[DD Martin]

1954-55 off-season

At the end of the regular season we had struck a deal with SP JJ Walker who had impressed us with his season. We decided to take a gamble on the 28 year old and bought his 3 arbitration seasons out at $1.75m for 2055, $2.8m, $4.05m, $7.5 m in 2058. We then have a team option for $9m in 2059 and then a vesting option for $9 for 2060. So essentially it is a 4-year deal for $16.1 million and then the 2 option years. So if Walker doesn’t pan out as a starting pitcher, we will cut him loose for $1.8m after 2058.

After the World Series we sat down with Joe Johnson who had a tremendous surprise season for us. He was arbitration eligible so we sat down and hammered out a 6 year deal that starts in 2055. Anderson will get salaries of $1.25m next year, $2.0m in 2056, $3.0m in 2057, $3.25m in 2058, then two team options in the last two deals for $3.25m for each 2059 and 2060. Anderson didn’t drive a hard bargain so there is some concern here that maybe this was just a flash in the plan season, but we are only on the hook for $9.5m over 4 years so the deal isn’t going to financially break us either in the future.

As the calendar turned to October following the completion of the World Series, our efforts were to immediately contact SP Yule Hulbert and Dan Floyd. Both were extremely popular in the Chicago area. Hulbert was younger at 35, with Floyd being 40. The discussions with their agents quickly showed which would be easier to sign.

Floyd who’s personality is not as good as his talent on the mound. The other problem was his talent according to our scouts was starting to slide and we expected he would not be as effective as he was in previous seasons. This was also in play because his performance, while solid, was not as good as it was the previous season. Still his WAR was 4.4 for 2054 which was higher than his 3.7 WAR in 2053 when he won the Pitcher of the Year Award. Floyd was not budging from his 4 years and $24 million per season. This was a number we were not going to agree with.

After the efforts to talk to Floyd yielded no results, we turned our attention to Yule Hulbert who we had acquired in a July 31st trade with Milwaukee. When we made the deal with Milwaukee for Hulbert we knew that the Eagles could potentially jump back in on the bidding in the off-season. We also knew there would be potentially 7 other clubs that could be in on the bidding. So we spoke with Yule and his agent and expressed how much we wanted him to come back, even though his results for us were not as good as his results for the sub-500 Eagles. We were cognizant of our budget for the upcoming year, and wanted to get a deal with Hulburt done with the 1st year being no more than $15 million. At the end of the day, Hulbert appeared agreeable and we signed him to a 4 year contract with the 4th year being a team option year for a total of $72 million. The amounts were by year (15, 20, 20 and 17 in the team option), with the option buyout at $3.4 million. We were prepared to sign Hulbert to a full 4 year deal, but decided to float the option year and they agreed. Now at the end of the season, Hulburt was also in the 4 yr and $90+ million dollar range, so we were able to work him down some and get that option for the last season.

This was a huge deal for us to finalize and the fans agreed based on the positive feedback and jersey sales that we saw. This of course meant that we would likely not be agreeing to a contract with Dan Floyd.

With the increase in budget after our playoff run, and the retirement of Mendez. We suddenly had close to $50+ million that we could spend on free agents. We had another trick in our bag if we needed it, that would likely free up another $10 million, but we would save that for another day.

We declined arbitration on several players, they were P Bradley Sentner and OF Freddie Franklin. Both were team leaders, but we just couldn't pull the trigger on the extensions that would be approximately $3.6 million between the two. We also signed free agent RP to be Ken Shannon (40) to a 2 year deal worth $7.28 million. He was the 3rd of the players we traded for (P’s Lutz who had 2 more years on his deal, Hulburt and Shannon) to be secured for the upcoming season.

The 4th pitcher we had acquired was Jose Cedeno. Cedeno had a player option of $22 million for the upcoming season, which we were told by his agent he would decline. The good news for us, was that he had 2 more arbitration years remaining since he was a player signed out of Venezuela at the age of 25. We attempted several offers to sign either a 1 year deal for just 2055 or up to a 6 year deal. Cedeno’s price was $30 million per season. We knew that he would get more than $22 million through arbitration but wouldn’t get $30 million, at least this season. So we let it play out and Cedeno received $26.46 million through the arbiter. Thankfully we had saved at least $5 million or more on Hulburt’s first year of his extension, so we were able to absorb the amount.

