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2028 Off-Season
The fallout from the WLCS game seven “Battle of Seattle” continued into the offseason with both clubs removing their pitching coaches and San Diego also firing Bench Coach Ed Farrier for encouraging pitchers to deliberately target their opponents. It was hoped that these moves would finally draw a line under the unsavoury incident once and for all, San Diego appointed well respected college coach, 56-year-old Bubba Young as Ed Farrier’s replacement.
With San Jose only managing to win 65 games in 2027 GM Brian Halliday decided to once again clear house releasing manager Jose Peredes and settling on former Boston skipper Dan Stone as his replacement, on paper Stone looked to be an upgrade and Halliday certainly needed him to be a success as this was likely his last chance as San Jose’s GM. Long-time Boston Bench Coach Alan Fullerton finally got his chance to manage when Austin named him as replacement for Joseph Raymond who announced his retirement, another manager to announce his retirement was Denver’s Tom Heitman who retired for the second time, Heitman’s decision caught the Wildcats on the hop and without time to prepare a shortlist and the season fast approaching, they chose to promote from within, elevating bench coach Jake Sanders to the position. New York finally got their man after months of negotiations announcing the former New Orleans and Houston hitting coach Stu Owens as their new field manager for 2028.
Defending champions Cleveland, opened their off-season by trading away veteran outfielder Stu Joyce to Denver for youngster 3B John Hebert and pitching prospect Ivan Martinez and when free agency opened Cleveland were the early losers, three key pieces of their championship team left for new homes, veteran LF Claude Cummins left town to sign a four year deal with Las Vegas, catcher Dan Hardin traded Ohio for California, signing a 3 year $43.5M deal with Sanfrancisco while closer Beau Bass chose to sign with Tampa Bay for 3 years and $25.8M. Tampa Bay were also the destination of choice for three more stars, former Houston and Austin closer Marcos Diaz signed for three years and $27M to provide veteran leadership out of the bullpen while ex-Atlanta pitcher and the NABL leader in wins Vince Little (233-178 career record) signed on for a bargain 1-year $9.9M deal and slugging Dallas 3B Rizalino Nolasco joined for $80M over 4 years. By far the busiest team in the west was Austin who pursued and signed pitcher Jason McCullough from Minneapolis on a two year $49M deal, added veteran infielder Ronald MacKinney for four years at $48M and also lured Denver CF Raul Escobar to town for $60M over four years, but the Kings biggest move was getting San Diego 3B Jose Montoya to join on an $88M 5-year deal. San Diego also lost starter Diego Camacho who left sunny California for Charlotte and the promise of $93M over four years, another pitcher leaving California was San Jose starter Franklin Keyes who chose a four year $103M deal from Denver over staying in the bay area. Denver continued to bolster their rotation luring former Indianapolis pitcher Carlos Tagros to town on a team friendly 2-year $31M deal. After losing two stars of their own, San Diego landed former Tampa Bay star CF Jorge Sanchez on a 4-year $75M deal before adding veteran pitcher Clifford West on a modest deal. Another veteran finding a new home was 2B Luis Sanchez (second all-time in the NABL with 2336 hits) who signed a two year $17.5M deal with Boston. Houston having largely sat out Free agency making only minor additions to the roster announced they had come to terms with star 2B Angel Valdez on an extension, keeping him in town for the next five years for the princely sum of $120M.
With the NABL calendar moving ever closer to opening day, front offices around the league began to switch their focus from free agency to spring training and the draft. The 2028 draft class was top heavy with high school talent, with slick fielding second baseman Adam Bailey, two quality outfielders in Danny Hewes and Bryan Dale and pitcher Rafer McNeil, all in the conversation as potential first overall picks. There were excellent college players to be had too, SS Ryan Justice from Ohio State, rated as the best position player in the country, and with pitchers such as Stanford’s Steve Berg and fellow bay area alum Greg Marshall from Santa Clara expected to be drafted high, the 2028 draft was lining up to be a good one. When draft night finally rolled around it was Ohio State’s Ryan Justice who heard his name called first by St Louis, High Schoolers Rafer McNeil (taken 2nd by SJ) and Adam Bailey (drafted 3rd by OKC) completed the top three. New Orleans grabbed outfielder Danny Hewes with the fourth overall pick before Atlanta called the name of Santa Clara pitcher Greg Marshall fifth. Las Vegas picking ninth couldn’t believe their luck when CF Bryan Dale was still on the board and wasted no time calling his name, Stanford pitcher Steve Berg had to wait until the 15th pick to hear his name called by Denver. In the days following the draft as teams around the NABL gathered for Spring Training, both Adam Bailey (San Jose) and Rafer McNeil (Oklahoma City) chose not to sign their offer sheets and instead accept college scholarships, while three other draftees were immediately installed as top ten prospects on the BNN top 100, Ryan Justice (#1), Danny Hewes (#6) and Greg Marshall (#8).
As spring training wound down it was time for the annual predictionfest, both Washington (looking to build on their division title) and Philadelphia (fresh off the heartbreak of losing the play-in game in 2027) were the consensus picks to contend for the Atlantic division crown. In the Central things were less clear cut, with Indianapolis, defending World Series champions Cleveland and Chicago all in the mix for the division title, and though they stayed under the radar, Detroit were seen as a dark horse candidate to at least challenge for the wildcard spot, the only team from the division not to be given any chance of reaching the playoffs was St Louis. The Southeast division was seen as the territory of Tampa Bay especially with the off-season additions to their already powerful lineup.
In the west, Kansas City were once again favourites for the Midwest division but after strengthening their rotation Denver were expected to push them hard. The Southwest crown was likely to be a two-way fight between Las Vegas and Houston, although after their off-season spending Austin were looking to challenge for at least the wildcard spot, while in the Pacific, Seattle and San Diego were predicted to once again battle for the division crown.
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