David Robertson and the Possibility of Trying Trackers: Deadline Edition

Yesterday, I wrote a message that David Robertson signed with the Phillies. In my (and, I think, everyone else) favorite paragraph, I mentioned that several teams reportedly played on the veteran’s right hand. Ken Rosenthal and Jon Heyman jointly mention the interests of the Metropolis, Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers and “many others”. According to your point of view, this marks the first period of our last attempt or trade deadline during the 2025 free agent period. As a quick review, we try anytime after we find that the player ends up with one team and the other team is also trying to land them. What we try is the purest form, is the front desk bidding part of the honor, trying to court by proving it tries to build a winner for them. I recorded every one of a disturbing comprehensive spreadsheet during the offseason.

I didn’t eat yesterday, mainly because Robertson’s free agent is a real outlier. The offseason ended a few months ago. He is a 40-year-old reliefist who didn’t get the offer he loved so he stays in shape and hangs out with his family in the spring and then works out for the team on Saturday to sign by the deadline. Many teams were in the game, many showed up to watch his ball, so news about who would definitely come out at some point. It certainly represents one we tried, but it doesn’t seem shocking, which is by no means typical.

Then I checked my phone this morning. Craig Goldstein and Daniel R. Epstein Baseball prospectus Tagged me in a Tim Healey article Boston Globalguys, I can confirm that finding you is a wonderful feeling. Here is the title that makes Craig and Dan think of me:

It seems we are turning to tradition and we have tried territory. The Red Soxes got the effort not only on Robertson, but they also sounded like a classic team. When I first introduced the concept of trackers, the Red Sox was widely predicted as a favorite, and they not only lived up to that billing. For whatever reason, the Boston front office has long maintained a policy of fundamental transparency, at least in terms of free agent trends. This policy was predated by the days of Craig Breslow, but it certainly continued under his gaze. During the offseason, the Red Sox tried all teams with 13 times, while Padres and the Blue Jays were the only teams to reach 9. The Red Sox’s attempts exceeded the 14 teams in the bottom combined.

Knowing all of this, if the Healey articles you read are all titles, you can understand that you would think it’s the same, but that’s not what happened. The Red Sox has no leaks. The Phillies happened to play the Red Sox on Monday, with Robertson talking to reporters on Dugout at Citizens Bank Park before the game. The facts of the Red Sox in him have been reported, so it is understandable that Boston writers would ask it. Robertson confirmed Breslow himself continued during Saturday’s workout: “Bres is a good guy. The Boston Red Sox is a great organization. My family went there and went there this year and it didn’t work. It was a great court. Everyone has a great court. I just have to go and feel comfortable with me and my family.”

This makes Robertson just the second player to confirm himself as we started the practice. The first was Carlos Santana, another highly respected, highly respected old politician. It seems that only once you reach your 30s you can sound like a human and speak honest truths about your decision-making process during free agency. Robertson also mentioned that one of the reasons he waited until now was because he didn’t want to be relocated by the deadline, revealing that he was considering retirement after trading him to the Marlins in 2023. Knowing this, I feel responsible is that the Phillies have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever. They should never trade Robertson on July 31. This would be very uncool. It would be totally cruel. But it’s also very interesting.

As Robertson’s case illustrates, it’s hard to say how much we’ll see next week we’ll see how much we’ll see. During the season, motivation and schedule are very different. During the offseason, everyone wants to add at least some players, so when you breathe a player, letting your fans know where you are represents an implicit guarantee that you will get the next one. The compressed schedule of trade deadlines, even at the last minute and even at the last minute, means there is no future that can reassure fans. This is the last chance. You either trade for someone or don’t trade and announce that your design for the player who goes to another competitor is more likely to make it look like you no Commitment is enough to complete the deal. Execution The execution of the transaction we try is also tricky. You don’t want to alienate your players by announcing that they are almost traded or almost gaining someone taking their place. You don’t want to upset other teams by announcing that they almost trade one of their players. You do not want to comment on players or teams in your department or whom you compete for playoff locations.

For all these reasons, we did not announce “We tried Tracker, Trade Deadline Edition: F-IT, We Ball” – at least not yet. But as the deadline transaction starts flying, I will open my eyes and what we try is, I humbly ask you to do the same thing, let me know if you find one. You can contact me on Bluesky and you can email me at withriedtracker@gmail.com. As always, I remind you that this is the real email address I really checked. At this point, who is responsible for the hundreds of spam emails I’ve received, almost all of which are posted by weather updates in Cook County, Illinois, and a post involving a possible fictional person named Michael Anderson, you officially die.

This is where we are. We’re not starting the tracker we’re trying to use for transaction deadlines, but we’ve formally considered that, so I want you to put the words we’ve backed up there. possible. I hope you are there to say the words we might back up. I can’t be sure this will happen, but I can assure you that I’ll try it.