CRL NEWS

February 1, 2025

“I’m terrible. I don’t have the finger dexterity to press the right buttons at the right time, so I just don’t do it.”

· Paul Skenes on Late Night with Seth Myers saying that, although he is on the cover of MLB The Show, he will probably never play the game.

At least Skenes and myself have one thing in common.

The expansion process is officially underway. Below are each team’s seven protections in the first round of expansion. Here are some additional details on how the process will play out:

Jim and Caleb have the opportunity, but not the obligation, to select 1 player from each CRL team by next Friday, February 7. Some additional nuggets of information:

· No trading may occur from now until the end of expansion (Friday, Feb 21).

· Minor leaguers may not be selected.

· Contract status is fully transferrable (yes, you can dangle a guy under contract and if they take him, they are responsible for the duration of the contract). If he is not taken, you are responsible for protecting him (or buying him out) on Roster Freeze Day.

· Likewise, if a player that is currently on the reserve roster is drafted, Team 11 will be responsible for paying the $5 activation fee to add the player to their Opening Day roster, should they elect to protect the player on Roster Freeze Day.

The Frasers must give me their list of first-round selections by Friday, Feb. 7. I will then post another update on Saturday, Feb 8. Any team losing a player will then have a week (until Friday, Feb 14) to give me their list of one additional protected player.

Jim and Caleb will then have the opportunity, but not the obligation, to select one additional player from each CRL team.

· They will have one week (until Friday, Feb.21) to notify me of their additional selections.

· I will then send out another communication on Saturday, Feb 22 to update all teams and end the expansion process.

· Trading can now re-commence – even with the Frasers, as they will now have a team.

One additional tidbit of information based a question from one of you. I thought about the question and here is what I think is the fairest way to handle the situation should it arise:

Although your rosters are frozen now, once the Frasers make their original picks (and you have the additional week to make an additional protection) your rosters will be unfrozen for that week. As that is two weeks from now, the world could change. One of your seven protected could sign with the AL, retire or get busted and put on the ineligible list.

I’ve decided the fairest way to handle this is that you can replace the player that was one of your original 7 with another player still on your roster. If you lost a player in the first round of the expansion process, you can then protect one additional player. In other words, the seven that are currently protected need not be the same seven (plus one if losing a player) two weeks from now.

Here is the list of protected players by team:

Team 1	Team 2
Mike Toglia	Willy Adames
Luis Garcia	Lars Nootbar
Jung-hoo Lee	Xavier Edwards
Heliot Ramos	Ian Happ
Tyler Fitzgerald	Brandon Woodruff
Spencer Steer	Logan Webb
Brett Baty	Justin Martinez

Team 3	Team 4
Dylan Crews	Ketel Marte
Selya Suzuki	Mookie Betts
Christian Encarnacion-Strand	James Wood
Edwin Diaz	Brice Turang
Sean Manaea	Joel Payamps
Reynaldo Lopez	Zach Wheeler
Chris Sale	Robert Suarez

Team 5	Team 6
Marcell Ozuna	Rhys Hoskins
Tommy Edman	Brendan Donovan
Jackson Merrill	Bryce Harper
Brandon Pfaadt	Christian Yelich
Austin Riley	Tanner Scott
Spencer Strider	Ryan Walker
Shota Imanaga	Justin Steele

Team 7	Team 8
Nico Hoerner	Michael Busch
TJ Friedl	Matt Chapman
Garrett Mitchell	Jurickson Profar
Blake Snall	Shohei Ohtani (hitter)
Kodai Senga	Andrew Abbott
Shohei Ohtani (pitcher)	Kyle Finnegan
Sandy Alcantara	Cristopher Sanchez

Team 9	Team 10
Elly De La Cruz	Mark Vientos
Teoscar Hernandez	Matt McLain
Brenton Doyle	CJ Abrams
Jameson Taillon	Jackson Chourio
Mike King	Corbin Carroll
Trevor Megill	Spencer Schwellenbach
Paul Skenes	Robbie Ray

Jim