Justin Mason’s 2026 Tout Wars Team: The McGonigle Mishap

Every year many of the best minds in the fantasy industry are invited to leagues that draft in New York City in the middle of March for Tout Wars. I was also invited. 

This year I participated in the Tout Wars Mixed Auction. This is a 5×5 roto league using OBP instead of average. The other wrinkle in Tout Wars is unlimited IL slots, which definitely changes auction strategy compared to NFBC or other formats. 

After pulling a Labadini in my LABR auction, I wanted to go back to my traditional balanced approach to try and take advantage of what is often an over aggressive room. At least a few people expected for me to do something crazy or just go for the Labadini again, so by sticking with my normal strategy, I was hoping it would still throw some people. 

Here is my team:

As you can see, I didn’t spend more than $26 on a single player and had a minor heart attack after the auction as both Zach Neto and Seiya Suzuki got hurt in games after the draft had finished. Thankfully, Neto is already playing again and Suzuki may be on track for Opening Day, as well. I also rostered already injured Ha-seong Kim and Jackson Holliday as well as injury risk players like Spencer Strider, Francisco Alvarez, and Royce Lewis because like I mentioned above, there is no limit to the amount of players you can put on the IL in Tout. With these players I am shooting for upside and worrying less about their health risk because I can more easily stash them in this format. 

I love my offense with the mix of safety and upside. Most people want to spend up for a stud, but in a 15 team league where the wire is even thinner because of the unlimited IL, having a team of hitters where there are no scrubs gives me an advantage that a stars and scrubs approach does not. There is just one massive problem that is alluded to in the title of the article, I left money on the table. 

Am I a fan of Kevin McGonigle? Sure, but he isn’t worth $21 in any format. At the end of my auction, I had $21 left over for one player and unfortunately, there was no player worth that left in the auction. Tout has a rule that if a player you get in the auction is injured and you drop them, you can reclaim ten times their auction value before the all star break, so you should never leave money on the table. Hence the $21 bid. The mistake wasn’t with McGonigle, it was not spending that money more aggressively earlier. I could have gotten another elite starter by using the $13 I spent on Strider and getting another mid-$20 starter. Or I could have improved my second closer. Or I could have upgraded to one of the other offensive positions like first base or second base. While I feel like I got a lot of value at other positions, I gave back a ton by not spending more money earlier in the auction. This is the potential pitfall of a balanced approach, you risk leaving yourself in a position where you don’t spend all of your money and give back the value you accrued during the auction. 

As far as the pitching goes, I love the outcome of my auction. I got an ace in Fried who feels about as safe as can be. I got massive upside in Strider, if he can return back to his pre-surgery form. I got reliable innings eaters in Imanaga and Ray along with bounce back guys like Nola and Eflin. I could have gone with a bigger upside play instead of Nola and that might have made this rotation pop more, but ultimately, I love getting volume guys for cheap prices. 

I am not a massive fan of this team or build, but had it not been for the McGonigle mistake, I think I would be. I do feel like I am missing that one piece to put this team over the top and it will be important for me to work the wire to find that piece in-season.