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2023 Off-Season
On December 2nd the entire NABL community was in mourning after waking to the news that Oklahoma City manager Martin Martinez along with chief scout Todd Sylar and top international prospects Hector Rodriguez and Alberto Molin had been killed in a plane crash while travelling back from Mexico. Team owner Jim Scottsdale promoted Martinez’s good friend and bench coach Eddie Arnold to be the new team manager, the former Seattle manager vowed to continue the work that Martinez and Sylar had started and set to work identifying possible player acquisitions to realise that vision. Meanwhile Tampa Bay caused a stir when they successfully lured Corsairs Manager Paul Ladd away from Cleveland, paying a hefty sum in compensation. Cleveland GM Miguel Megallas used that compensation to pay Denver for the services of their manager, bringing Tom Heitman on board. Denver, caught out by this turn of events, settled on an in-house replacement, promoting bench coach Yoshizaku Tanaka to be their new skipper, making him the first Japanese manager in NABL history.
In January Oklahoma City announced post tax profits of $48M from the 2022 season which Scottsdale said would be made available to sign new players as he “wanted to build a championship team with which to honour Martinez and Syler”. Armed with this money OKC attacked free agency luring former Boston catcher Jack Epps with a 3 year $64M contract and also successfully courting two-time Outstanding Hitter Kevin Jones, signing him to a 3 year $57.6M deal. Washington 1B Carlos Vazquez opted out of the final year of his contract to join the revolution in OKC, signing on the dotted line for $53M over 3 years. Paul Ladd’s first free agent signing in Tampa Bay was Marshall Ayersome, the former Austin lead-off man signed a 4-year deal worth $80M, the Hurricanes then successfully pursued two-time World Series winner and former LA pitcher Luis Manuel Quinones, signing him to a three year $55M deal. One player leaving the sunshine state was former pitcher of the year Carlos Correa who chose to leave Miami for Minneapolis, no longer seen as a top of the rotation starter the Bears planned on moving him to the bullpen to be their new closer an experiment Miami had tried with mixed results. Another top eastern league pitcher moving out west was Boston’s Ed Hudson who joined Houston on a 2-year deal worth $46M, Hudson joined Marc Birstall to form one of the most fearsome top-of-the-rotation duos in the Western league. Los Angeles moved to fill the hole in their rotation after the loss of Quinones, by signing former Dallas ace Jose Marino to a team friendly one year deal they also strengthened their bullpen with the signing of Min-Jae Choi from New York. Choi would take over the closer role allowing the club to move Dave Wyatt back to his preferred setup role. Washington added to their outfield by signing often injured Andrew Parker to a 1 year $5M deal. The addition of Parker opened the door for Washington to trade away one of their high-priced veteran players, RF Tony Diaz was the one to go, landing in Cleveland in exchange for prospects LF Jose Berrera and SP Manuel Santana. Another trade that moved the needle was Philadelphia giving New Orleans a sack load of prospects including pitchers Jose Gonzales, Cole Coombes and Gabriel Alvarez while also surrendering their top 3B prospect Carlos Ramos in a deal to get star closer Edgar Arrojo whose impressive resume included 345 saves with an ERA of 1.83 over 601 games.
The 2023 draft was headlined by Texas A&M pitcher Holden Willis, the big lefty possessed a strong arm and also impressive control, walking only 7 batters in his final year at College. Clemson pitcher Ziggy Velasco was every bit the player Willis was but had also declared for the NFL draft and it was expected that if he was taken high, he would forego baseball for a career in football, with that in mind most teams had taken him off their draft boards. The top college position players in the draft were both outfielders, Alejandro Canseco from Missouri and Florida State’s Nick Richardson, neither of whom were game changers, while the best high school player was pitcher Ken Kramer a hard throwing right hander.
When draft night arrived, Las Vegas didn’t think twice and took Holden Willis first overall, Dallas went for Florida State outfielder Nick Richardson second while Austin took a chance by drafting young pitcher Ken Kramer third. Kansas City chose outfielder Alejandro Canseco fourth while in a somewhat puzzling move Detroit made Ziggy Velasco the fifth pick. Detroit’s decision to draft Velasco was particularly strange considering the team had been burned in the 2020 draft by Brandon Davis when he chose to pursue a career in football over baseball. Philadelphia made outfielder Craig McKillop the first high school position player drafted when they took him 10th overall.
Heading into the season the biggest questions in the Eastern league were about two new managers and how their respective teams would fare. In Cleveland Tom Heitman was charged with restoring the Corsairs to relevance after a poor season while in Tampa Bay all eyes were on Paul Ladd, especially after the free agents that had been brought in. Over in the west Los Angeles were gunning for a third championship and after losing pitcher Luis Manuel Quinones to free agency they went out and added a top starter in Jose Marino and significantly strengthened their bullpen by picking up Min-Jae Choi making the Lynx the bookies favourite to win the World Series. Other burning questions in the west were how would the loss of manager Tom Heitman to Cleveland effect the Denver Wildcats, and how would the Oklahoma City Outlaws perform after the tragic loss of skipper Martin Martinez and the subsequent spending spree.
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