[Westheim]

As usual, we will start the offseason by taking a cautious look at the coffers. The Raccoons ranked tied for 10th with the Capitals with a $32.5M budget in 2027, and would have an extra million available in 2028, increasing their budget to $33.5M. This will place them in ninth place among all 24 ABL teams in how much money the could wash down the drains.

In the context of the CL North, the Raccoons were holding the third-biggest budget behind the second-overall Titans ($41.5M) and the Crusaders, who tied for fifth place with the Aces with a $36M budget. The other top 5 teams were the Pacifics ($44M), Scorpions ($38M), and Gold Sox ($37.5M).

The bottom five in the league were Loggers, Indians, and Stars all tying for 19th with $23.6M, the Blue Sox with $22M, the Falcons with $21.8M, and Wolves with $21M. The only missing CL North team were the damn Elks, sitting in 14th place with $31M.

The average budget for 2028 was $31.2M, while the median budget was $32.25M.

So, with that out of the way we could delve right into personnel! The full salary arbitration table will be at the bottom of this entry.

The Raccoons had six players lined up for free agency, among who Jeff Kearney was the only pitcher. The lefty specialist had pitched 54.1 innings for a 2.82 ERA for an investment of only $700k, which sounded like something we might want to look into resigning again if we could find the money in the budget (more on that below). Like all other free agents, Kearney would not command a compensation pick if signed by another team.

The position players lined up for free agency included starters Matt Nunley, a 15-year veteran with the Critters, and Abel Mora, who had been in Portland for four years and in Oregon for all nine years of his career. On top of that, 16-year Coon Cookie Carmona was lined up for free agency as well as bit pieces Steve Hollingsworth and Daniel Bullock. The Brazilian shortstop was probably the most perplexing case. A career .232/.304/.287 batter for his career (69 OPS+), he had sometimes managed to reach free agency at age 29.

Now, who would get an offer, and who could get an offer?

The Raccoons had to calculate with $23M of commitments as the offseason began, which included both guaranteed contracts and arbitration estimates. The guaranteed contracts were actually not that many, but they were almost all quite pricey. Rich Hereford ($2.5M), Kevin Harenberg ($2.4M), Mark Roberts ($2.3M) all were due more than two million bucks in '28, and only Roberts was a free agent after that season. There were also sizable commitments to Kyle Anderson ($1.8M), Rafael Gomez ($1.7M), Rico Gutierrez ($1.4M), plus $875k guaranteed to Rin Nomura for the final year of the 3-year deal he signed coming out of Japan, *after which* he would still be under team control for another four years if we so desired. Nomura would not be eligible for free agency until he'd turn 34.

That was it – everybody else was lined up for arbitration, where the math could be treacherous. Dan Delgadillo f.e. carried an arbitration estimate of $2M, and this was not going to be his final time of a "second-tier" player under team control for lack of a better word. He would also still be arbitration eligible in the fall of '28, although at this point we were highly incentivized to seek a deal with him while he was 24 years old, his talent was unquestioned, although his two full seasons had been quite uneven – he had been a whole lot better in '26 than in '27…

Other pricey arbitration cases included Tim Stalker ($1M est.), Jonathan Snyder ($788k), Elias Tovias ($660k), with a handful of relievers also sprinkled in. The bottom line was $23M that had already been spent or were arbitration estimates.

The Raccoons now had to look carefully at that roster and decide where it needed resigning and/or patching. Of course, the offense needed major patching, and not because of the free agents. The absolute dearth that the team had gone through in July and August, and for bits in September, had been utmost excruciating and also downright unacceptable. I didn't even know where to start, though – on paper, we had great talent! And it was not like all could be blamed on injuries; the Raccoons had already sucked before injuries had culled Roberts, Anderson, Ohl, and Snyder for the season in July and August, and before they had lost Alberto Ramos for most of the final two months. Ramos aside, we had actually had *very few* injuries to position players in 2027. And the offense had still stunk it up, ending eighth in the CL with 660 runs scored, down 42 markers from the previous season, when the personnel on the roster would make you expect them to score something like 750-ish runs at least, something they hadn't done in six, seven years, depending on your interpretation of "-ish".

It was, really, all a mess.

Now, what do we have in fact lined up for 2028? We technically have a full rotation, although Kyle Anderson and Mark Roberts are both at least questionable for Opening Day. Anderson is a lock to miss the start of the season, and about Roberts the Druid refuses to tell me, which is never a good sign. But with the advent of George James, who pitched almost 100 respectable innings (6-4, 3.62 ERA) in addition to a 2-1, 3.13 ERA cameo in 2026, and who can actually swing the bat and could be a good deal of fun in the future, the Raccoons have at least Anderson well covered in the early going. If we need a sub for Roberts, we might want to try and patch things with an in-house solution (Barzaga? The thought makes me shiver) in April rather than spend half a million on an experienced veteran that would then have to be subjected to waivers by May or so.

So the Raccoons are not in the market for a starting pitcher. They might be in the market for a reliever, but between Boles, Ohl, Snyder, and Surginer, the tough end of the pen seems to be fortified. Don't forget McLin, either, who finished strong after a wonky April where he almost got booted to St. Petersburg, and Billy Brotman, who nobody ever talks about, but who is also still under team control. Now, does the open spot go to Kearney? If we settled on Boles as closer (1.21 ERA, 18 SV in 2027), we might want to add a left-handed reliever, and then we could pursue the 34-year-old Kearney again. And I think Boles might keep that job, despite sucking up the 4,000th regular season loss for the franchise in a legendary meltdown against the damn Elks in September. Spun another way – that walkoff slam that Manny Sanchez hit off him on September 8? That was HALF of all the runs he conceded this year! Two in April, one in May, one in June, and then… Manny Sanchez.

The Coons and Tovias are mostly stuck with another right now, so we are at best looking at a new backup. Jing-quo Liu isn't it. Daniel Rocha probably isn't it either. Rocha went 3-for-3 against the Condors on August 30, then went 1-for-22 the rest of the way.

Then it gets complicated. The Raccoons had a multitude of players that could play a number of positions, and thus did not need any specific position player in the winter … with an asterisk. First base was locked down with Kevin Harenberg anyway. Since Ramos was the starting shortstop, Jarod Spencer would be at second… although, hold on, Tim Stalker has to go someplace. So Spencer in left – but where does Rich Hereford go? Hereford was an upside defender at second and third; very serviceable in the outfield corners; and could reasonably fill in at shortstop if the need arose. Unfortunately he was not exactly rangy in the outfield, so he could not be the centerfielder.

This was where the shoe was tweaking the toe, if anything: centerfield. Rafael Gomez could move over to centerfield, but we'd probably rather not. The impending free agency of Matt Nunley actually opened a Hereford-sized hole at third base, so we didn't have to watch Rich chase after triples in the gap, either. We could either go after Abel Mora in free agency, or take a gander at what personnel we already had, like Greg Borg (yuck) and good old Yeshiva Rambam alumnus Juan Magallanes, who was 24 and had gotten increasingly larger cups of coffee in the last three years. He had batted .230 overall in the majors, but that was in only 165 at-bats, quite a few of them as an undercooked 21- and 22-year-old. Truth be told, he had not the greatest hitting profile. Our head scout, whose name I totally knew, but had just momentarily forgotten, was not keen on the idea, but he disliked Greg Borg's stuff even more.

Let's not forget the most important man in the conversation, though. Steve from Accounting – how's the budget doing? – About three million to blow? – That sounds swell …!