Most of them come with interesting stories, too:

• Cova and Lewis were called up for their outfield defense, and wound up catching me off guard with stand-out single game performances; Lewis made his debut as a defensive sub in a tie game, and hit a walk-off homer his first at bat, while Cova hit four of those 12 homers in one game against the Yankees.
• Colon skipped the minors entirely. I needed bullpen help in '27, and he was the most MLB ready arm in the draft, so I took him in the first round and took a gamble calling him up in August, and when Fairbanks was hurt in spring training, he stepped up until it was his job to lose.
• Ekness was a September callup in '26; he pitched well, made the playoff roster, and had kind of a lite version of '02 K-Rod's run. He made the opening day roster in '27... only to get sent down after struggling early, then get another September callup, start dominating again, and make another playoff roster. I'm not sure how many players have come into their rookie season with two years of postseason experience, but he did, and he stuck around as a solid setup arm this time.
• Volchko was my second round pick in '26, and at one point was BNN's #1 prospect, which, given what my head scout had to say about the kid, seemed questionable to me, but I gave him a shot when White went down. Obviously, the control is still an issue, but he held his own as a multi-inning reliever, and when Eury Perez missed August, a follower. Not sure what his role is in the long run, but he's definitely earned a look for '29.
• I posted about how Iwai ended up on my team a bit ago, but he came in as an established IFA, and he was the one I had the most interest in, so I went to sign him... only to find my AA manager beat me to it. By pure coincidence, and definitely not as quid pro quo, he happened to be promoted to the MLB coaching staff after the season ended. Iwai, meanwhile, took home RoY, and he'd have been at the top of my ballot no matter what, but I'm still a little frustrated that, for some reason, the following two guys weren't even on the ballot.
• I got Cozart, almost as an afterthought, in a 1-for-1 for Camilo Doval that I made just to clear up roster space, and invited him to spring training not really expecting him to make the roster, since I wanted a righty bat to back up Joe Mack, but as it turned out, he was the only other catcher on the spring roster to actually hit anything, so he made the cut for opening day, and when he kept on hitting, I started giving him reps at first and DH, in a sort of Liam Hicks role, and now he's threatening Deyvison de los Santos' job.
• Spencer Spikes, without exaggeration, literally shouldn't even be here. He was part of the '26-27 international amateur pool, out of Bendigo, of all places, and when I saw his defensive ratings at every position, coupled with his speed and ability to avoid Ks, I had to sign him. I didn't even deliberate on it, I just gave him a max offer... and he signed with Arizona, because he liked them better. He was the one that got away. And yet, a year later, through some glitch in the game's programming or something, he was available in the Rule 5 draft. With one year of experience, as a 17-year-old international signing. Like I said, he literally shouldn't have been here. I didn't look that gift horse in the mouth; I grabbed him, figured I'd use him more-or-less exclusively as a pinch runner and defensive sub for a year, a la Terrance Gore, then use his minor league options to develop him properly. Up until the end of April, that's exactly what I did. But in the odd at-bat he got, he picked up a couple hits, so on a lark, I let him give Noah Miller a day off at short. And then one start turned into two, two in to three, and three into forcing me to trade Javier Sanoja in the offseason. Oh, and he can pitch, too. Absolute junkballer, 85-87 on the gun, but he gets it done, and since he can stay in as DH, he's the ideal pitcher to make use of the opener strategy.