[Westheim]

After evading the overtures of the Scorpions for the rest of the winter meetings, the Raccoons also found themselves still in possession of both Manny Fernandez – who continued to elicit no offers – and Jesus Maldonado, the only two established and useful hitters on the roster. Maldonado roused at least some interest, although mostly in exchange for older starting pitchers on not so great deals. Atlanta’s offer of David Farris (33-36, 3.65 ERA) was probably the best, but he was used to walking 100+ per season and had a haughty attitude, and was not the sort of difference maker one would look for.

And, actually, it would be a terrible deal to plunk a 28-year-old righty that was already signed through 2048 in front of the horde of highly-ranked SP prospects we were cultivating, while reducing the lineup to basically nothing. So, Maldo remained trapped on a mediocre ballclub.

With the additions of Jimenez and Castro, he would also move back to centerfield for the 2043 season. At the end of the winter meetings, the Raccoons also assigned Phil Haley back to the Alley Cats, since there was no room for him on the roster going forwards. Behind the starting four of Yamamoto, Carreno, Castro, and Jimenez we’d have Gutierrez and de Wit as backups, and if all else failed, Maldonado was also known to be able to fill in on the infield.

The outfield arrangement was now pretty much Manny in left and Maldo in center, and probably sort of a platoon between Waltz and Nettles in right. Van Anderson was a likely fifth outfielder, although that might leave us without a righty pinch-hitter except for the bench catcher.

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December 12 – NYC SP Jeff Johnson (33-16, 3.49 ERA) takes out a deer and various shrubbery with his car, breaking his leg in the process. Johnson is expected to miss three months, but the Crusaders hope that he will be back by Opening Day.
December 17 – Former Raccoons 2B/3B Enrique “Cosmo” Trevino (.319, 44 HR, 906 RBI), who is 38 shy of the 3,000 hits mark, joins the Capitals on a $1.52M deal for 2043.
December 18 – The Rebels get 2B Logan Arnold (.280, 22 HR, 183 RBI) from the Capitals, parting with 1B Miguel Barrientos (.287, 0 HR, 12 RBI) and a prospect.
December 20 – The Bayhawks scoop up ex-VAN SP Mike Mihalik (86-53, 3.53 ERA) for $19.52M over four years.
December 25 – The Caps gift themselves a new catcher with former Scorpions backstop Manichiro Toki (.244, 58 HR, 275 RBI) for 3-yr, $4.62M.
December 26 – 32-year-old SP Ignacio del Rio (125-141, 4.15 ERA), most recently with the Gold Sox, signs a 2-yr, $5.04M contract with the Titans.

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Other Raccoons with new feeding places: Matt Kilgallen got $530k from the Condors;

…..and that was about it for December. The Raccoons didn’t do anything worth writing home about. And why sign new players? We already had 17 pitchers on the extended roster that could not reasonably accommodated come April, and even the attempts at sly moves led nowhere. For example, I tried to cash in on a surprisingly competent half-season by Cory Lambert (really, the scouting report is grim) for something, anything, but apparently the other 23 teams all had the same scouting report, too… There had been the odd overpaid veteran on offer, but we were not quite that desperate to blow away Nick Valdes’ money.