1st January 1889
After their teams best ever showing of 3rd place in the NL table the fans of the Browns were hoping for the team to consolidate during the off season ready for a push for the pennant next year. The owner was quite happy to follow that route as he made no front office changes and actually gave Manager Dwight Patton a 5 year contract extension.
The NL awards dinner saw Art Whitney pick up a Golden Glove award and Platinum Stick awards for Ed Seward and Charlie Comiskey.
The front office tried to find that extra piece needed by trading 25 year old Centre Fielder John Meister to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for 25 year old Pitcher Bill Nelson and 24 year old Short Stop Bob Gilks.
Their were 3 retirements this year for the fans to look over. The big name to go was well liked Third Baseman Billy Redmond. Redmond spent 13 years in the league with 3 clubs but was never the big star. He played 271 games in total for these clubs and managed to hit the ball 185 times. He scored 88 runs with 79 RBI's for an average of .241 (Real life stats 70 games, 62 hits, 29 runs, 25 RBI's for an average of .221)
The second retirement was Pitcher Charlie Mason. Mason spent 13 years in the league with Cincinnati and St Louis but found it hard to keep a place on their rosters. Also he was hampered by Injuries later in his career so had to become batter only and give up the pitching. While he was in the Majors with both clubs he managed to earn 5 All Star Appearances as a reliever. He played a total of 91 games as a pitcher with 58 starts. He gave up 473 hits and 169 earned runs from 266.1 innings pitched. This gave him an ERA of 4.45. (Real life stats 1 game, 2 innings pitched, 3 hit and 1 earned run against for an ERA of 4.50 for pitching but 21 games, 15 hits, 7 runs and 5 RBI's with an average of .183 for batting)
The final player to retire didn't trouble the Major League opposition much as he played only 29 games. That player was Catcher Billy Barnie. Barnie's record was 29 games played, 26 hits, 10 runs, 12 RBI's and an average of .252. (Real life stats 83 games, 55 hits, 32 runs, 22 RBI's for an average of .171)
The team only had 4 selections in this years First Year Player Draft. The first round pick was used to select Pitcher Parke Swartzel. The full draft log is given below
All draftees signed by the deadline.