We also received arbitration notices on RP Larry Stott who won $1.68 million and switch-hitting OF/2B Samuel Amsden for $1.3 million. The team won both hearings with the players.

Eight minor league players that were in our system were granted minor league free agency. SS Emory Hopper and OF Ken Davis were promoted to the 40-man protected roster. Hopper is injured, but we had the room and decided to keep him for depth. We had 6 other players that would become free agents off the 40-man roster. They were OF/DH Doug Deschamps, P P Francisco Perez, RP Kade Cason, SP Dan Floyd, C John Dyke, and 1B Philippe Labbe all became free agents.

Once pre-arbitration players had their contracts renewed, we began to talk with All-Star 1B Reagan Osborn to a contract extension. Osborn who is only 24 has 2 year big league totals of 302/416/991 with 65 HR’s, 181 RBI’s, 208 runs scored, 186 walks, with 36 Stolen bases. We didn’t need to make this deal, but we felt it would provide Osborn the security he deserved and the salary certainty we wanted. Osborn signed a 6 year deal buying out his 3 arbitration years and first 3 years of free agency. The deal was for 6 years worth $97 million with annual salaries starting 2056 at $3.5, $8.5, $15, $20, $25 and $25 million respectively. This might not seem like a club friendly deal, but we believe we save potentially $10-20 million over the life of the contract. Osborn will be with Chicago through his age 30 season in 2061.

In the GLBL to speed up the off-season, the free agents file in late October but the signing period doesn’t begin until February 1st.

Over the course of the winter we signed some international minor league free agents. Things would pick up once we hit February 1st. As opposed to last year, this year’s free agent market had some real big names, both among pitchers and hitters. One of the big players was someone who had never played in North America before. 24 year-old 2B Jorge Rangel appeared to be a superstar out of Cuba. He had gap power (4) with power (5) and eye (5). His contact was low at 2 and he is going to whiff 100+ times a season, but the power bat is definitely there. While he is listed as a 2B player, he is likely going to be a 1B, LF or probably a DH. He wants a 6-year deal worth $150m. He could be someone who we bid on, especially if his price comes down a bit. We are not in need of a 1B, we have Ken Noseworthy installed for at least 1 more season at 2B. We are looking for a power bat to DH, but we have other players we have interest in first.

Those players were primarily pitchers. Even though we had shored up our starting rotation from the start of last year where we have up to 6+ guys ready to start. But there was one that really had our interest and that was former Toledo SP lefty Dwayne Miller (30). We were surprised that Toledo had not extended Miller but his results for 2054 with an ERA+ of 94 was not something the budget tight Neptunes could afford. We made a solid offer I thought of 5 years and $66 million, but we underestimated the market. The Detroit T-Birds swooped in and signed Miller to a 4 year $59m total. We had lost our #1 target.

We turned our attention quickly to another top quality starter, but not a lefty. SP Val Imbert had pitched for the cellar dwelling (shared) USA club Detroit. Imbert (29) didn’t have a great season going 12-10 with a 4.87 ERA, but he is a team captain type player and we believe with a solid supporting cast behind him, he will revert back to his form several seasons ago. Imbert was signed for a 4-year $39m deal with the 4th season being a team option. We also re-signed RP Bradley Sentner to a 1-year $1.7m dollar deal. Sentner had pitched well after we reviewed things in the off-season and was another team leader. He would be a long man out of the bullpen in 2055.

We were looking for a LHRP and they were in short supply. We decided to take a chance and sign 33-year old RP Jerry Powell to a 2-year deal at $1.7m per season. He will take the place of Kade Cason who filled the lefty role adequately but was wanting way too much money. We could probably wait him out, but decided to take Powell while we could get him.

