Another offseason has come and gone, and another marathon of an MLB season is staring us in the face. To close the book on the winter and set the stage for the season ahead, it's time to conduct my annual exercise of evaluating all 30 rosters based on how much they changed since last year. This is not about determining whether a squad is better or worse, simply whether they are different.
The methodology is simple and remains the same as it wasin 2024and2025. Tally every plate appearance taken and inning pitched for each team last season. If the players behind those plate appearances and innings are still in the organization, they qualify as "returning."
For example, Francisco Lindor recorded an MLB-leading 732 plate appearances in 2025, roughly 11.8% of his team's trips to the batter's box. He is still on the Mets, so his plate appearances are returning. The same cannot be said about Pete Alonso (709 plate appearances), Brandon Nimmo (652) or Jeff McNeil (462). By subtracting that trio's playing time from the Mets' returning total and comparing the results to teams across the league, we can arrive at an objective measure of how different the new-look Mets are from the 2025 squad, rather than merely marveling at the chaotic roster shuffling that took place in Queens this winter.
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In other words, this is a straightforward avenue to assess roster turnover, a vehicle for answering a popular offseason question: Which teams ran it back, and which teams shook things up?
This exercise also helps capture which fan bases will be adjusting to a larger portion of fresh faces on their teams in 2026 and which will be watching rosters that are largely unchanged.
A crucial caveat to keep in mind: Returning totals do not account for injuries, which can occasionally result in misleading tallies, especially on the mound. Pitchers who delivered a sizable workload last year but are currently injured — such as Pablo López in Minnesota or Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep and Spencer Strider in Atlanta — are still considered part of the team's "returning" total, even if they won't be available for most or all of the coming season. This dynamic is especially relevant in the case of the Braves, who technically have retained the second-highest percentage of 2025 innings, but absences could open the door for new arms to cover innings in 2026.
But enough preamble, let's get to the data and highlight a few teams whose totals stand out on both ends of the spectrum:
New York Mets
Welcome to Extreme Makeover: David Stearns Edition. The Mets epitomize this exercise, having overhauled their roster in response to a dismally disappointing 2025 that the front office and ownership evidently viewed as cause for a total refresh. That included letting mainstays Alonso and Edwin Díaz walk in free agency and jettisoning the two other longest-tenured players, Nimmo and McNeil, via trade. After the dramatic subtraction, the Mets slowly restocked their offense with Jorge Polanco, Bo Bichette and Luis Robert Jr., plus Marcus Semien, who arrived from Texas in the Nimmo swap. Franchise anchors Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto remain in place, but the lineup around them looks a whole lot different entering 2026.
There's a bit more continuity on the mound, with New York's top three pitchers by innings last season — David Peterson, Clay Holmes and Kodai Senga — still in the fold. But the departures of Díaz, Griffin Canning, who ranked fourth in games started and innings last year, and Ryne Stanek, the Mets' most used reliever, necessitated some additions to the pitching staff. New York dealt two top prospects in Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams to land one of the best starting pitchers on the trade market in Freddy Peralta and spent real dough to snag a pair of high-leverage bullpen arms in Devin Williams and Luke Weaver. All together, it was a wild winter of roster reconstruction, closing the book on several lengthy and notable Mets tenures and starting new chapters for some high-profile fresh faces.
New York Yankees
Polar opposite of the Mets on the continuity spectrum are the New York Yankees, who spent the bulk of the offseason trying to keep their roster intact. This is a sharp contrast in strategy not only to their neighbors in Queens but also to the Yankees' own roster construction just a year ago. Entering 2025, coming off its first World Series berth since 2009, New York had the fourth-lowest percentage of plate appearances plus innings returning in MLB. That was primarily due to the departures of lineup regulars Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres, Alex Verdugo and Anthony Rizzo, plus some key innings-eaters in Nestor Cortes Jr. and Marcus Stroman.
The additions of Max Fried and Cody Bellinger, plus the emergence of homegrown impact players Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler, kept New York near the top of the American League in 2025, but an abrupt October exit against Toronto in the ALDS suggested another roster remix might be in order. Instead, general manager Brian Cashman spent the winter retaining a whopping six free agents, from starting outfielders Bellinger and breakout slugger Trent Grisham to bench bats Paul Goldschmidt and Amed Rosario to depth arms Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn. The most significant external addition was a new pitcher in Ryan Weathers, while Williams and Weaver bolted crosstown to join the Mets, putting a dent in the Yankees' returning total on the mound. But the Yanks rank second in returning bats behind only the Tigers, with their top 11 hitters by 2025 plate appearances still in the organization (Nos. 12 and 13, Oswald Peraza and DJ LeMahieu, are no longer around).
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There seems to be some consternation within the fan base that running it back to this degree might not be the best plan. But Cashman seems unbothered by that perception, and there's reason to believe that with enough additional strides internally, the Yankees should be in the mix for another division title in 2026. It's also worth noting that the most exciting returning Yankee is one who didn't throw a pitch last season; that's ace Gerrit Cole, whose comeback from Tommy John surgery isn't captured in these calculations but is undoubtedly an enormous storyline in the Bronx.
Pittsburgh Pirates
It wasn't as flashy or as extreme as what the Mets did, but the Pirates are another club that was awfully busy reshaping the roster over the past few months, and the data conveys as much. Pittsburgh, of course, operates in a different universe than New York when it comes to spending, but the Pirates still managed to drastically alter their team through a series of trades and (relatively) aggressive expenditures in free agency. The general theme and goal of Pittsburgh's offseason was to balance out a roster that had a lot to like on the pitching side but was bereft of impact in the lineup.
