1st January 1887
The fans of the Grays were hoping for the team to find the improvements needed to lift them back into the top half of the NL table next year during the off season. The owner decided to give the front office a chance to find these improvements and made no changes.
The NL awards dinner saw 4 players representing the team.
The biggest news from the dinner was the fact the Dave Orr picked up the MVP award for the year. He also won a platinum stick award.
The other players honoured included John Kerins and Hardy Richardson who picked up golden glove and platinum stick awards While Jim O'Rourke also picked up a Platinum Stick award.
The front office decided to freshen up the playing staff in the off season by trading 29 year old centre fielder Bill Crowley and 23 year old minor league centre fielder Charlie Krehmeyer to the Philadelphia Athletics in exchange for 30 year old pitcher Ernie Hickman.
2 players decided to bring an end to their careers in professional baseball. Neither of them made any appearances for a major league team. The first was Live Oak Taylor (real life stats 67 games, 56 hits, 32 runs, 8 RBI's and an average of .218). The second was Clarence Dow (real life stats 1 game, 2 hits, 1 run, .333 average)
The team participated fully in the First Year player draft and selected 5 players. The top pick was used to select pitcher Jim Handiboe. The full draft log is given below.
All draftees signed by the deadline.