Going to be an interesting offseason....I'll vomit my thoughts below.
I think it's more likely than not that Kwan is traded this offseason since he's entering his 2nd last year of team control. You can write off his poor 2nd half to his wrist injury, but can't risk him getting hurt next year heading into a walk year. Last chance at leverage with him.
Hopefully we get a whole year of DeLauter and Valera in the OF. Valera can play either corner, so you could have Kayfus in RF when he's not at 1B. An OF with power, finally.
Not sure where you pursue upgrades in FA or trade. You'd take a catcher to push Bo and have Fry as your 3rd C/util. If Naylor flames out Ingles should be ready early summer....2B you won't block Bazzana, so SS seems the most realistic spot to upgrade.
Rotation seems pretty set with Williams, Bibee, Cecconi, Cantillo, Messick, and Allen. Is Allen trade bait? If Lively can be your 6th and emergency starter I'd be interested in what a Kwan/Allen package could get. Most fans probably don't think much of Allen, but young, controllable, experienced lefties have value.
The bullpen will still be loaded. Bummer we didn't see Stephan recover from his TJ, and Aleman struggled all year. But (hopeful) returns from Walters & Hentges to go with Cade, Gaddis, Sabrowski, Herrin, Enright is pretty nasty. Would love to resign Junis. Allard and Festa did well also. Not sure how much you can count on those two, but depth is always a must.
We should be able to be aggressive with extensions, assuming the Clase contract clears the books. I do think the ownership transition could complicate that though, although hopefully they have more clarity on when that transition happens than we do.
Overall, in a year that saw them lose 19 of 20 games in two stretches of play, Ortiz/Clase chaos, a .226 average or whatever it was....and still win a division? Nuts. I'm bummed we lost, but this was the least painful playoff loss because we had no business being there. The whole month of September was like a playoff series and anytime you can get baseball from March to October, that's pretty special. The young guys are finally here and ready, the future may have arrived, and I am very excited for 2026!