Collette Calls: My 2025 AL LABR Squad

This article is part of our Collette Calls series.

The League of Alternative Baseball Reality (LABR) began in 1994, and the past two seasons of the AL version of the league has been very good for RotoWire. I won the league in 2023 but wasn't able to hold off colleague James Anderson this past season in my effort to become the first manager to repeat since the legends Glenn Colton and Rick Wolf did so in 2018 and 2019. This year's auction was virtual due to a variety of logistical challenges on multiple fronts, something which hadn't happened since the 2021 season, when it was the required option due to existing conditions. The complete results can be found here, but I want to focus on my team and my thoughts on how you can best prepare for online auctions should you have to do one yourself this month. 

I was asked by a friend whether I was doing something different to plan for AL LABR this season or if I was going to rest on the laurels of my success in this league the past two seasons. My plan in 2023 was one built around emphasizing pitching at the draft with a 58/42 split plan. The plan worked because I was able to get big seasons from Kyle Tucker, Yandy Diaz, Maikel Garcia and Josh Lowe. Last season, I adjusted my plan to build around a 64/36 split to emphasize offense and yet finished anywhere from fourth (steals) to seventh (RBIs & Average) in the offensive categories. Despite spending less on pitching, I finished in first or second in wins, saves, ERA, and WHIP, but 10th in wins. I knew how Nolan Ryan felt in 1987 when he led the league in strikeouts and ERA but finished with an 8-16 record, or more recently, how Felix Hernandez felt when he won his Cy Young Award in 2010, leading the league in ERA and innings pitched but earning a win in just 13 of his 34 starts. 

2025 offered me two choices — return to what made me successful in 2023, or repeat my 2024 strategy, figuring that no team could be that unlucky in wins again and that the plan should come together if I did a better job drafting offense. After all, those meddling offensive numbers were heavily influenced by me taking draft day chances on the likes of Anthony Rizzo, Anthony Rendon and Trevor Story while watching both Daulton Varsho and Randy Arozarena backslide. The only great returns I enjoyed on offense last season were Kerry Carpenter, Anthony Santander and a cheap Giancarlo Stanton. I decided to make a third choice: spend even more on offense. I set up my budget for a 67/33 split for this season because, perhaps to a fault, I feel too comfortable with the available pitching talent but wanted to put an emphasis on my offense. I wanted to come out of the online auction room feeling like He-Man:

However, I had to be realistic knowing Andy Andres is in the room. Andres has taken an approach in recent seasons of aggressively buying offense with more of a 85/15 split in his budget, and this season was no different. My goal was to distance my team's offensive production from the rest of the pack because it worked for James Anderson last year, and even having the fifth-best offense in 2023 along with my league-leading pitching staff was enough to win that season. If I am confident in my ability to roster an effective pitching staff, with either a large or medium budget, why not test the theory with a smaller one? 

The tables below will show the players acquired by positional grouping, their RotoWire projections, as well as a line showing the average projections from RotoWire, Steamer, ATC, THE BAT and OOPSY (all available from the Fangraphs player pages.) Players with asterisks were also part of my annual Bold Prediction series. 

Catchers
 

I had budgeted $20 to fill the catching spots wanting to avoid the $1-$2 catching pool because I find this position quite thin in AL leagues this season. Langeliers was definitely a target at this position, but I was very active in previous bids for Salvador Perez ($19) as well as Adley Rutschman ($19) before acquiring Langeliers. Garver was the first of the cheap second catchers put out there so I jumped in at $2. It would be wonderful if Garver can be closer to what he was in 2023 and not what he was last year, but I'm very encouraged by what Langeliers could possibly do away from the constraints of Oakland Coliseum given his issues hitting there in the past. 

Corner Infielders

I definitely introduced some risks here spending big on a second-year player and the infield version of Byron Buxton, but in both cases, I felt the upside was worth it. Caminero has power to all fields, and moving into Steinbrenner Field will be an upgrade. His efforts in the winter and spring have done absolutely nothing to temper my excitement for him. Lewis has an impressive .268/.327/.497 line for his career, but it has taken him three season to amass the 605 plate appearances to produce those numbers. The talent is undeniable, but his health grade is what keeps this upside below $20 in an AL-Only league. Nobody is likely happier that the fences are coming in at Camden than Mountcastle, as his homer production was drastically impacted the past two seasons. I'm not expecting him to hit 30 again, but there's a decent chance the projections are underselling his rebound potential. 

Middle Infielders

Rarely do I leave an auction with one of the highest valued players on the board, but I acquired Witt Jr. two nominations after Aaron Judge went for the same price. Truth be told, I had Witt Jr. valued higher than Judge and figured one other person might as well, which is why I said $46. I would not have said $48, because while that is where I had him priced, I do not like the price one has to pay elsewhere on the roster when allocating nearly 20 percent of the budget to one player. Gelof fit a need of power and speed up the middle when the skills were needed to speed up my early roster. He struggled at the plate around an oblique injury last season but still had 17 homers and 25 steals as is without any threat to his playing time. The new park and fully healed oblique should help him challenge a 20-20 season at second base, joining Jose Altuve, Marcus Semien, Ozzie Albies and Brian Dozier as the only second baseman to have 20-20 seasons in the past 10 years. That 2014 Dozier season is what I would love to see from Gelof this season. Mead is having a fantastic camp as he tries to hit his way onto the roster over non-roster invite Eloy Jimenez. He is already 10-for-14 this spring and came to camp with 20 pounds of bulk added to his frame, a change he discussed with my fellow UCF alum Ryan Bass over the weekend:

