Last week, MLB Trade Rumors published a piece that loosely took the concept of an expansion draft to build a brand new MLB team from scratch.

In a true expansion draft, each MLB team would be able to “protect” a certain number of their players (10-15, probably) from being selected. No such restriction was placed here.

I decided to try my hand at it and gave myself the added challenge of building a team with a 2020 payroll below the MLB average of about $133 million. Of course, with a 26-man roster, four teams would remain untouched. For the sake of my exercise they are Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Texas. Only players with accrued MLB service time are eligible. Here is the team I came up with:

Catcher: JT Realmuto (PHI)
First Baseman: Cody Bellinger (LAD)
Second Baseman: Gleyber Torres (NYY)
Shortstop: Trevor Story (COL)
Third Baseman: Rafael Devers (BOS)
Left Fielder: Juan Soto (WAS)
Center Fielder: Ronald Acuna Jr. (ATL)
Right Fielder: Mike Trout (LAA)
Designated Hitter: Yordan Alvarez (HOU)

Bench Catcher: Wilson Contreras (CHC)
Bench: Whit Merrifield (KC)
Bench: Ketel Marte (ARI)
Bench UTL: Jeff McNeil (NYM)

SP: Jack Flaherty (STL)
SP: Luis Castillo (CIN)
SP: Lucas Giolito (CHW)
SP: Jose Berrios (MIN)
SP: Shane Bieber (CLE)

6th Starter/Long Relief: Marco Gonzales (SEA)
7th Starter/Long Relief: Sandy Alcantara (MIA)
RP: Josh Hader (MIL)
RP: Kirby Yates (SDP)
RP: Liam Hendriks (OAK)
RP: Ken Giles (TOR)
RP: Nick Anderson (TB)
RP: Tony Watson (SFG)

Total 2020 Payroll: $123,486,566.00

As you can see, I spent the bulk of my money on the bullpen and offense. My ideal batting order would look like this:

Ronald Acuna Jr.
Mike Trout
Cody Bellinger
Juan Soto
Trevor Story
Yordan Alvarez
Rafael Devers
JT Realmuto
Gleyber Torres

I think the bullpen is unparalleled in baseball. To be able to go Hendriks to Yates to Hader is immense. If that fails, you still have Ken Giles and Nick Anderson available (with Tony Watson serving only as a LOOGY), as well as two long relief pitchers from both sides of the rubber (including the very underrated Alcantara).

The starting rotation is young and somewhat unproven, and is most glaringly lacking a lefty. My last pick was between Nick Anderson and Blake Snell from the Rays. I went with the much cheaper Anderson because I don’t view Snell, with his injury history, as that big of an upgrade over my number 5 starter, Shane Bieber.

This was a fun, fairly easy, mostly mindless exercise that took up an hour of quarantime. And I think my team is better than the MLBTR one. What say you? (No one will comment on this.)