimes for one dollar" type of blockbuster—and you just never want to be on the side receiving the five dimes.
But while Gore has just two quality starts and the worst ERA of his career to show for his first 10 turns through the rotation, what initially looked like a pupu platter of prospects has quickly blossomed into a who's who of the Nats farm system, with 20-year-olds Yeremy Cabrera and Devin Fitz-Gerald both raking to the tune of an OPS north of 1.000.
Did Texas give up too much for two years of Gore, who also left his most recent start after just one inning with a lat injury?
Or will he become the third ace of this rotation en route to winning a wide-open AL West?
Toronto Blue Jays
29 of 30
Offseason Regret: Signing Cody Ponce
A terribly unlucky one to highlight here, as early signs pointed toward Cody Ponce being a solid investment on a three-year, $30M deal. Say what you will about spring training stats, but in five starts, Ponce had a 0.66 ERA and 0.80 WHIP. He was also looking good in his season debut against the Rockies...
Right up until he tore his ACL in the third inning and was instantly lost for the season. (Hopefully he makes a full recovery and is back in the mix for the 2027 rotation.)
Beyond that, though, Toronto's offseason moves have largely panned out thus far.
Dylan Cease is a Cy Young candidate. Kazuma Okamoto could be in the mix for AL ROY. Tyler Rogers has been one of their most valuable relievers. It'd be hard to argue with the $1M flyer they took on Patrick Corbin. And letting Bo Bichette go looks pretty smart right about now.
The Blue Jays have been a big disappointment, but that's predominantly due to a combination of the injury bug and a few key returnees regressing in a big way. If anything, their offseason decisions are what have kept them afloat.
Washington Nationals
30 of 30
Offseason Regret: Signing Zack Littell
One of these years, the Nationals are going to need to get out of rebuilding mode and actually put together a starting rotation. But with Josiah Gray, Trevor Williams and DJ Herz all on the shelf and a slightly ridiculous amount of deferred/retained money still owed to Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer, they weren't ready for this to be the year.
Instead, they traded away MacKenzie Gore and filled out the rotation with a trio of one-year deals with veterans Foster Griffin, Miles Mikolas and Zack Littell.
The Griffin signing has worked out well, liable to get something decent for him at the trade deadline if he can keep it up.
The other two...not so much.
At least Mikolas only cost them ($2.25M) about a third of what Littell signed for ($7M). And at least Mikolas' FIP (6.20) isn't nearly as horrific as Littell's (7.70), which ranks dead last among all pitchers with at least 40 innings of work.
Almost hard to believe this is the same Littell who started a playoff game for the Reds not eight months ago.
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
