First off we bid farewell to several former Rays who are retiring from the game: Will Quintana, Ron Adams, Pat Moyer, Ted Hadley, Chris Martin and B.J. Turner. Among this group Quintana was the most significant as he held down our starting catcher job for a few seasons, and Adams was once a promising pitcher whose career was derailed by injuries.
But the big name retiring is our former long-time closer Kikuo Kawase, and we've retired his #17. He saved 341 games for us from 2033-2042 with a 1.67 ERA, 934 whiffs in 524 IP (!), good for 33.7 WAR and save another 28 in the postseason good for another 2.6 WAR. Truly one of the best closers of all-time after coming over Japan at age 26.
Awards season:
No Gold Gloves.
Reliever of the Year: Abelaldo Gray and Willie Minier finished 4-5 in the AL voting, which went to Mike Weber who saved 50 games for the White Sox.
Silver Sluggers: We won for Nelson Bocardo (C), Luis Barela (3B), and Doug Johns (RF).
Cy Young: An extremely close vote saw Oakland's Andy Velazquez edge out Cleveland's Damiano Raffone 152-141 with each garnering 12 first-place votes. Velazquez was 16-9, 3.42 with 207 whiffs in 234 IP. Downballot our Bob Riley finished 9th. Over in the NL it went to Milwaukee's David Avena who was 14-9, 2.76 with 230 Ks.
MVP: Chicago's Joel Taylor, who shared the award with Luis Barela in 2044 and won it last year, was the unanimous AL winner after a 304/391/638 with 52 HR, 130 RBI with 7.8 WAR. Barela, Doug Johns and Jose Castillo finished 4-5-6. In the NL former Ray Jimmy Leonard took the nod, hitting 289/370/569 with 42 HR and 120 RBI with 7.4 WAR.
November 19: Surprise, surprise. Seth Williams accepted the qualifying offer so it's status quo on the infield. Or at least until I trade him. Kevin Crater and Gordie Ager rejected their QOs and will become free agents.
November 21: The expansion draft was held and we lost IF Ed Herrera, who was up with us briefly last season when we had the rash of IF injuries and a former starter of ours whom we re-signed to a minor league deal last year, Jordan Perez. Seth Williams and his $17M one-year deal was not claimed.
November 23: We made a trade of prospects with the Yankees:
Handal was our July 2 signing back in 2043 and hasn't really panned out so far but he did draw considerable trade interest. The Yankees offered a couple of interesting prospects in Olivo and Kidd and by throwing in former 4th-round pick Kempton I was able to get them both. Here's the skinny on Olivo:
He had quite a season at AAA Trenton, earning 5.1 WAR and stealing 84(!) bases (he was also caught 31 times). He looks like .280-.290 hitter in the bigs with moderate power and a good eye. Positionally he's best off at 1B although he could be stuck in LF but he could be our leadoff hitter of the future.
Kidd meanwhile gives us a legit CF in the pipeline:
Like Olivo he had brilliant season last year in the minors and while he's never going to be a great hitter he looks like a legit speed/defense option for CF.
December 2: Big free agent signing as perennial all-star and former NL MVP Kevin Erickson left his long-time team the Rockies for NL champs St. Louis on a 3/92 deal. Even at 38 he was worth 6.2 WAR last year but he's listed as "fragile" so good luck Cardinals.
December 6: We went out and got our RH closer:
Colorado is picking up 60% of Carrasco's salary leaving us on the hook for $3.4M. He has 75 stuff, 65 movement and 60 control and will undoubtedly put up better numbers outside of Coors (although Publix Park is a hitter's paradise as well). Winkler was a good relief prospect himself but we were looking for someone more proven. I did however get a message that the players were leery of Carrasco as he is something of a malcontent. We have a good leadership core and the fan interest increased so we'll be alright.
December 7: After spending a year with us, playing great baseball and winning a ring despite missing the postseason with injury, Kevin Crater has returned to the only other team he played for, the Los Angeles Dodgers as the fragile 39-year-old signed a 2/46 deal. We pocket a 2nd-round supplemental pick since we qualified Crater.
December 8: And there goes our former ace and Cy Young winner Gordie Ager, off to the Astros on a 5/125 contract. We get a supplemental 1st-rounder for qualifying him.
December 9: Slugger Nelson Gamez, a perennial MVP candidate, one of the premier power hitters in baseball and a thorn in our side the last several years with the Yankees, is no longer our problem unless we face Atlanta in the World Series as the Yanks dealt him there for 3 prospects. Gamez is a free agent at the end of 2048.
Another trade:
We thought we'd get a draft pick for Seth Williams but instead we get a middle reliever. While we could have afforded to keep him around for another season he's started to drop off (down to 2.6 WAR last year) and he was blocking playing time for younger guys like Vinnie Rodriguez and Juan Davila (not to mention Tomas Laboy). Pasillas has very good ratings (65 stuff/60 movement/55 control) although his MLB numbers have been kind of lousy. We'll give him a shot though as this was just a salary dump deal. We now have close to $30M to spend so we'll see what's out there. I may just dump more of it into scouting and player development as our farm system is in the bottom third of MLB.
December 22: Added 1B Eric Wilson, 3B Steve Holt and Tony Olivo, OF Jon Morales and P Tim James to the 40-man roster.
Rule 5 time. We just traded for Olivo while Holt and Morales are our two top prospects. Both can hit but have questionable gloves. James is a potential closer if he can get his control under control and Wilson is a dark horse in our 1B derby.
December 23: Lost C Daryl Treitz to Boston and C Israyber Sampson to Minnesota in the Rule 5 Draft.
Treitz is a decent hitter who could hit .280-.290 in the bigs albeit without power and is only a 35 catcher while Sampson, who had a cameo with the big club in 2045 is another bat-first receiver who could hit .260 with 10-15 HR if he played every day but would give it all back behind the plate with a 30 rating on defense. Neither will be missed except as depth. I predict we get at least one of them offered back. It was a very active Rule 5 draft with 21 players taken including 5 by expansion Indianapolis and 3 by expansion Oklahoma City.
December 25: Another of our free agents departs for elsewhere as Ben Moses signed a 2/17 deal with the Cubs.