[Westheim]

While the Winter Meetings are usually about who signs a nice new toy or breaks it all down in a slurry of deals for prospects, this time it was also about who *wouldn’t* go to a new place. After a month in free agency, Jerry Outram signed with the damn Elks again, for a rather modest two years and $8.88M. Outram, 36, was a .330 hitter with 288 homers and 1,133 RBI – about 72% of those runs had been driven in against the Raccoons.

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December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 19 players are selected across three rounds. The Raccoons lose OF Curtis Scholl to the Falcons.
December 4 – Outstanding CF Armando Herrera (.314, 40 HR, 840 RBI) signs a 3-yr, $10.32M contract with the Thunder. The 36-year-old split 2050 between the Raccoons and Knights.
December 4 – Ex-OCT 3B/SS Angel Montes de Oca (.253, 69 HR, 440 RBI) gets a 3-yr, $3.66M contract from the Titans.
December 4 – 2B/3B Travis Malkus (.258, 56 HR, 410 RBI) is with the Blue Sox again, arriving in a trade from Topeka. The Buffaloes receive outfielder Pat Stipp (.245, 37 HR, 267 RBI) in exchange.
December 5 – Former Canadiens starter Mario de Anda (72-48, 3.75 ERA) gets a 3-yr, $10.08M contract from the Scorpions.
December 5 – 37-year-old former Stars INF/RF/LF Felix Marquez (.279, 175 HR, 862 RBI) signs a 2-yr, $5.28M deal with the Cyclones.
December 5 – The Warriors sign ex-DAL C Anton Mercado (.265, 111 HR, 538 RBI) to a 4-yr, $5.68M contract. The 33-year-old can surely hit, but he also has a reputation as a real clubhouse cancer.
December 6 – The Raccoons acquire INF/LF Brian Kaufman (.273, 28 HR, 288 RBI) from the Falcons in a trade for 2B John Castner (.251, 3 HR, 41 RBI).
December 13 – The Thunder land one of the biggest free agents on the market, winning over former Miners 3B/SS/RF Ed Soberanes (.314, 128 HR, 609 RBI) with a 6-yr, $41.1M offer. For the last three years of the deal, the now 27-year-old Soberanes will earn a record $7.6M annually.

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Kaufman for Castner is swapping a 30-year-old right-handed infielder for a 30-year-old right-handed infielder… except that Kaufman actually plays four positions where Castner only plays one, and I was trying to get more flexibility on the roster, and one good move in that regard was to find a good alternative for Ed Crispin to face lefty pitching. Kaufman was ticking that box really well, and he could also spell the other regulars in the middle infield or sub in the outfield if push came to shove, although he was really an infielder at heart. He was signed cheaply for 2051.

Scholl was the #32 pick in the 2047 draft, and he hit a bit in Ham Lake last year, but not so much after a promotion to St. Pete. He missed a whopping 135 games this year with a broken kneecap, and the Raccoons preferred to protect players that hadn’t suffered potentially career-drowning injuries, f.e. Rafael de la Cruz, Tyler Philipps, and Oscar Rivera.

In terms of prospects, rarely hailed Duarte Damasceno was emerging as a popular commodity, with both the Condors and Falcons making (bad) offers to grab him right at the start of the winter meetings. Damasceno had already been a talking point of the Baybirds in the Ken Crum deal. The Coons had signed him for $590k as an 18-year-old in the 2049 July IFA period, which was relatively old to be signed out of Venezuela. The righty had four good pitches and had already spent a full season in Aumsville, pitching to a 4.28 ERA in 30 games. He had already been ranked the #37 prospect before this season, so maybe that hadn’t been a complete waste of Nick Valdes’ money.

One other former Raccoon has found new employment: Eddy Luna, who got $894k over two years from the Caps;

And of course there is also a Hall of Fame ballot out there, including a few more former Raccoons. Cosmo Trevino spent quite some time in Portland. Ryan Bedrosian’s time was shorter, but he brought back a huge haul in a dismantling deal ten years ago: Wheats and Waters.