A couple of former Rays retired: one-time leadoff guy Mike "Slingshot" Willis, who was a regular in 2041-44 with us including a 339/403/485 season with 54 steals in 42 and had 4 rings to show for it, and more significantly Seth Williams who played alongside Willis and had a great 7-year run with us:
He was Rookie of the Year in 2041 and AL MVP in 2042. While he tailed off the near the end of the stint with us and had to be moved off 2B, he was still a key member of 6 championship squads.
Some (not unexpected) news:
Awards season:
Gold Glove: Nope, no Rays as expected.
Reliever of the Year: LA's Danny Arellano, 6-2, 2.74 with 18 saves, and only 0.8 WAR, was an inexplicable winner. Our Steve Talbott for example had a league-high 40 saves, the same ERA, and was worth 2.1 WAR yet only received my first-place vote and no others. And Arellano got 25 of 32 first-place votes! A much more worthy winner in the NL as former Ray and current Cub Steve Falcon, who had 43 saves, a 1.74 ERA and 3.7 WAR took the nod.
Silver Slugger: Luis Barela (3B) and Jesus Avalos (CF) took home the awards for the home team.
Rookie of the Year: Toronto's Keith Billingsley was a unanimous winner, as he should have been after a .297-46-128 season. Apparently our 19-game winner Randy Mastropietro was ineligible as I wasn't able to vote for him even though he came into the season under the 50-inning threshold (44.2 IP). He would have been a worthy 2nd place finisher. In the NL the fabulous freshman was Indianapolis OF Bill Jones, who hit .326-19-61 in 316 AB after being called up in June.
Cy Young: LA's Marco Agria was the clear winner with 26 first-place votes after a 15-9, 3.07, 6-WAR season. Our boy Mastropietro finished 3rd and Dave Rose placed 7th. The NL winner was unanimous as Randy Heller and his 15-4, 1.94 showing led MLB in pitcher WAR at 6.8. The Rays vanquished both these hurlers in the playoffs on the way to a championship.
MVP: Toronto's superstar C David Evans was a runaway winner thanks to a .327-40-100, 8-WAR season. Our Jesus Avalos was the runner-up and managed 3 first-place votes to Evans' 27. Luis Barela and Ezequiel Avalos got a handful of down-ballot votes. The Dodgers' Gerald Minotes was a near-unanimous winner in the NL with the teammate and Cy Young winner Randy Heller getting the lone non-Minotes first-place vote. Minotes hit .305-44-115 and earned 7.2 WAR.
November 25: We lost our two arbitration cases with the guys who didn't want to sign 1-year deals, with David Morales making about $130K more than offered and Ben Hilton about $500K so no big deal.
December 5: Two of the big award winners became free agents, and while NL MVP Gerald Minotes tested the waters he decided to stay with the Dodgers thanks to a massive 8/304 deal. However his former teammate and Cy Young winner Randy Heller has moved on to Houston for 4/118.
December 14: Some team news:
We fill a hole on the pitching staff with Villarreal, and while his numbers aren't eye-popping consider he's spent his entire MLB career to date pitching at Coors Field. In 2052 he was worth 4 WAR although he fell off to replacement value last year. The righty can start or relieve and is rated 55/60/65 as a starter (and still with a little potential to get the stuff up to 60). How the rest of the winter shakes out will determine what role we use him in but at a little over $5M/year he's not breaking the bank.
And the pitching staff rebuild continues on:
Voisin had been Cleveland's closer the last five years, racking up 177 saves in the process and enters the final year of his contract at a modest $3.5M. He boasts 75 stuff and 65 movement (along with 45 control), and will likely slot in as our closer with Mario Berumen (who's capable of multiple innings) setting up. The price was Correa, our first-round pick in 2051 who may yet turn into an MLB starter, but if so it should be at the back end of a rotation.
December 22: It's Rule 5 time but we didn't really have any minor leaguers worth adding to the 42-man even though we have several openings. And instead we added a guy:
Aside from having a great name, B.J. Boys has a very interesting profile. Most importantly for us, he's a RH hitter who can play the corner OF positions well, and he has an incredible eye, drawing 98 walks in AAA last year. He hit 321/433/460 and was good for 5.3 WAR in Omaha last year and while he won't do anything close to that in the bigs he'll make a great 4th/5th OF who can platoon a bit, pinch-hit and play defense. He's also versatile and played 52 games at SS where he was frankly terrible, but that's another feather in his cap.
We did lose AAA 1B Danny Orosco to the Mets - he has a somewhat similar offensive profile to Boys as he has a 70 eye but is average elsewhere. Unlike Boys though he's a LH hitter and a 1B only, so of no use to us.
December 29: Who says you can't go home again?
Welcome back Doug Johns! Yes he's in the twilight of his career at age 38 but still hit 31 HR and 96 RBI for the Cubs last season and gives us a (sorry BJ Boys) legit RH OF threat. Johns of course was a fixture in our lineup from 2041-2048 and was a key player in winning 7 titles in those 8 seasons, hitting 310/366/527 with 204 homers in that time.
December 30: The first of our free agents to sign elsewhere was starter Vinny Miranda, who was kind of our bad-luck charm and never did pitch in the postseason, joined Oklahoma City for 3/47. Meanwhile former Ray and reigning NL Reliever of the Year Steve Falcon decided to stay with the Cubs for 2/25.