[JayW UK]

2029 Off-Season

When San Diego chose not to pick up the team option on closer Clint Long’s contract he decided to go under the knife in an effort to cure a nagging problem in his throwing shoulder, although the issue hadn’t been serious enough to cause him to miss significant time he had spent a number of short stints on the DL over the past two seasons dealing with the problem, it was hoped the procedure would cure the issue once and for all and allow Long to continue his career pain free.
The big talking point at the winter meetings was the possibility of further expansion, several attractive bids were on the table to entice the league owners to expand the NABL. As always things came down to money and with an improved media deal in the works when the proposal for expansion was tabled, the owners voted overwhelmingly for league expansion. Two new teams would begin play in 2031, one team would be based in Baltimore and be placed into the Atlantic division bringing it in line with the other two eastern league divisions with five teams, while the western league would get a new team based in Omaha who would join the Midwest division. Team Nicknames and colours would be announced at a later date (Baltimore owner John Rockwell said he was going to run a vote via local media with fans getting the chance to name the team) While these monumental decisions were being debated by the owners, the business of the league continued with several managers announcing their retirements, Don Blair in Philadelphia and Hector Guerra in Charlotte leaving both clubs searching for their replacements. Charlotte were the first to strike, in a somewhat surprising move they named former Miami and Philadelphia Scouting director Dzevat Draskovic as their manager for 2029, Philadelphia chose to go the more traditional route by staying in house and naming Bench coach Raul Aguilar as their skipper. Phoenix were also on the lookout for a new skipper having allowed John Martin to walk after his contract expired, Martin didn’t have to wait long as both Atlanta and Los Angeles came calling, he chose Atlanta becoming the Flames new manager. Mario Sanchez, having left Los Angeles after nine successful years and two championships, chose Phoenix to be his new project, being announced as the Eagles new manager at the beginning of December. Los Angeles having failed to lure several top international managers to town, eventually settled on promoting bench coach Ramon Ortega to fill the position vacated by Mario Sanchez.
Las Vegas opened their off-season with a blockbuster trade, sending star CF Brian Quinborough and four prospects (RF Lawrence Hale, SP Felix Reyes, SS Jonathan Estes and MR Tony Lee) to Tampa Bay for 1B Broderick Hill and BNN top 20 prospect LF Michael Carroll, also getting in on the trade action was Phoenix who sent SS Eduardo Ruiz and prospect 3B Eduardo Guzman to Charlotte for their LF John Barnett. Seattle traded away 1B Marc Baxter after a contract dispute, sending him to Philadelphia for LF Randy Simons and prospect SS TJ Johns. NABL royalty Gabriel Mendez chose to keep playing rather than retire when he was not offered a new contract by Indianapolis, Kansas City was his chosen destination, but at 40 years old there probably wasn’t a huge amount left in the tank, still the deal was for only one year and KC could recoup the outlay ten times over in merchandise sales. On the negative side for KC star 2B Jack Underwood left town signing a lucrative 6-year contract with Washington, also heading to the nation’s capital was Atlanta 1B Jason Wilson who signed for four years at $70M. Wilson had left Washington 18 months before via a trade looking for playing time to show what he could do, his fantastic 2028 season had pushed him out of Atlanta’s price range and back onto the Generals radar. The Generals also lost one of their own stars to free agency when SS Michael Matthews jumped ship to sign for defending world champions Detroit on a 2 year $26M deal. New York were also busy strengthening their rotation, signing former Minneapolis pitcher Hunter Thomas to a 2-year $32M deal and also adding four-time pitcher of the year Vince Little from Tampa Bay on a two year $40M deal. Tampa Bay chose former Boston pitcher Daniel Zanetti as Little’s replacement signing him to a 7-year $93M contract while also taking a chance on former San Diego closer Clint Long on a one year $1.5M prove it deal, If Long could come back healthy from his surgery and recapture his form then the Hurricanes and got themselves a steal. Los Angeles were busy adding stars, signing former Boston 2B Lucio Martinez to the biggest deal this free agency, a mammoth 6-year $130M contract, former Chicago star 3B Jose Munoz’s four year $80M contract took the Lynx’s offseason spending to well over $200M. San Diego added SS Alejandro Pichardo on a one-year deal but lost star 3B Jose Montoya who left town to sign for Austin on a 5-year deal that would pay him an average of $18M per year.
The 2029 draft class was dominated by college players, led by power hitting outfielder Todd Louthian (Minnesota State), 2B tom Stirling (USC) and Illinois speedy 2B Adam Bailey (the 2028 first round pick of OKC who had failed to agree terms with the Outlaws and returned to college) pitchers Rafer MacNeil (Alcorn State) Steve Gream (Georgia Tech) and Keith Kimbrell (TCU) completed the highly touted college players, the only high school prospect in the conversation for a top five pick was RF Lance Parrish. On draft night Minneapolis passed on local star Todd Louthian to instead name Georgia Tech power pitcher Steve “Mean Machine” Gream as the first player taken while Philadelphia took High Schooler Lance Parrish with the second pick. San Jose stayed in the state of California for their pick, tabbing USC’s 3B Tom Stirling third before OKC grabbed pitcher Rafer MacNeil fourth, the Outlaws also used the 13th overall pick to steal high school 3B Levi Bute from under the noses of divisional rivals Denver who had him next on their draft board. In a high-risk high reward move, St Louis drafted track star Adam Bailey from Illinois over Todd Louthian eighth overall, if Bailey managed to adjust to big league pitching he would cause havoc on the basepaths with his blistering speed, Todd Louthian’s fall lasted until the tenth pick where Miami grabbed him, while Los Angeles added to their stable of young pitching prospects by taking TCU’s Keith Kimbrell eleventh. In the wake of the draft, new OKC pitcher Rafer MacNeil was installed as BNN’s new No1 prospect, fellow draftees Steve Gream (MIN) #10 and Adam Bailey (STL) #19 also made it into the top 20.
Washington were BNN’s favourite to repeat as Atlantic division champs although New York after spending the off-season strengthening their rotation were widely expected to push then Generals all the way. In the Central division, Indianapolis possessed the best roster and were the favourites but challenges were expected from both 2028 surprise team Detroit and Chicago, while Tampa Bay were once again the cream of the Southeast division and many peoples tip to win the EL pennant.
Over in the west Kansas City were clear favourites for the Midwest division after none of the other three teams did enough in the off-season to move the needle. Las Vegas possessed the top pitching staff in the league and were being tipped to go the distance and win it all while Dallas were getting some love to make the playoffs as a wildcard team. San Diego and Seattle were again set to do battle for the Pacific division crown but were expected to come under pressure from dark horse candidates San Jose, while after their off-season spending, Los Angeles could not be written off either.