Projections. Each player’s 2027 WAR rate and expected playing time come from the Dugout Value projections. Expected playing time is the larger of the model’s estimate and the player’s healthy workload in 2024–26. Players without a Dugout Value projection, mostly rookies, use their ZiPS rate and start at part-time playing time (250 PA, 60 innings as a starter or 40 in relief).

A 162-game team. Each lineup spot gets 683 plate appearances (6,150 a team), starters 850 innings and relievers 595. Automatic assignments maximize projected WAR across eligible roles without exceeding each player’s workload. Players may remain unused; adding an optional player cannot make the best available roster worse. Automatic relief workloads are capped at 70 innings for converted starters and 85 for players already projected in relief. These are planning guardrails rather than fitted projections. Any unfilled time is replacement level, worth zero WAR. A number you type is kept exactly; the × returns that player to automatic allocation.

Recent position usage. Most hitter eligibility uses MLB’s 2026 fielding records: at least 75 innings or 10 games at a position. Listed roles remain the fallback when no position qualifies. The saved usage is kept separate from assumed secondary roles. These are tool assumptions, not league eligibility rules. Manual position edits let you try another position or override automatic workload caps.

Realistic secondary roles. Shortstop can move to second or third; center field to either corner; left and right field can swap; catcher or third base can move to first. All hitters can DH. We do not chain these moves, infer new catching/shortstop/center-field experience, or automatically convert outfielders to infielders. A new role uses projected defense where available, is capped at the best known fielding-role rate, and costs an additional two runs per 600 PA (about 0.2 WAR) for the transition. Without defensive components, we apply the positional-adjustment loss before that penalty. This is a conservative planning assumption, not a measured universal cost. Research from Sports Info Solutions and FanGraphs supports the possibility of these moves, while showing that a successful transition is not automatic.

Positions and defense. Alongside the total, hitters have component projections: batting, baserunning, and fielding at every position. Fielding comes from his FanGraphs fielding record, weighted toward recent seasons and regressed toward average, with experience at other positions counting partly: about 43% of the gap in positional adjustment carries over when a player moves. At each slot, his projected rate swaps the defense in his 2026 role for full-time defense there, meaning projected fielding at that position plus its positional adjustment. At DH that is the DH adjustment alone. Gains count in full; losses count at 55%, because in backtests (fit on 2022–24, checked on 2025–26) players moved to DH or down the defensive spectrum lost less value than the full positional change implied, while moves up the spectrum matched it. Inferred secondary roles then apply the separate cap and transition allowance above. A manual catcher assignment for a player without recent catching keeps his projected rate; it does not establish that he can catch. A tag next to a player shows any change. Players without defensive inputs keep their rate at listed roles; a move to DH or an inferred secondary role applies the positional cost instead.

Free agents. The 2026–27 class is off its old teams unless a club option, opt-out or qualifying offer is expected to keep a player in place. As signings are reported in the free-agent tracker, players move to their new teams here. A free agent’s value is the change in his new team’s total after he takes playing time from the players he’d replace. Contract estimates come from the tracker.

Payroll. Payroll figures are FanGraphs RosterResource estimates of each team’s luxury-tax (CBT) payroll, checked October 30. They count the average annual value of guaranteed contracts, arbitration salaries, other payments, minor-league salaries for 40-man players, player benefits and the pre-arbitration bonus pool. Official final 2026 figures come out in December. The 2027 estimate uses projected arbitration salaries and leaves out pending options until they are exercised; free agents who sign are added at their contract’s average annual value. Your changes add each player’s 2027 CBT hit (our contract estimate for an unsigned free agent) and subtract anyone you remove. The 2027 tax threshold depends on the next labor agreement.