After Hyeseong Kim signed with the Dodgers, saw someone write that he could hit at the top of the order, and to that I say, sure, if Ohtani, Betts and Freeman are all injured. By the way, during this Christmas break, I was in Palm Springs with Cougs and Mother Cougs out at a restaurant that had an elevator (Nobu). Any hoo! We’re exiting and Mother Cougs has a cane, so gingerly, and I’m tending to her because I’m the best son-in-law. Coming onto the elevator was four people, very tall, and I only noticed the very tall blonde girl because she stepped aside for us, and the other people were so tall I didn’t even bother to look that high up. So, we get back to the valet and there’s a Rolls SUV and I joked that they pulled my car around already and the valet says, “Ha, this is Freddie Freeman’s, did you see him by the elevator.” No! I did not! Because I was tending to my mother-in-law! Nice guys finish last! Okay, back to Hyeseong Kim. His name won’t at all be confusing in comments when people abbreviate his name. This Kim won’t bat vs. lefties. Last year, the 25-year-old hit 11 HRs, stole 30 bags and hit .326 with a .841 OPS and .383 OBP. His near-namesake smoked most of those numbers in the KBO, for comparison’s sake. Ha-Seong Kim peaked at 30 HRs, 33 SBs and hit .306 (in different seasons). Here, that became 14/25/.250-ish. By the way, people holding out hope for Pages, Outman or Rushing, the Dodgers will never play their prospects or they just sux like Lux. 2025 Projections: 55/7/51/.262/26 in 479 ABs. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this offseason in 2025 fantasy baseball:
PSYCHE! The rankings start on Monday! [rings old fashioned school bell] The rankings start on Monday! But if you don’t want to wait as the rankings come out over the course of a month, they’re all on Patreon now. Anyway II, the roundup:
Jeff Hoffman – Signed with the Jays. Sorry, Chad Green, you are now a setup man. As KRS-One sang, the Y-the I-the M-the I. It’s Yimi! Yeah, Yimi Garcia is now a setup man. Erik Swanson? Well, you were never in consideration for saves anyway. Kinda excited to see what The Hoff can do when a team doesn’t hassle him, and let’s him save games all year. If he can stay healthy, he could be a sneaky top five closer who isn’t drafted as one. The “if healthy” is rather large though since he failed a couple shoulder exams before this signing. 2025 Projections: 3-2/2.71/0.95/64, 21 saves in 52 IP
Colin Rea – Signed with the Cubs. Meh, nothing here for fantasy, but teams are now all like, “Who are we bumping from the rotation to add in this new pitcher we just signed? Uhh, how about we just go to a six-man rotation since no one can throw 200 IP anymore?”
Braxton Garrett – Will miss 2025 season having the internal brace surgery, which isn’t quite Tommy John surgery, call it Tommy Juan surgery. I know surgery sucks for players, but teams should be pushing these guys to get surgery way quicker. Braxton had an issue last February! Just threw away an extra season for no reason.
Dom Smith – Signed with the Yanks. Yanks signed Paul Goldschmidt to be their everyday 1st baseman. So, in July, Dom Smith and Ben Rice will be handling duties for the foreseeable future.
Justin Verlander – Signed with the Giants. That can be summed up with:
Justin Verlander to the Giants
— Razzball (@razzball.bsky.social) January 7, 2025 at 5:01 PM
2025 Projections: 7-7/4.32/1.36/86 in 106 IP
Amed Rosario – Signed with the Nats. It’s not hard to be a hater, but it’s hard to be consistent about my hate, which I try to be. I hate teams that do nothing so it doesn’t completely square the circle to also hate teams that do make moves, but the Nats moves really annoy me. Play Yepez, not Nathaniel Lowe. Play Jose Tena, not Amed Rosario. Play anyone but Josh Bell. Don’t you know you have Brady House? Nats made a mess of their playing time this offseason. 2025 Projections: 43/5/33/.276/18 in 354 ABs
Charlie Morton – Signed with the O’s. Orioles are like, “Look at all our sexy hitters! Why are you looking at our pitchers? Stop looking at them…I said stop!” The Orioles and Mariners together would make one superteam aka the Dodgers. So, I wasn’t going to rank Charlie Morton, then went back and looked at the Player Rater to see where he ended up and it was 85th overall for starters (right behind Dean Kremer and Albert Suarez, ha), so Morton is draftable, if barely. 2025 Projections: 10-10/4.10/1.30/169 in 167 IP
Gavin Lux – Traded to the Reds, or as Kendrick Lamar would say, “Dodgers not like Lux.” As I theorized last year, how much would it take to buy off prospect writers to make them say nice things about your prospects? $2K? Maybe a thou? So, what if you paid them to say nice things about your prospects then traded them? I’m not convinced this is not what the Dodgers are doing. Something super fishy about how well-respected their prospects are and how awful they all turn out. Lux goes to a marginally better park (but not that much better), and worse lineup and can’t play anywhere but 2nd, which is where McLain should play. 2025 Projections: 48/13/51/.279/4 in 311 ABs