In the early off-season, the league voted to add a class A league to the minor league structure. I for one was very much in favor of this because we had only had AAA and AA teams. A class A team will give high school draft picks and young International signings a place to play against players of similar ages. The leap to AA was far too high for most 18-year olds. I hope to see this add to the development of our young prospects.

With the addition of a class A team we started signing up young players most 20 and under but some 22 and under. The new class A league would have an age limit of 22 and under. So to fill out the roster we added roughly 20 players. We had 75 players in the top 2 leagues prior to free agency. The 20 new players plus some promotions from the International Complex will give us a full roster and still have room for our 10 draft picks from the 2055 draft.

We made a small trade in 35-year old RHRP Paul Clark to Toledo for 20-year old SS prospect Pedro Santana. We had made the decision that Clark was not going to make the 26-man roster coming out of the spring so his $990,000 salary was a lost cause anyway. In this deal we agreed to retain the salary of Clark in return for Santana.

With Duluth signing the hot hitting free agent Jorge Rangel for $100m over 4 seasons. The last year is a player option so he could be back on the market in 3 seasons. With Rangel gone, we turned our attention to a veteran slugger and signed Jose Aranda (30) to a 5 year deal for $123m. We signed him to $24m for 2055, then $20m for 2056. The 2057 contract was for $25m, a player option for $29m for 2058 and a team option in $2058 for $27m. It was a heavy contract for the lumbering OF/DH, but he bats left and we had a right handed heavy lineup.

With C Juan Duran injured and out until the 2nd half of the season, we decided to not bank everything on C Chi-Yong Lee. So with 4-time all star left handed hitting C Sean White available, we jumped at a chance to sign him to a 2-year deal worth $16 over the 2 seasons. While Duran will be back, we felt White would be a safety net and left handed hitter to start most games this year. It will also give us an extra year of lower salary and delay arbitration for probably both Lee and Duran (although that will not be an official reason.). Duran (24) will likely head to AAA for 20-30 games to get him back into playing shape, and then he will join us when rosters expand or if anyone gets hurt.

With Francisco Perez turning down our offer of 1-year and $2.5m, we decided to give free agent Matsusuke Yoshida the opportunity to be our primary middle RP that leads to the late inning trio of Wright, Shannon and Stott. Yoshida is a 30 year old RHP who should fit in nicely.

With the White signing that pushed our payroll over $165 million for next year. Our up and down Owner was once again madder than a hornet. I had warned him that I would spend as much of that $180 million budget that he gave me. I did have to lower our scouting a bit so our expenses went from $30 million for scouting and player development to just $20m for at least this season. I felt that with perhaps a window for winning a championship being open, we needed to go for it. We did also dig into our cash balance deeply going about $12.5 million into our $16 million balance.

Overall I felt very good about our off-season. I feel like we improved our team that was already in the playoffs. Hopefully we can add a regular season division title and World Series to our trophy case in 2055. We had spent the following amounts for the 2055 season.

SP Yule Hulbert $15 million (resigned pending free agent)
RP Ken Shannon $4.2 million (re-signed pending free agent)
OF Joe Randa $24 million
P Val Imbert $8 million
RP Jerry Powell $1.7 million
RP Bradley Sentner $1.7 million
P Matsusuke Yoshida $2.5 million
C Sean White $8 million
Random minor league free agents $250,000

Total spent $66.4 million

Next year's payroll has roughly the same estimated payroll expense. The big question is will we go through arbitration with SP Jose Cedeno for $30 million (today’s estimate), try and sign him to an extension, attempt to work a sign and trade deal with another team, or decline arbitration and attempt to sign him for less in free agency. If he wants that contract from us then this season is a big show me season for Cedeno and if he does that only means good things for the Architects this upcoming season.

The other factor with Cedeno could be if we don't make the playoffs and pick up some of this money I've spent.

The owner goals and such are turned off in the league, but I do like to play it financially responsible. He wants extremely profit and 500 ball, while I obviously want to win and make a nice profit. Those two worlds will collide often between Mr. Bocquet Jr. and myself.