Well as I said in my Nationals rebuild, the state of the team is pretty damn great. (It was something else winning two World Series in two saves on the same day.) It's going to be an eventful offseason in Tampa Bay with some turnover, and it started at the very top with a new owner:
Although Paige is said to be an economizer, he is giving me a $190M payroll for the upcoming season. And he was pretty light on the owner goals: reach the playoffs and build a team that can win the championship within 5 seasons. I think I can handle that, glad there's no "re-sign aging free-agent-to-be" goal.
Speaking of free agents to be, we have quite a few of them as I've been mentioning of late. The biggest are perennial 40-HR, 120-RBI guy Kelly Crumpton and slugging OF Dong-hwan Kim. Also departing are starter Michael Prosecky, rental starter Francisco Morales, rental relievers DeMarcus Evans and Garrett Crochet and middle relief guys John Swanda and Slade Cecconi. Cecconi's demands are pretty reasonable (3/11) and he should be re-signed shortly. I also made one move to clear out $6M in salary:
Gutierrez had been one of the premier defensive CF in the league with ZRs above 11 from 2029-2031. But he tailed off so badly last year that he ended up with a -1.8 rating and since his hitting was always kind of iffy he lost his job at midseason to Orlando Tosado. And if he doesn't flash the leather he's kind of useless but had enough residual value to trade and we picked up Ferguson, whom I find very intriguing despite some rough numbers in Anaheim. He's rated 60/65/50 as a reliever and the stuff only drops to 55 as a starter with 65 stamina. So since we'll have two rotation spots to fill after Marlette/DiCostanzo/Mendes, I'm going to look at him as a starter.
So with Gutierrez gone this is how our salary situation shakes out:
I see Panzini as the 5th starter and I'm going to pay the $ to bring Josh Scanlon back to close and hope his 80/50/50 ratings aren't diminished too much when he comes back from injury. Not sure I tender Guzman, while he was good I think I can get him back cheaper since he's coming off a serious injury as well. Anyway keeping everyone listed here puts the payroll at $137M, giving me $53M to spend which is the most I think I've had to play with in this save. If I re-sign Crumpton that's going to eat up about half of that (and commit $20-something million for years to come).
So here's how I see things shaking out by position:
C: Contreras and Cartaya return.
1B: The big question mark. If Crumpton isn't brought back and I don't acquire someone to replace him, the internal solution is to take 2032's DH platoon of Strickland and J.Gutierrez and make it the 1B platoon. Top prospect Danny Arroyave could figure here as well:
I post his profile to show he decent he is now and how great he could be, and those were some numbers he put up at Montgomery last year. He doesn't even need to go on the 40-man yet, but he will either be our eventual 1B or 3B.
2B/SS/3B: Arturo Gutierrez, Wander and Cristian Hernandez all return.
IF backup: Could be either Jamie Reiner and/or Carlos Colmenarez but neither excites me much, could look at upgrading there although whoever has this role is going to play very little barring injury.
LF: This was Kim's slot and we're going to need an OF or two next year. We have limited internal options with JJ Cargill at AAA, who can hit for average (65/70 contact) and gap power, but has 50 HR power and is a 50 LF. We also have 2028 5th-rounder Jimmy Powell, who can rake (70 contact, 65 gap, 60 HR power, and that's current not potential), but is a horrible OF (35/40) so he's more of a DH possibility especially if Strickland/J-Gut end up at 1B.
CF/RF: Tosado and Baez are back.
OF: We'll need a backup OF as well as a LF, Caleb Hampton is the incumbent here but a candidate for upgrade.
DH: Wide open. If Crumpton is re-signed then of course Strickland and J.Gutierrez return in the role. If not, the rookie Powell is a possibility as well as J-Gut getting run against RHP. Bottom line is we're going to need a couple of bats, one to replace Kim and perhaps one to replace Crumpton.
SP: As mentioned before I'm looking at Marlette/DiCostanzo/Mendes/Ferguson/Panzini right now and I may give Cecconi his perennial chance to start assuming he's re-signed. We also have a pretty good prospect in David Morales at AA who's 55/60/50 rated with 55/70/65 potential. Randy Morris' 50/75/50 profile intrigues me but he needs a really good defense behind him.
Bullpen: Looking to Scanlon to close although Mike Moore is capable. Burpee and Feole return from the left side, Ruben Abeyta was decent in middle relief as was Eddie Yean. Jon Post also looked good after he came up for the second time and has setup potential. Will probably need at least one more high-quality arm here.
So job one is going to be to figure out whether to re-sign Crumpton. His stated demand is 8/195 and he's 30 years old. One thing about Crumpton I've never really talked about here as I've never used him this way is that he could be a 2-way player - he's rated 60/55/45 as a SP and has 65 stamina. If he's re-signed I could try him in the rotation and have him DH on his pitching days with Strickland at first. If I'm going to pay through the nose for him I might as well get my money's worth, but it ain't gonna be 8/195, I'd like it to be more 6/125 or 6/135.