[Westheim]

As the salary arbitration date approached, some key personnel on the Critters that was arbitration eligible remained conspicuously absent from the regular team releases about this and that extension to their fifth infielder or seventh reliever. There was a 2-yr, $650k deal with Kevin Surginer put in place, a $320k extension to Daniel Bullock as well, and Jack Sander agreed to a $280k extension for 2026.*

At that point, five players remained on the arbitration list: Chavez, Gutierrez, West, Armetta, and Stalker.

Tim Stalker sought an 8-year deal, for which he had definitely picked the wrong time with Alberto Ramos' emergence on the scene. The Raccoons were not ready, nor willing to sign anybody to an 8-year deal right now, much less Stalker. West and Armetta would not receive an offer. That left what was ostensibly the 2-3 punch in the rotation, the Cuban Chavez and the Dominican Gutierrez. These two I actually tried to get to sign a long-term deal in the 5-year range to take out a few years of free agency, but none of them would have anything of that. Much the contrary, both were seeking a 1-year agreement well north of $1M.

This was a dangerous situation, since they would be eligible for arbitration twice more (both of them) and the more they got this year, the more they were likely to get the next two years. It also made it difficult to submit an offer to the arbitrator, because if we bid too low, they would still get their insanity put into a contract.

For two nervous nights I considered trading Chavez for ANYTHING even before arbitration, but the realized I could do that afterwards just as well. Chavez had not been *bad*. He had been perfectly decent for a #3 or #4 pitcher with a 3.70 ERA, although he definitely lacked the sparkle of some other members in the rotation. Gutierrez was a legit #2, which was worrisome. Steve from Accounting tried his best to give me an offer for arbitration that would take out Rico's greed. In the end we had to settle for a $700k offer, hoping dearly he wouldn't get the $1.2M he had sought in contract negotiations.

All of this was taking place with Dan Delgadillo on a guaranteed $1.75M contract, fifth-highest on the team. After missing most of the season following a certain little elbow procedure in September of 2024, he had made seven starts at the tail end of the season, getting drubbed for a 5.44 ERA. The BABIP had not been in his favor (.319), but he had managed to surrender NINE homers in just 43 innings after allowing "only" 17 dingers in 182.1 innings in his rookie season. His walks had been very low (1.9/9), which was assuring at least a bit that he wasn't the second top 5 earner on the team that would amount to zero value in the upcoming season. Make no mistake, at this point the rotation was really firmly set at Roberts, Gutierrez, Chavez, Legleiter, Delgadillo. Superficially, the main issue at this point was that Jack Sander had no options, not that Delgadillo was a little cranky coming back from Tommy John.

The actual arbitration hearings were full of surprises, some of them nasty.

First off, the Raccoons ridiculously offered more money to Tim Stalker than Stalker asked for, giving him the team offer of $622k by default. Well, that was an embarrassment! It got worse from here, though. We lost both arguments against Gutierrez and Chavez. It turned out though that Rico had bluffed during our contract negotiations and had only sought $812,500 in arbitration. That he got, so roughly a hundred grand more than offered.

The terrible news concerned Jesus Chavez, whom we had offered $1.2M to, but he was actually awarded the staggering sum of $1.5M. If we had any sort of connections to Cuba, we would definitely investigate whether the arbitrator had any distant siblings there remotely related to Chavez' great-great-aunt, thrice removed…!

With that hole ripped into our pouch of gold coins (all in all, the arbitration disaster cost us about half a million extra), the rest of mid-November was about picking up the pieces. With some minimum contracts off the books, Steve from Accounting ultimately reported back that we had about $1.8M of budget room available at the start of the hot free agency period.

Those $1.8M had to suffice to make up 14 games on the Titans. The Titans however had extended a few of their impending free agents, losing only a few players from the second row to free agency, including Tim Robinson, Trent Herlihy, Hwa-pyung Choe, and a few others that had made even less impact.

It occurred to me during this time that the Raccoons' lineup was pretty much locked. I mean, there was the ongoing conundrum of what to do with Cookie (first clue: he was ready and eager to invoke his 10/5 rights), but there were very few positions where an upgrade was easily achieved. Matt Nunley was of formidable defense, but hadn't torn out trees with his bat in a long time. The Raccoons needed more offense first and foremost, and the Titans had a young third baseman Adam Corder that had led the league with an insane 129 walks this season and had reasonable speed to bat leadoff for us, too. How about flicking third basemen and picking up some detritus to entice the Ti- oops, no, Matt Nunley was also invoking his 10/5 rights.

The Titans were ready to trade Adam Corder for the right price. That price to them was Alberto Ramos, straight up.

Hel-lo, more sleepless nights!

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November 10 – Seven months after being concussed during Opening Week, LVA RF/LF Justin Dally (.282, 303 HR, 1,176 RBI) announces his retirement. Dally, 37 years old and a 9-time All Star, who would have been a free agent, has cited post-concussion syndrome as main factor behind his decision to not seek another contract this winter. It was just one injury too many for a prime slugger that was hampered by a failing body his entire career, appearing in more than 110 games only nine times in a 16-year career.
November 19 – The Canadiens trade 25-yr-old INF Raul Mendez (.271, 10 HR, 47 RBI) to the Falcons for two decent but unranked prospects.

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*I suspect the old weirdness from previous versions is still alive here. I remember Scott Wade being an absolute beast despite having only two pitches and being used as a starting pitcher for over a decade and never asking for anything more than reliever's money. While Sander has four (so-so) pitches, sufficient stamina, and his projected role according to my scout is as a starter, the Cyclones definitely fancied to use him in relief. There is no real base for a second-time arbitration-eligible starting pitcher to sign for $280k though. Even if he was a waiver claim, and even though he was horse manure in the second half.