Where to start...
I expect that the starting rotation will once again be very good. I don't necessarily think they'll be the best in baseball again, as that is awfully hard to sustain, but I think top 5 is very realistic.
The bullpen looks good, and I mean
really good. Munoz, Santos, Brash, Troy Taylor, Sauce, Speier, Snider. That looks pretty loaded to me. I'd be surprised if this isn't a top 5 'pen.
Cal is one of the best catchers in MLB, and Garver is an adequate backup catcher.
The outfield is looking good with Julio, Arozarena, Robles, Raley, and Moore if/when needed.
The infield... Yikes.
J.P. is the only really good defensive infielder on the roster (outside of Moore who isn't an every day player at any particular position). If Polanco is actually the every day starting 3rd baseman, that's going to be a problem. He was
the worst defensive 2B in MLB last year, and now they're going to ask him to play 3rd? That seems like a recipe for disaster to me. Tellez, Solano, and Bliss aren't exactly known for stellar defense either. For a team that is most likely going to be leaning heavily on pitching and defense to win games, the infield is looking pretty worrisome in my opinion. I expect that we'll probably lose a few close games over the course of the season due to poor defense from the infield.
The offense. Sure looks like they are once again hoping a bunch of guys have "bounce back" seasons (Garver, Polanco, Tellez) or can continue to produce in the twilight of their career despite the injury history (Solano).
This team needs Julio to be "star" Julio for the entire season, not just the 2nd half of the season.
They need Cal to produce similar numbers as last year (30 HR, 100 RBI's).
They need Arozarena to revert back to pre-2024 Arozarena.
They need Robles to continue to be the guy he was for half a season in Seattle, and not the guy he was for the vast majority of his first 7 seasons in the league.
They need 2023 J.P., not 2024 J.P.
Polanco. Personally, I'm not optimistic and I can't believe they brought this guy back. I just hope he isn't as horrible as he was the vast majority of last season.
Garver. Another season of sub .200 hitting from the DH spot. Cool. We don't need a guy that can actually, oh I don't know,
hit a ball at the
designated hitter position. Can we just put Raley at DH please?
Solano? Tellez? Bliss? Mastrobuoni?
It sure looks like the lineup is chock-full of hopes and prayers, much more so than guys that there are good reasons to believe will be productive hitters. We're going to need a whole bunch of those hopes and prayers to work out or this could very easily be a bottom 5 offense again.
Ultimately, I think this is once again going to be a team that will only go as far as our pitching can take us. I don't have high hopes for a significantly improved offense. I just don't see any reason to believe that they'll be significantly better than last season other than blind hope that Edgar and Dan can work miracles.
Not really a prediction, but I'm thinking 85-ish wins seems the most realistic to me. Once again fighting for that 3rd wildcard spot but coming up just a bit short. I don't think this is going to change until there are actually meaningful upgrades to the offense, and I'm not seeing any of those.
