[Westheim]

January 9 – The Raccoons sign former Wolves MR James Murdock (45-53, 3.72 ERA, 120 SV) to a $900k contract for 2062.
January 16 – San Francisco acquires SP Jon Mendosa (9-11, 3.85 ERA) from the Wolves for a prospect. The 29-year-old Mendosa was a rookie in 2061.

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Heyyy, the Raccoons did a thing! And with the new season still almost three months away, they signed a … pretty run-of-the-mill reliever. Murdock was with the Loggers in 2060, where he never gained much attention, but twice was an All Star and in 2056 even led the FL in saves with the Wolves, in his first of two stints with them.

Now with that out of the way, it was time to go stupid.

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January 18 – In a major trade, the Raccoons ship CF Noah Caswell (.288, 86 HR, 546 RBI), MR Elijah LaBat (6-6, 3.04 ERA, 2 SV), AAA 1B Joe Agee (.205, 2 HR, 7 RBI), and #96 prospect SP Juan Arauz to the Gold Sox for 2B/SS Jim White (.266, 77 HR, 593 RBI) and SP/MR Adam Middleton (131-111, 3.98 ERA, 38 SV).
January 20 – The Coons add former Blue Sox LF/CF Malik Crumble (.265, 36 HR, 159 RBI) on a $600k contract.
January 22 – The Stars get SP Jorge Quinones (37-56, 4.29 ERA), who went a staggering 4-15 in ’61, from the Cyclones for 2B/SS Trevor Niemiec (.226, 54 HR, 236 RBI).
January 27 – The Knights sign former Wolves SP Anton Jesus (116-132, 4.42 ERA) for two years and $5.52M.
January 28 – Tijuana inks ex-NAS SP Kodai Koga (189-184, 3.78 ERA), giving the 38-year-old right-hander a 2-year, $12.4M contract.
January 29 – 29-year old former Aces ace Scott Evans (64-77, 4.44 ERA) gets a 3-yr, $9.04M deal with the Pacifics.
January 30 – The Raccoons flip 2B/LF Bernie Ortega (.262, 2 HR, 27 RBI) to the Pacifics for OF Carlos Mata (.247, 19 HR, 127 RBI).

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The Agitator called it a stupid trade, which was probably true, because it didn’t even free up any salary space since we had to eat almost $5M owed to Middleton, who was no longer an effective starter, had been used as closer by the Falcons in 2060, and was probably not going to do much more than put Justin DeRose on waivers to pitch garbage innings at an eye-watering per-inning rate. Jim White was the longtime Aces second-sacker and would start at the position until Nick Nye returned in May or June, and then could give Lonzo regular off time.

Did we really just blow another $736k (the additional salary taken on) just to get half a whisker of D in the outfield? Maybe it was a stupid trade after all.

Meanwhile, Malik Crumble had put up two strong half-seasons with the Blue Sox in 2056 and 2057, then cratered quite badly in his age 26 season and in the last three years had started only 20 games in the majors. He didn’t have options, in more than one meaning of the word, and it was likely that we’d try to sneak him through waivers in April for some depth in AAA, although when that signing was made the Raccoons only had five outfielders on the extended roster and the pre-season was approaching fast. Besides Brass, Morris, and Joe-Chris, the new starting outfield, and in that order from left to right, only Felix Ayala was on the roster, but he was also a right-handed batter. And that was before we made that nothing trade with the Pacifics for Carlos Mata, who came over for Bernie Ortega, one of the numerous substantially useless middle infielders clogging the 40-man and/or AAA rosters.

When I asked Steve from Accounting how much dosh we could still spend, he snickered, but I take we can squeeze in another contract for $1M or less…

There was still room for another right-handed arm in the pen even with the Murdock and Middleton additions. With Walters, Rocco, and Ricky H. from the left, and Sullivan and DeRose from the right there was probably still room for improvement. Never mind that another four relievers were still hanging around the extended roster: Adam Harris from the left, and Abrams, Barton, and Erickson from the right.

Other Critters with new dens: Chris Gowin joined San Fran for $720k; the Knights picked up Juan Ojeda for $590k; the Blue Sox signed Juan Mercado for $740k; the Rebs added Antonio Alfaro for $1.42M;