Erik Williams-Imagn Photos
Yesterday, I wrote up the information that David Robertson had signed with the Phillies. In my (and, I assume, everybody else’s) favourite paragraph, I discussed that a number of groups had reportedly been in on the veteran right-hander. Ken Rosenthal and Jon Heyman mixed to say curiosity from the Mets, Yankees, Purple Sox, Tigers, and “many others.” Relying in your perspective, this marked both the final We Tried of the 2025 free company interval or the primary of the commerce deadline interval. As a fast refresher, We Tried is a catch-all time period for any time we discover out, after a participant has ended up with one workforce, that one other workforce additionally tried to land them. In its purest kind, the We Tried is a entrance workplace’s bid for partial credit score, an try and curry favor with the followers by demonstrating that it’s making an attempt to construct a winner for them. I spent the offseason documenting every one in a disturbingly complete spreadsheet.
I didn’t make a meal of this yesterday, primarily as a result of Robertson’s free company was an actual outlier. The offseason ended months in the past. He’s a 40-year-old reliever who didn’t get a suggestion he liked, so he stayed in form and spent the spring hanging out along with his household, then held a exercise for groups on Saturday as a way to signal earlier than the deadline. Plenty of groups have been in on him and plenty of groups confirmed as much as watch him pitch, so phrase of who was there was certain to come back out sooner or later. It undoubtedly represented a We Tried, but it surely didn’t appear earth-shattering, and it was not at all a typical one.
Then I checked my cellphone this morning. Each Craig Goldstein and Daniel R. Epstein of Baseball Prospectus had tagged me on an article by Tim Healey of the Boston Globeand people, I can verify that discovering your individuals is an excellent feeling. Right here’s the headline that made Craig and Dan consider me:
It appeared like we have been veering into conventional We Tried territory. Not solely have been the Purple Sox in on Robertson, we have been getting what seems like basic team-speak about how very exhausting they tried. After I first launched the idea of the tracker, the Purple Sox have been broadly predicted to be the favourite, and so they greater than lived as much as that billing. For no matter cause, the Boston entrance workplace has lengthy held a coverage of radical transparency, no less than with regards to whiffs on free brokers. This coverage predates the Craig Breslow period, but it surely has actually continued beneath his steely gaze. Over the offseason, the Purple Sox led all groups with 13 We Trieds, and the Padres and the Blue Jays have been the one different groups to succeed in 9. The Purple Sox had extra We Trieds than the underside 14 groups mixed.
Realizing all that, if all you learn of Healey’s article was the headline, you’d understandably assume that this was extra of the identical, however that’s not what occurred. The Purple Sox didn’t leak it. The Phillies occurred to be enjoying the Purple Sox on Monday, and Robertson spoke to reporters within the dugout at Residents Financial institution Park earlier than the sport. The truth that the Purple Sox have been in on him had already been reported, so it was comprehensible {that a} Boston author would ask about it. Robertson confirmed that Breslow himself was on the exercise on Saturday, persevering with, “Bres is a superb man. The Boston Purple Sox are an important group. It didn’t work out for my household to go there this 12 months. It was an important pitch. All people had a superb pitch. I simply needed to go the place I felt comfy and the place it felt proper for me and my household.”
That makes Robertson simply the second participant to substantiate his personal We Tried since we began this train. The primary was Carlos Santanaone other extremely regarded, closely recruited elder statesman. Evidently solely when you attain your late 30s are you allowed to sound like a human being and inform the sincere reality about your decision-making course of throughout free company. Robertson additionally talked about that one of many causes he waited till now to signal was that he didn’t wish to be moved on the deadline, revealing that he thought of retirement after the Mets traded him to the Marlins in 2023. Realizing this, I really feel duty-bound to say that the Phillies have the possibility to do the funniest factor ever. They completely shouldn’t commerce Robertson on July 31. It will be extraordinarily uncool. It will be downright merciless. However it might even be fairly humorous.
As Robertson’s scenario illustrates, it’s exhausting to say what number of extra We Trieds we’ll see over the following week and alter. The motivations and the timeframe are very totally different at this level within the season. In the course of the offseason, everyone’s anticipating so as to add no less than a number of gamers, so if you whiff on one, letting your followers know that you just have been in on them represents an implicit assurance that you just’ll get the following one. The compressed timeframe of the commerce deadline, with tons of offers being introduced at and even after the final minute, means there’s no future to reassure the followers about. It’s the final probability. Both you traded for somebody otherwise you didn’t, and asserting that you just had designs on a participant who went to a different contender is extra prone to make it appear like you weren’t dedicated strongly sufficient to get the deal performed. It’s additionally trickier to execute a We Tried on a commerce. You don’t wish to alienate your individual gamers by asserting that you just virtually traded them away or practically acquired somebody to take their spot. You don’t wish to upset different groups by asserting that they virtually traded one in all their gamers. You don’t wish to touch upon gamers or groups in your division or with whom you’ll be competing for a playoff spot.
For all of those causes, we’re not asserting a “We Tried Tracker, Commerce Deadline Version: F— It, We Ball” – no less than not but. However I will probably be conserving my eyes open for We Trieds as deadline offers begin flying, and I humbly request that you just do the identical and let me know for those who spot one. You’ll be able to attain me on Bluesky and you may e mail me at WeTriedTracker@gmail.com. As all the time, I remind you that it is a actual e mail tackle that I actually test. On that notice, whoever is answerable for the a whole lot of spam emails I’ve acquired, which consist virtually completely of climate updates for Prepare dinner County, Illinois, and job postings addressed to a presumably fictional individual named Michael Anderson, you’re formally lifeless to me.
In order that’s the place we’re. We aren’t beginning a We Tried Tracker for the commerce deadline, however we’re formally enthusiastic about it, so I would like you to place the phrase on the market that we again up. Presumably. I would like you to place the phrase on the market that we might probably be again up. I can’t say for sure that it’s going to occur, however I can promise you that I’ll strive.
