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Then they drove into a ditch. Their next two moves added $32 million to the payroll -- what Tarik Skubal will make this year -- and didn’t change their 2026 fortunes at all. The team signed Ryan O’Hearn, a 32-year old with no defensive value who has slugged .450 once in his career, to a two-year deal. They gave Gregory Soto, a generic reliever, $7.75 million. Finally, they capped the winter by signing Marcell Ozuna, a 35-year-old DH who lost the H part in front of our eyes last year (.203/.308/.365 after May 31), to a one-year, $10.5 million deal.
This offseason run was the classic example of a team not understanding that baseball players are arranged in a pyramid. One $32-million player is worth a lot more than three guys who make $32 million total. If you can’t create a lefty reliever as good as Gregory Soto, or a DH better than decline-phase Marcell Ozuna, for a fraction of their prices, why are you paying your player-development staff?
