[Westheim]

The Raccoons started the offseason by nibbling around their arbitration cases and trying to convince the odd free agent or other to stay around and win more rings. He first things worthy of reporting were actually moves to avoid arbitration with Preston Porter and Victor Merino with new 1-year deals. The two pitchers signed for $420k and $550k, respectively.

Another open personnel question was settled in late October as well. Manny Fernandez had failed to meet the requirements of his $1.5M vesting option, which would have required to not make a home of the DL, but the Raccoons (or maybe just me) wished to keep his, uh, veteran savvy around for a bit longer. Manny also liked the size of the food bowls and had nowhere else to go to after almost 20 years in the Raccoons’ system, and so signed on for just $725k for the 2048 campaign.

Since we were already on throwing around Nick Valdes’ money – Mike Lynn was also kept in the fold for an eye-watering $10.8M over the next four years, a flat contract with no kinks in it. Closer’s money wasn’t what it used to be…!

Thinking about it, Jason Wheatley signed his furry bottoms way too cheap when he signed a new 7-year deal with the Raccoons that would net him $24.5M. That one was also flat; the last year was a vesting option requiring 140 innings pitches. Wheats had wanted a 10-year retirement deal, but I was able to beat some sort of sense into the boy!

But that was also the point where we had to apply a touch of handbrake where it came to throwing out the dosh. Our budget was rich, but not infinite. Then there was trouble on the arbitration front with Okuda, who also longed for an extensive deal, but we were not keen on signing him through age 38 all at once, but all that did was send a 7-figure case to the arbitrator’s table, which… y’know, not ideal!

It also meant that we didn’t see room in the budget for Aaron Curl and Nelson Mercado, both of whom saw themselves entitled to millions. Seven figures for a closer was one thing; seven figures to a situational lefty was a bit hefty. And Mercado was a good tool to have at the top of the order, but he was just asking for too much, especially with Pat Degenhardt flashing a yellow light where he saw Mercado’s agility going in the near future.

The last two contracts were signed in early November. Arturo Carreno inked for $630k, and Al Martell, who wanted a 3-year deal, got a 1-year contract worth $700k. The Carreno contract wasn’t for long though…

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October 21 – The Condors acquire LF/RF Ethan Moore (.257, 125 HR, 641 RBI) from the Wolves, who receive a prospect.
October 27 – The Indians pick up right-hander Sang-hoon Kim (14-11, 4.56 ERA, 3 SV) from the Capitals for a prospect.
November 6 – The Raccoons trade MR Josh Rella (24-18, 3.14 ERA, 175 SV), OF Ken Mills (.269, 3 HR, 16 RBI), and 2B Arturo Carreno (.260, 15 HR, 147 RBI) to the Rebels for C Kevin Prow (.283, 27 HR, 194 RBI) and 20-yr old AA 3B Ed Crispin.

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Prow had been the Aces’ primary catcher for a few years before becoming a backup in the Federal League. He was going to be the new backup here, behind Ruben Gonzalez. We tried to get a lefty counterpart for Ruben again, but there was just nobody available. There were a few young and promising left-handed batting catchers on bad teams that wouldn’t give them up, and there was 37-year-old Manichiro Toki, who we tried to acquire a few years back when he had not yet been 37…

So wasn’t the price for a backup catcher a tad high? We also got Crispin, an unranked but quite promising third base prospect. Thunderous arm with above-average range – and quite strong speed! The bat was expected to be more of a .240 stick with power, which wasn’t bad to have in the pipeline. He would only turn 21 later in the month and had split this season between two organizations and three minor league clubs, and would be assigned to Ham Lake.

The Rebels got a second baseman we were basically through with, an outfielder that wasn’t quite getting into the lineup any time soon, and then Josh Rella, a longtime righty on this team. For Rella, walks had been up in 2046, but down this year; instead the homers and hits had gone up. He was losing effectiveness with the slider, so that basically left him with his fastball, and that at age 30 and signed for another two years. It was not the worst deal, especially with Kevin Hitchcock right there to slide into the open spot.

Let’s just say we didn’t tear out a leg here.

There were other trade proposals that were considered. Foremost probably the Thunder, offering up Angelo Zurita, either for Mills or for Pat Gurney, but always for Rafael de la Cruz, the young pitcher that had cost us seven figures to sign this July, and I was all nah on signing off on that, even though Zurita would be a *great* leadoff hitter, batting left-handed and being cheaper than Mercado would be.

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2047 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: DAL OF Tylor Cecil (.331, 38 HR, 148 RBI) and OCT C Jesus Adames (.320, 27 HR, 93 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: SAC SP Mike McCaffrey (17-7, 2.18 ERA) and ATL SP Brian Buttress (15-7, 2.92 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: TOP C Brett Banks (.300, 27 HR, 107 RBI) and IND 3B Bobby Anderson (.262, 9 HR, 59 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: CIN CL Ross Mitchell (9-1, 1.61 ERA, 36 SV) and POR CL Mike Lynn (5-2, 1.54 ERA, 44 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P DAL Arthur Pickett – C TOP Brett Banks – 1B NAS Alejandro Ramos – 2B RIC Lance Harrison – 3B DAL Jose Rivas – SS PIT Ed Soberanes – LF SFW Mario Villa – CF DAL Tylor Cecil – RF SAC Nate Culp
Platinum Sticks (CL): P CHA Jerry Felix – C OCT Jesus Adames – 1B ATL John Marz – 2B OCT Jonathan Ban – 3B POR Jesus Maldonado – SS OCT Ryan Cox – LF IND Danny Rivera – CF SFB Alex Marquez – RF OCT Juan Benavides
Gold Gloves (FL): P TOP Kuniyoshi Nagai – C RIC Kyle Duncan – 1B PIT Aaron Brayboy – 2B DEN Ivan Villa – 3B DAL Jose Rivas – SS TOP Adriano Chavez – LF DAL Juan del Toro – CF PIT Jayden Ward – RF WAS Brian Nigro
Gold Gloves (CL): P MIL Ruben Guzman – C LVA Kevin Weese – 1B MIL Erik Bush – 2B OCT Jonathan Ban – 3B CHA Bobby Thibault – SS VAN Rick Price – LF MIL Bill Reeves – CF ATL Jon Alade – RF DEN Armando Luis Herrera