Outfielders

With great power comes great responsibility. My responsibility is to try to make the most of this situation in the outfield, which is not what I was hoping to do at this position. Soler was a target because he's projected to hit high in the lineup and should be able to use his hard contact abilities every single day for the Angels. Moore was also a target because, as we discussed last week, Seattle ran aggressively once Dan Wilson took over managerial duties and Moore should once again have a license to run when he gets on base. The fact Moore qualifies at four position is huge in LABR because we do not have the luxury of benching players and the free agent situation most weeks is barren of options. It's why I targeted both him and Palacios, as they came into the season eligible at multiple positions and, in the case of Palacios, could add a few more. 

Perez became a target in the auction as the news was breaking about the nerve issue Parker Meadows has in his upper arm. I was already looking at Perez with Matt Vierling set to miss time early on, but the Meadows news certainly bumps up Perez's early value. Meyers was a late-round selection for me because he is one of the better defenders in baseball by outs above average, and that defense is going to keep him in the lineup, but it would be nice if he could get his batting average north of .230 with the volume of playing time coming his way. Finally, Roden was a speculative play because the outfield situation in Toronto is simply not good, nor is the outlook for the team's chances to compete for a playoff spot. All Roden has done as a Blue Jay — whether it be for Creighton or Toronto — is hit. He hit .383/.484/.640 in three seasons with Creighton and has hit .298/.407/.453 in three professional seasons with Toronto. I don't believe he will break camp with the club, but that is why I took Miguel Andujar in reserves. The club really likes him! I see a lot of Spencer Horwitz (with speed) in Roden if he comes up this season, so I will swap him with Andujar on the reserves until the situation plays out. 

Simply put, I need a lot to go well to salvage how this outfield situation turned out, because I wasn't able to get late targets such as Jo Adell and Daulton Varsho since I didn't have the money to push those bids any further. Both went to ESPN's Tristan Cockcroft.

Starters

The starting pitching has been my bread and butter the past two seasons, and I will need that to come through again this season. I'm encouraged by McClanahan not having restrictions on his workload this season, and the early returns on Ryan returning from last year's shoulder strain have been positive. Rodon and Morton were veteran volume grabs that are necessary in this format, but Rodon is my most regrettable purchase because Yusei Kikuchi went $10 three nominations later, and I would have taken him at $11 or $13 if necessary over Rodon. I was thrilled to get Arrighetti at his price for all the reasons I wrote up in his bold prediction piece. The same would apply to Festa, but I wish I would have landed him for a dollar or two cheaper. I don't have an ace on paper, but this was by design, as I made a decision to stay away from Tier 1 pitchers and attempt to find someone who could jump into Tier 1 with everything going right. 

Relievers

The same decision I made to avoid Tier 1 starters applies here as I also chose to avoid the Tier 1 closers. I considered Andres Munoz, but I dropped out at $19 and did the same with Jhoan Duran at $16. At the end of the day, I went with two aged vets who have talented backups who could pose problems, but I should have enough saves to stay competitive in the category. I apply Cameron here because perhaps he gets into the bullpen before the rotation, but how much longer can Kansas City enjoy this run of crazy starting pitching health? They are one of just two teams in the past three seasons to have five different pitchers make at least 25 starts. Cameron is on the 40-man roster and should be the first call-up should something happen. In the meantime, I'll call up Cano or Varland to work in this spot. 

Reserves

I need Andujar to make the Oakland roster and to play enough to help in the outfield until Roden or someone I acquire off the wire can help. Meidroth should make the White Sox team sooner rather than later, and I'll need it if Mead cannot break camp. Whitcomb played both third and second last season, and if Houston is serious about Jose Altuve playing the outfield, that could free up time for Whitcomb. He's hit 60 homers over the past two seasons in the minors with 46 steals and showed improved contact last season after multiple seasons of high strikeout totals after joining the organization. Brendan Rodgers isn't on a guaranteed contract, so Whitcomb has a very viable path to making this roster if he shows his bat and glove are ready for it.

Robertson was my first reserve pick since I landed the second overall reserve pick by random chance, and it's a risk. The skills are absolutely there, but I only get to use Robertson if he signs with an AL club. If he goes to the other league, I will have to cut him and lose one of the six players I can freely send up and down all season. I am holding out hope Texas decides to break the luxury tax and re-signs him to their pen, because I would love to be able to use these skills. Varland is now a full-time reliever after not cutting it as a starter due to a lack of consistent command and an extreme case of gopheritis. His stuff should play up better in short stints than it did as a starter. Cano will likely be immediately used to cover Cameron's spot, and the best hope here is vulture wins and some ratio help unless Felix Bautista needs a respite from closing.

All in all, I like the team I've put together and certainly believe it will be competitive this season. It's certainly not without its flaws, but judiciously working the waiver wire and looking for mutually beneficial trades can help close some gaps. If dart throws like Roden and Whitcomb work out, and if Robertson signs with an AL club, I really like my chances to be in a meaningful place in the standings for a third consecutive September.