Building a Dynasty miracle may take more time, but it can be a lot of fun
Who doesn't love a miracle? Or rebuilding a baseball team from the bottom up
This is part of a post series that John Allen is writing. He had dynasty owners with clunker teams send in the details on their leagues and teams. Below, John offers some advice on how to start righting the ship.
Who doesn’t love a miracle? I’m guessing that is why people like myself and Juan enjoy trying to turn a last-place disaster into a playoff team.
So far, injuries and poor performances have conspired against Juan in this 16-team H2H categories league. It’s also a struggle since it is a contract-based league and, as you will see, Juan’s team has a number of bad contracts.
After making smaller moves in the past, I’m asking Juan to take this roster to rock bottom and get rid of all the contracts that are holding this team back. As he said to me in an email exchange, “My problem is falling in love with my original assessment of rookies and being stubborn in wishing them success.”
As a result, the cost of these formerly cheap rookies has kept Juan’s team from moving forward because of the constant $2 increases each year. To drop a contracted player, the penalty is half of contracts’ cost for that year. So another last-place finish may be in the cards for 2026, but a brighter future is just around the corner.
Here’s the plan I worked on with Juan to get his team on the right track.
FINISH THE 2025 PURGE
The first step is using all the 2025 cap to purge players that are only going to hold you back. So using that $17 in remaining cap space is going to be a great first step. There were plenty of overpaid candidates on your roster and I came up with two possible list of cuts:
OPTION 1: Cut Eduardo Rodriguez, James Outman, Nick Loftin, Keaton Winn, and Dedniel Nunez
Why I like it: None of these guys are tradable. Only one is certain to see MLB time.
Why I don’t like it: Because of the way the penalties act for dropping players with contracts (it is half of their 2025 salary), you are only saving $44 to add to your 2026. Plus Eduardo Rodriguez could put together a good start to 2026 and be tradable in the second half.
OPTION 2: Cut Jesus Sanchez, James Outman, Nick Loftin, Jonny DeLuca, Colin Holderman, Keaton Winn, and Dedniel Nunez
Why I like it: Again, none of these guys is going to be tradable. None have certain MLB roles, so they have no current value and likely no future value. They will save more ($46) for the 2026 cap.
Why I don’t like it: There is no one big salary eliminated, but I think this move is superior in terms of future value to option 1.
CONFIGURING YOUR TEAM TO YOUR LEAGUE SCORING
Juan’s league is all counting stats. Availability is extra important, especially with the salary cap. So older, often injured players such as Mike Trout and Byron Buxton are not going to be of great interest.
Because of the maximum of 70 IP and 70 games played for hitters, there will be a premium for quality of each start. Leaning into players who have extreme home/away splits (I’m looking at you Colorado Rockies OF Brenton Doyle with your career home BA of .318) can give you a cheaper boost some weeks. Also left/right platoon splits for hitters will give you an edge with your daily lineup.
For pitching, with 5 SP and 5 RP (and 2 P) in your daily lineup, finding a balance of starters and bullpen guys that can match different opponents’ lineups will be nice to achieve.
Since wins is not a category, focusing on starting pitchers who can get QS will be important.
With saves, holds, hits against and HR against as part of the categories, finding good setup RP and RP that could also qualify as SP for your lineup will be something to focus on throughout the season. Those guys would at least become good trade fodder to improve the overall roster.
I’d love to load up on $1 relief pitchers in the MLB. And if you can find some who also qualify as SP, even better.
FOCUS ON 2027
While I think you will have a better than last-place team in 2026, I think your starting pitching will hold you back from a playoff run. So the moves you make in 2026 should reflect that.
The good news is Jorge Solar’s contract is off your books at the end of 2026. Often-injured Dalton Varsho and Yimi Garcia will also be gone. Ian Happ joins them, and while he is a good player, he will turn 33 during the 2027 season.
Happ could also be a trade chip to a contending team that runs into injuries in 2026. Whenever someone goes on the IL, contact that owner and see if they are willing to deal them. Contending teams will listen. As an example, the Yankees announced Gerrit Cole would have Tommy John surgery during spring training. Facing a whole year without Cole, I contacted his owner and flipped Jose Berrios for Cole. I’ve also been on the other side of the coin and when Kristen Campbell went to the minors, I needed an OF. I flipped Campbell for Buxton and then crossed my fingers.
Those are the deals you want to be focused on throughout the year. Yusei Kikuchi could be a great candidate to flip if a contending team loses a solid SP with a contract between 16-25 in spring training. That would get him off your books early and set you up for 2027.
Other trade bait would be Sean Murphy and Robert Suarez. If Murphy can get off to a good start in 2026, a contender who needs a backup catcher because of injury might be interested. Given that his contract is through 2028, I wouldn’t ask much for him. Maybe even consider a bad contract that ends in 2026 plus a solid prospect as a good return.
Suarez on the other hand, I would ask a lot. Or use him to get rid of Eduardo Rodriguez’s bad contract (and if you can add to the deal Kikuchi you can jump start this rebuild). He’s cheap, productive and signed thru 2027 in this league. He’s a very interesting signing for the Braves. But since he will be 35 at the start of the 2026 season, he likely is on a very different timeline than the rest of your team.
Finding cheap, talented SP will be a focus of this season. That could be in the draft as this year’s FYPD is loaded with top end SP talent such as Kade Anderson, Liam Doyle, Jamie Arnold, Seth Hernandez, Kyson Witherspoon, and Tyler Bremner.
But also keep an eye on prospects who will not be drafted throughout the season. Examples from last year include Cam Schlittler, Parker Messick, Nolan McLean, Connelly Early, and Payton Tolle. Possible targets for this year include: Kohl Drake, Didier Fuentes, Khal Stephen, or Miguel Mendez.
Last, but not least, keeping your contract costs low is going to be important. Ideally, you would have space throughout the season to absorb cutting Rodriguez if you can’t trade him. But there are also a number of players that will need to show you in 2026 they have a future for the team you are building for 2027 and beyond. Some of those guys would be Nolan Schanuel, Tyler Locklear, Nick Yorke, Parker Meadows, Nacho Alvarez, Javier Assad, Matt Waldron, Drey Jameson, Yennier Cano, Brock Porter, and Ricky Tiedemann.