[JayW UK]

2043 Off-Season

Six weeks on from his heart attack and major lifesaving surgery, New York manager Carlos Torres announced that after advice from his doctors he was stepping away from baseball on health grounds, leaving the Senators to look for their second new manager in as many seasons, interim skipper Malcolm Usama immediately took his name out of the frame by announcing that he was reverting to his former role as bench coach. Also on the lookout for new managers were Detroit, who fired Mike Anderson, Omaha whose skipper (Michael Bradshaw) had accepted a lucrative offer from USC and New Orleans who were moving on from Allen Long after three mediocre years. First to land their new manager were Omaha, who named former minor league pitching coach Pat Acosta as their man for the upcoming season, Detroit kept it in the family naming Pat’s brother Ramon (also a minor league pitching coach) as Mike Anderson’s replacement, both teams were taking significant risks in naming the brothers as their field managers as neither had any managerial experience. Staying with the theme of hiring from the minor leagues was New Orleans, who tabbed former Nashville Redwings skipper Christian Flores as Allen Long’s successor while New York eventually broke the trend by luring Sanfrancisco Hitting coach Will Thompson on board as Carlos Torres’ successor.
World champions Chicago opened their off-season by saying goodbye to several key contributors from their World Championship run, RF Javier Gutierrez, SP Mario Chavez and star closer Pablo Hernandez all hit the open market, joining a star-studded free agent pool featuring talented players such as Boston pitcher Brett Knight, Charlotte LF Daron Murphy, New York ace Mariano Rojo, Phoenix pitcher Steve Gream and St. Louis 1B Glenn Hansen. First to make a splash were Philadelphia who bolstered their pitching by landing former New York ace, Mariano Rojo on a 6-year $120M deal, the Independence also added veteran outfielder Alfonso Sosa, who came on board from Indianapolis for $30M over three years. St. Louis also broke the bank to land another star pitcher adding to their already loaded rotation, signing former Boston ace Brett Knight to a 6-year $119M deal beating LA to his signature. After missing out on Knight the Lynx pivoted and landed a pair of pitchers to bolster their rotation, Brent Brown from New York (4-year $60M) and Austin’s Lucious Sandford (6-year $102M). The “Chicago three” all found new homes relatively quickly, starter Mario Chavez landed with Sanfrancisco on a 7-year $110M deal, RF Javier Gutierrez moved to New York, signing a 5-year $87M pact with the Senators, while star closer Pablo Hernandez put pen to paper on a 3-year $34M deal with St. Louis. Chicago, offset the loss of Javier Gutierrez by luring former New Orleans LF Ferry Vogalsang to the Windy City on a 4-year deal they also agreed to an extension with World Series MVP Eugene Fey but crucially missed out on several other targets, leaving some fans to wonder if the team had done enough to be able to defend their title. Denver set about bolstering their offense, signing slugging LF Daron Murphy (3-years @ $51M) from Charlotte, RF Patrick Richardson (4-years @ $73M) from Seattle and also luring 1B Glen Hansen from St. Louis with a blockbuster 7-year $105M deal. Two former Western league foes, pitchers David Elder (SF) and Steve Gream (PHO) swapped leagues signing lucrative deals with EL teams, Elder signed with Washington for $21M per year over four years, whilst Gream landed with Charlotte on an equally lucrative 3-year $64M deal. After the addition of star pitcher Brett Knight St. Louis got to work shaping their new-look rotation, shipping veteran Mitch Woodroffe and his bloated contract along with a 3rd round draft pick to Boston for a pair of prospects (2B Antonio Flores and 3B Ramiro Souza) and releasing former Pitcher of the Year McKenzie Ransford, who after recovering from injury found himself surplus to requirements and looking for a new team, overlooked by nearly everyone Ransford signed a bargain basement 2-year deal with Omaha hoping to prove his injury problems were behind him.
The top of the 2043 draft class was dominated by college players headed by the enigma that was Robert Caro, the Wake Forest outfielder possessed a mix of power and speed that gave him the potential to be a regular 30 homerun-30 stolen base player, however opinion was split on whether Caro, also a talented wide receiver, would declare for the NFL draft and chase his football dreams or commit to baseball full time, making him a classic boom or bust pick. A trio of pitchers, Carlos Flores (Texas), Greg Younger (Florida State) and Benjamin Zingler (West Virginia) along with position players SS Justin Hengstler (LSU), 3B Kelvin Keelan (South Carolina) and speedy OF Spencer Lewis (Rice) were the best of the rest and all tipped to be drafted early. The lone high-school player in the conversation for a top-ten pick, was 3B Rusty McCormick, who if he put it all together (and that was a big if at this moment) had the potential to regularly challenge for batting titles in the future.
Owners of the first pick, Kansas City, chose to bolster their pitching by drafting West Virginia’s high-upside hurler Benjamin Zingler, while Seattle choosing second swung for the fences and named Robert Caro as their man. Fellow outfielder Spencer Lewis was picked third by Dallas before New Orleans tabbed Texas pitcher Carlos Flores fourth, LSU shortstop Justin Hengstler found himself heading for Houston while Tampa Bay took a chance on high-school 3B Rusty McCormick with the sixth pick while surprisingly both 3B Kelvin Keelan (Miami @ #11) and Florida State pitcher Greg Younger (Minneapolis @ #12) fell out of the top ten all together. In a make-or-break off-season for his job security, Austin GM Jerry Phillips landed a pair of intriguing prospects later in the first round, Rice pitcher Mike Brown (#13) and high school LF Coy Benton (#21), if both players panned out then then Phillips had found a pair of future stars to build around.
With Spring Training winding down and the opening day fast approaching, New York announced that star 1B Jerry Wright (the Senators all-time homerun leader) had signed a lucrative extension, keeping him in the Big Apple for the next six years, and after the team had lost star pitcher Mariano Rojo to hated rivals Philadelphia this move allayed the fears of some fans that the club was allowing their stars fly the nest.
Heading into the season the Atlantic division was shaping up to be a bun fight between four of the teams, Boston who were looking to win their eighth straight division title were seen as the frontrunners with Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore all expected to push them all the way. In the Central, Chicago were the early favourites with Indianapolis (aiming to bounce back from an underwhelming 2042 campaign) and Cleveland (hoping to prove their successful 2042 was not a one off) waiting in the wings for any slip ups by the Zephyrs. The Southeast division was expected to be a straight fight between defending champions Atlanta and big spending Tampa Bay whose manager, Shaun Barber was firmly on the hot seat after a disastrous 2042 season.
In the west the Midwest division battle was shaping up to be one to watch, with OKC and Omaha (with first time manager Pat Acosta at the helm) the top two teams with both Denver (after spending big in the off-season) and Minneapolis listed as dark horses for the division crown. The Southwest was once again a two-horse race between Las Vegas and Phoenix while both Houston and Dallas were being tipped as 100-loss teams. In the Pacific division, Sanfrancisco and LA (with their re-made pitching rotation) were the teams to beat, with the other three teams (SD, SJ and SEA) at least a couple of years away from challenging.