[Westheim]

Three days after Game 4 I not only woke up, but actually got up from the couch. Rinsed my stupid snout with booze, hailed a stupid cab to the stupid office in the stupid ballpark, and got back to stupid work. Somebody had to, and if I didn’t, Cristiano Carmona might think he’s actually in charge.

Maud already had many messages from Nick Valdes for me, ranging from upset to aghast, but also the only one that I was really interested in – our new budget for the 2046 season. The Raccoons would have $46.5M to play with, the highest ever for the team and a juicy $3.5M up from last season (although we’d get into why it wasn’t enough before long).

The new budget put us 9th amongst all ABL teams, up two spots compared to last year.

The five (or six) richest teams were the Miners ($54M), Gold Sox ($53M), Pacifics ($49.5M), Bayhawks ($49M), and Stars and Crusaders in a tie ($48M each). At the bottom of the league sat a sextuple, too, with a tie for 19th place between the Aces and Loggers ($35.5M each), Condors and Buffaloes ($35M each), Wolves ($34M), and Indians ($32M). The remaining CL North teams sat in t-7th (VAN, $47M) and 16th (BOS, $40.5M).

The average budget for a team in the league rose to $42.56M, rising $120k compared to 2044. The median team budget or 2046 was $42.5M, up $250k from last season.

+++

…and despite an additional $3.5M in the coffers, the problems were just beginning for the Raccoons, who for the big bullet points had the following issues: Maldonado was a free agent, Wheats was not only ERA champ, but also first time arbitration-eligible, and there were a few Ricky Jimenez-sized millstones around their necks, hindering movement in any meaningful direction.

Maldonado had already signaled that he liked Portland, but he liked a pile of dosh from anybody, so he would not be cheap at all to resign.

Then there was the issue of a $2M team option on Jeff Kilmer, which didn’t look very merited at the current moment.

Looking into the list of arbitration cases, we also found Corey Mathers in there along with Zack Kelly and Nelson Moreno for pitchers, as well as Jose Zarate, Pat Gurney, Arturo Carreno, Omar Gutierrez, Jay de Wit, and Jonathan Dustal. The latter three all had estimates for up to half a million, and Zarate even more than that. With dosh needed to keep Maldonado in the fold, all four of those were immediately candidates for axing.

Maldonado was also the only compensation-eligible free agent we had. The other three free agents were relievers Jon Craig and Nate Norris (the latter still recovering from elbow surgery) an infielder Al Martell. We had young, cheap (!) righty relieving aplenty in the system, so we’d let the pitchers go in any case to save yet more money. Martell was not hitting a lot per se, but was a lefty to complement Carreno (who was not going to be axed quite yet despite a horrendous season) and versatile on the infield, and if we could resign him for around half a million or a little more than that, we’d jump on the opportunity.

The big one was Maldonado, though – he kept the whole shebang here together.

The millstones? Probably Jeff Kilmer if we picked up that option. The Raccoons’ catcher since the last time they got knocked out of a World Series (in 2037), he had raked a few seasons early in his career, but had not produced a 100 OPS+ season in four years. Zarate had hit even less. Ruben Gonzalez might make a solid backup after all (his major league BABIP was .213, and .167 in ’45, and nobody could be that unlucky forever), but the Raccoons would be in the hunt for a new starting catcher.

Also, if we could find some idiot to take on the last two years and $6M on Ricky Jimenez’ contract, that would be amazeballs. That would also free up a permanent position for Maldo, so that him, Toohey, Manny, Baskins, and Herrera can all play at once without standing on each other’s paws.

What do we have? Among the hitting core, Armando Herrera is signed another five years, Manny another three (including a vesting option), Toohey five (including a team option), and Baskins would be a free agent after ’46. Matt Waters won’t be eligible for arbitration until next fall, sitting on just over two years of service time right now.

For pitching, even with Wheats potentially winning seven figures by a contract or in arbitration, the Raccoons still have a cheap rotation (also inefficient). Okuda is signed at $1M for another year, and Jake Jackson is signed for three more years, each at $1.5M (including a team option). Mathers will get whatever in arbitration, and Merino will still be on the minimum. Whether that is a good enough rotation will still need evaluation. Whether we can *afford* more is on an entirely different piece of paper.

The pen will be partially rebuilt, with Rella and Moreno remaining on the right side, as well as Kelly and Chuck Jones on the left. Chuck Jones was inefficient at the end of this season, and had a matching slash to his scouting report, so that one will be interesting to watch in the final year of that 3-yr, $3.21M contract he signed before 2044. The other three spots in the pen can easily be filled with Porter, Ibold, and Marucci, all on the minimum.

Which brings us to another dead body, Brent Clark, who is signed for $1M in 2046 and literally can’t get anybody out anymore. He might actually be movable if you can convince some slow-brained front office that he’s a valid starter for their 90-loss operation. At least I keep telling myself that.

One more interesting case will be Pat Gurney, a terrific bat off the bench, who has a seven-figure arbitration price tag to his name. The Raccoons would not want to let him walk, either, and the question was whether he could be kept around for a deal of two or three years at a reasonable price (Manny money, more or less).