In an effort to upgrade what was the worst offense in baseball by wRC+ in 2025, the Pirates acquired second-base slugger Brandon Lowe, signed two veteran mashers in Ryan O'Hearn and Marcell Ozuna and added to the outfield mix with speedster Jake Mangum and near-ready prospect Jhostynxon Garcia. This mix of quality hitters will backfill the at-bats vacated most notably by the beloved Andrew McCutchen, as well as Tommy Pham, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Ke'Bryan Hayes; that quartet combined to log more than 1,800 plate appearances last season.
On the mound, the next wave of homegrown Pirates hurlers, headlined by top prospect Bubba Chandler, are expected to cover the frames that were handled last year by veteran Andrew Heaney and Bailey Falter before he was traded. Those two lefties ranked third and fourth in 2025 innings for Pittsburgh, while Mike Burrows (96 IP) and Johan Oviedo (40 1/3 IP) were also sent elsewhere in the quest for more bats.
Can this overhauled offense and an ascendant pitching staff led by Paul Skenes end the longest postseason drought in the National League? Can't wait to find out.
Detroit Tigers
The only team with a higher rate of return than the Yankees, the Tigers sit atop the leaderboard due more to the nature of their roster than a concerted effort to retain free agents. The tone of the offseason was set early, when Detroit's two most prominent potential free agents chose to stay put: Jack Flaherty by exercising his player option and Gleyber Torres by accepting the qualifying offer. Reliever Kyle Finnegan, acquired at last year's trade deadline, followed by re-upping with the Tigers on a two-year deal in early December. Beyond that, the Tigers didn't have many key contributors hit the open market, and perhaps even more importantly, president of baseball operations Scott Harris opted to keep quiet on the trade front. That means a gigantic portion of the regulars from last season are still around, including the top 11 batters by plate appearances and the top seven pitchers by innings pitched.
At the plate, that continuity could be construed as a negative, considering how badly the offense tailed off down the stretch and into October, but promising reinforcements are on the way in the form of top prospect Kevin McGonigle. Meanwhile on the mound, many of the same arms are in place, but that doesn't mean they'll be tasked with covering nearly the same number of innings after Detroit added several big-name pitchers via free agency in frontline lefty Framber Valdez, old friend Justin Verlander and new closer Kenley Jansen. That Verlander — a legend in Detroit — counts as "fresh face" underscores how few new names Tigers fans will need to learn as the season begins. Whether Detroit should have upgraded its lineup more aggressively, rather than supercharging its pitching staff behind Tarik Skubal, will be an interesting what-if to monitor as the season unfolds.
Cleveland Guardians
The defending AL Central champions and the biggest benefactors of Detroit's second-half collapse last season, Cleveland also deployed the offseason strategy of changing very little. However, unlike the Tigers, who eventually splashed some cash around in free agency, Cleveland did nothing of the sort while remaining stingy on the trade market. That result is a total nothing-burger of an offseason outside of a few bullpen additions (Shawn Armstrong, Colin Holderman, Connor Brogdon) and a minor-league deal for veteran first baseman Rhys Hoskins.
The biggest move of Cleveland's winter was an extension for face-of-the-franchise José Ramírez. It's great for the Guardians to continue that player-team partnership, but it did nothing to change the fortunes of the team in the short term. Cleveland sure looked like it could use some more substantial upgrades on offense but instead stood largely pat, trusting that its deep group of young but unproven bats can grow together to form a more competent offense in 2026.
One important note regarding Cleveland's totals in the chart above: Its returning inningsdo notinclude the combined 136 innings thrown in 2025 by Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, who remain on the restricted list amid their alleged involvement in the gambling scandal that rocked baseball last summer. Although they technically remain in the Guardians' organization, both were recently moved to the unpaid non-disciplinary leave list as they await federal hearings. Including them as part of Cleveland's returning total feels misleading at this stage, considering the slim chance that either ever pitches in MLB again. Had Clase and Ortiz counted toward the Guardians' returning innings, that would've vault the team to the top of the overall rankings. Instead, the Guards slot in third, behind the Tigers and Yankees.
Boston Red Sox
Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has been transacting up a storm since taking over in Boston, and this offseason was no different. It's no secret that the Red Sox intended to build around Alex Bregman after sending Rafael Devers to San Francisco in a midseason stunner of a trade, but Bregman instead said goodbye after one year in Boston, finding a better deal with the Cubs and leaving the Red Sox to pivot. That change of plans mostly centered on improving the pitching staff behind Garrett Crochet, upgrading significantly via free agency (Ranger Suárez) and trade (Sonny Gray, Johan Oviedo).
That might've seemed like a strange use of resources, considering Boston's pair of MLB-ready prospects in Payton Tolle and Connelly Early, but free-agent departures (Lucas Giolito, Walker Buehler, Justin Wilson, Sean Newcomb, Dustin May) and a series of trades (Hunter Dobbins, Brennan Bernardino, Richard Fitts, Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks) thinned out the pitching depth considerably, prompting those major adds on the mound. Boston also made moves to help replace Bregman's (and Devers') production, with Willson Contreras the biggest bat brought in and Caleb Durbin rounding out the infield mix after a standout rookie season with the Brewers.
Perhaps most remarkable about the Red Sox's placement in the rate of return rankings is how much lower they could've been, had they traded from their outfield surplus as many expected them to. A deal of Jarren Duran or Ceddanne Rafaela would've plummeted Boston down toward the bottom with Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh. Instead, Breslow opted to hold on to all of his outfielders and trust that they'll get the requisite at-bats to form a formidable lineup.
Another offseason has come and gone, and another marathon of an MLB season is staring us in the face. To close the book o...
