Of more than a dozen type A free agents this offseason, those remaining in the new years were mostly first baseman ostensibly past their prime, with Alberto Rodriguez, Gil Rockwell, Stan Murphy, Steve Butler all lingering. The Raccoons had no interest in any of them (although I did half-heartedly try to trade for Rockwell a number of years ago), they were after Manobu Sugano secondly, and Michael Foreman firstly.
The Foreman deal was taking a long time to take shape. Entering bidding with a $2.4M offer over two years, the Raccoons were soon in for it for more than $3M total. This was becoming an issue as at least six teams were bidding on the best remaining starting pitcher that was not encumbered with free agent compensation. Our budget was simply not big enough to go much beyond $1.6M per year.
The bidding progressed past that by the beginning of February. I offered 3-yr, $4.5M, but he wouldn’t take it, sparing me the woes a few years from now where to dump that third year of his contract to. My final offer was for $1.6M in 2021, $1.8M in 2022. It had to be that, or else…
OR ELSE … DAMANI KNIGHT!!
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January 7 – Former Rebels SP Cody Zimmerman (107-100, 3.67 ERA) wins a 6-year contract from the Crusaders. The 30-year old left-hander will make $20M over the length of the deal.
January 8 – The Raccoons reunite with 35-yr old ex-DEN MR Manobu Sugano (17-13, 2.64 ERA, 14 SV). The left-hander pitched for the Raccoons from 2012 through 2016 and comes back aboard for a 1-yr, $300k deal.
January 18 – Former OCT C Casimiro Schoeppen (.259, 43 HR, 407 RBI) signs a 2-yr, $1.62M contract with the Rebels.
January 29 – 28-year old SFW SP Jose Acosta (44-34, 3.38 ERA) announces his retirement after failing to recuperate from a torn labrum suffered in July. The Colombian right-hander had surgery twice, neither being successful.
January 31 – 36-year old ex-Knight 1B Gil Rockwell (.266, 362 HR, 1,063 RBI) lands the Scorpions’ first base job with a 3-yr, $8.12M contract.
February 2 – Ex-WAS SP Ted McKenzie (96-103, 4.34 ERA) becomes a Pacific thanks to a 4-yr, $11.82M offer from the Los Angeles team.
February 2 – 32-year old INF Emilio Farias (.318, 7 HR, 563 RBI) split 2020 between the Bayhawks and Loggers and has now hooked up with the Rebels on a 2-yr, $2.44M deal.
February 10 – The Scorpions’ former first baseman, 38-year old Alberto Rodriguez (.292, 169 HR, 1,265 RBI) gets a 2-yr, $2M deal from the Blue Sox to continue his career. The Blue Sox will be Rodriguez’ fifth team, all in the Federal League. Rodriguez has led the FL in doubles six times, including this past season.
February 13 – MIL SP Ian Prevost (41-31, 2.81 ERA) falls off the roof of his house while trailing to patch a leak. The Loggers announce that he is well, but will have to delay his season preparations by two weeks with an undisclosed injury, which the media soon speculates is a butt bruise.
February 20 – Ex-NAS 1B Steve Butler (.305, 285 HR, 1,225 RBI) can’t get more than a 1-yr, $750k contract from the Aces. Butler, 36, batted .296 with 22 HR and 100 RBI in 2020.
February 20 – The 2020 season of RIC SP Mike Brugh (78-58, 3.61 ERA) ended in May, when the 30-year old right-hander tore his medial collateral ligament. Nine months later, he still struggles with putting weight on his leg and will require more surgery to fix the knee. Returning to pitching is out of the question for him; Brugh announced his retirement in the afternoon.
February 23 – The Raccoons win the bidding race for ex-NYC/TOP SP Michael Foreman (36-59, 3.98 ERA) with a 2-yr, $3.4M offer.
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Wheez. That one came down right to the wire. Without Foreman I really don’t know what we would have done. The free agent market was picked thin thanks to the season being merely five weeks away.
Did I mention that Foreman has struggled to remain healthy for his entire career? Nah, between him and “Bloody” Bricker, what can even go wrong?
There was the slightest predicament with the Sugano signing. Manobu had worn #30 during his first stint with the Critters, but we had given that one out to Matt Hamilton the previous month – he had also worn #30 with the Aces. Hamilton wasn’t giving it back now, and Sugano had to settle for #35.
To get Sugano onto the major league roster, we had to DFA another player. To my surprise, we managed to sneak AAA 1B Russ Greenwald through waivers. Not that there was anything special to Greenwald, a 26-year old AAA player with horrendous defense and precious little power (11 HR in 2020). I shopped him before waiving him in the hopes of getting a negligible minor leaguer in return and shave $170k off the payroll, but the only teams interested were the Warriors and Stars, and both were overbudget and couldn’t claim Greenwald off waivers.
Nick Lester was waived and designated for assignment when we signed Foreman in late February, but he also found no takers.
Right now we still have 15 pitchers on the extended roster, which includes the rotation (Toner, Santos, Abe, Foreman, Garrett), plus Joel Davis, who will go back to the 60-day DL once the season starts. We have nine other relievers who are currently not dead in the water: Lillis, Bricker, Boynton, Chun, Cowen, Kaiser, and Sugano will be on the roster anyway. I am currently trying to work Ryan Nielson onto the roster as additional long man, but every time I try, I end up counting 26 players. Blake Kelly is the odd guy out that nobody really needs for anything.
If the Raccoons would carry Nielson on the roster as well, that would give them four left-handed relievers, also an odd mix, plus we don’t have the roster spot to begin with. Except I can somehow skim a few pounds off everybody and hide the remains in a suitcase when he hit the road.
How do you fit 26 players on the 25-man roster after all? Something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgfT2myMQl8 – in reverse!
Also: Joey Mathews signed for $352k with the Gold Sox; Jason Bergquist is back in the division with $246k from the Crusaders; Luis Reya joined the Cyclones for $332k;