The rest of the offseason is pretty slow. You can only do so much with so little money. I sign Mattingly as a starting C for just under 7/yr. He's got a cannon for an arm. If he does half as well as his namesake then I'll consider it good business.
Rather than the usual star player signing in the INT, I end up signing three. With a rebuild in full swing, we'll need the farm to be better than it is. We sign a couple of East Asian lads. A well rounded 2b and a power hitter. To round things up, we grab a RP since good RPs are like an oasis in a desert in this OOTP.
Our final piece of business comes in the Rule 5 where we grab Valdes to help in relief.
The dev lab:
SP #5 Brackmann has a successful stint improving his secondary pitches. Hopefully he'll take this positive growth in the new season and move his way up the rotation.
CF Jon Arnold has a successful session, improving contact. Maybe he'll hit above .175 while his replacement Puentes finishes his recovery.
SP (hopeful) Dubois has a poor showing and sees a decrease in Velocity.
4th OF Moylan also sees a poor dev as his contact and power decline likely ending his career in the bigs. (yet to technically be seen).
No improvements from McWilliams in the stamina dept or former #88 prospect Gurriola in the secondary pitch dept.
This is the only OOTP save where I've had 4 decreases in as many years that are all significant.
But something finally heads our way. Draft lottery. Suddenly, the Lynx get a chance to bring in a big name with the #2 pick, jumping up 5 spots from #7. At a glance, it's a heavily hitting class. There's an interesting two way player that is mocked for pick 20 or so. Lots of scouting to do. What's not great is the figures some of these guys are asking for. 10+ million.
Spring Training we put forward a not so great effort, going
12-18. Grizz seems to be struggling. Mattingly and Arnold both went under .200 for spring.
It should be noted former #2 SP Tavares goes unsigned in FA. Montreal is where players go to decline it seems.
Opening day is early again, March 21st against the San Diego Snappers. Our system is 22nd with Gross leading as he has for the last few years at #42. He starts this season, plugging in at 2b. Former top #100 prospect, now #195, Gabe Garza will also start in the bigs this year, acquired last year in a trade for 5th OF option Rios. SP Alex Rios, (idk if there's a relation) #183, our #2 round pick in 2025 sits in AAA but will likely see a call up to the bigs if aka when one of our SPs falter.
Some nice names on waivers including former Lynx RP Manny Hernandez. Too bad we have no money to make any claims. Damn Crecelius and taking the arby offer. We will be looking to trade him ASAP.
English and Buck still hold to their top player status. English #14 among hitters and Buck #2 for pitchers.
We're projected at 76-86 for the season while our owner wants .500 ball with a #30 budget. (Payroll is 22nd).
We'll see what holds true when the season kicks off later this week.