Retirements of note: OF Zack Wells, who spent most of his career with Toronto and was the pre-eminent leadoff man of his generation, had his #13 retired by the Jays, and the wonderfully-named Dusty Buzzard.
Former Rays hanging up the cleats: SP Gordie Ager, who won the 2046 Cy Young with Tampa Bay and went 73-26, 3.63 over 4 1/2 seasons with us and won 4 rings, closer Willie Minier, one-time backup C Akio Suzuki, IF Jeff Googins, 1B/DH Ben Hill, OF Jesus Castrellon, and RP Micah Crickenberger.
Awards season:
Gold Glove: Thought 2B Dantel Chinchilla would have a real shot but he was beaten out by Boston 2B and former Rays farmhand Tony Loera.
Reliever of the Year: Speaking of former Rays, our erstwhile lefty setup guy Mel Mejia took the AL award with Houston where he won 7, saved 40 and put up a 2.14 ERA, taking 28 first-place votes. Our Edgar Voisin, for whom I voted, finished 4th. In the NL Milwaukee's Josh Meenach saved 45 games with a 2.07 ERA for the nod there.
Silver Slugger: The only Ray to win was the obvious choice, CF Jesus Avalos who's probably destined for the MVP.
Rookie of the Year: In what was a virtual tie, LA's Ruben Cummings got the nod over Oklahoma City's Juan Mendez by virtue of one additional first-place vote (16-15) as they ended up tied on overall points. Cummings hit .276-21-80 while Mendez hit .274-21-110. Mendez also out-WAR'd Cummings 5.0 to 3.8 so he kind of got the shaft. In the NL there was no controversy as Cincinnati's slugging 1B Ramon Herrera won unanimously after putting up a rookie season for the ages at .310-50-125 with 7.2 WAR and he'll be heard from in the MVP race as well.
Cy Young: Houston's Randy Heller is your AL winner, taking 24 first-place votes after a 15-7, 3.15, league-best 5.9-WAR season. Our Dave Rose finished 4th. St. Louis' Lienhard Moser won the NL trophy with a 16-4, 3.02, 5.3-WAR season that earned him 29 first-place votes.
MVP: The worst-kept secret:
His 8.5 WAR was the AL's best and second in MLB. Our "other" Avalos, Ezequiel, finished 5th and Nesty de la Rosa finished a distant 14th. In the NL Bill Jones of Indianapolis, who was the MLB leader in WAR at 8.8, was voted MVP after a .324-54-145 mega-season, picking up 27 first-place tallies.
We made a trade to address the bullpen:
Guardado is a lefty who's rated 65/75/46 and earned 3.6 WAR combined over the past two seasons, fine numbers for a reliever. He will cost us $4.3M this coming season, eating up about half of our available money, so this could be the extent of our offseason shopping spree. We'll still need a couple of more arms somehow, and we might have to trade some salary to get them.
November 27: We lost our only arbitration case as Dantel Chinchilla will make $11.8M instead of $10.8M we offered, so there's another million we won't have to spend, and here's our situation in black and white (and green):
December 15: Former Ray Jon Morales, whose career looked to be on a Hall of Fame trajectory after winning MVPs in his first and third MLB seasons in 2049 and 2051 with us before falling off a cliff and being dealt to Oakland, signed a 4/71 deal with San Diego. After a dreadful 2053 he did bounce back to hit 33 HR for the A's last season and earned 4.4 WAR, so perhaps he'll get going again.
December 17: Tim Johnson, who went 31-11 in his first two seasons with us before pitching his way out of the rotation last year, signed a modest 1-year, $3.6M deal with St. Louis which of course is even too rich for our blood.
December 18: We signed a free agent! How, you say? Well he didn't cost anything as it was a minor league deal but say hello to this guy:
The Korean came over in the pro IFA wave and has the makings of a leadoff hitter-type with strong contact, speed and defense potential (although it looks like he swings at everything so his OBPs will be iffy).
December 21: Placed 3B Bobby Tafoya, 3B Xavier Bush, 1B Vinny Colon and OF Angel Vigil on the 42-man roster.
None of these guys are slam-dunk prospects but could provide useful depth down the road. Tafoya and Bush are bat-first guys who are more 1B/DH-types than real 3B, one-time bonus baby IFA Colon probably won't hit enough to be a regular MLB 1B but just might, and Vigil seems a well-rounded CF who could make it in the next year or two. We still have 4 spots open so if someone intriguing is available in Rule 5 we could take him like we did BJ Boys last year, although Boys didn't really contribute much and may go to Durham next year.
December 22: Selected P Phil Westrom from the NY Yankees in the Rule 5 Draft, lost 1B/DH Marco Cano to Oakland.
We added another bullpen arm in Westrom, who isn't overpowering but effective, rated 50/60/60 with 65 control potential. The 27-year-old had pitched for Detroit and put up a 3.15 ERA in 34 IP with the Yankees last year with a 7/25 BB/K ratio. He'll probably be the last man out of the pen but he came free. Cano is a 36-year-old DH who did hit .330 in limited action at Durham but is nobody we'll miss.