I decided to start my offseason by making the trade for 2B Brandon Drury. I gave up relief pitcher prospect Forrest Whitley and Cincinnati included $10 million in the trade, making it only a $4 million hit to my budget. This is a very reasonable risk as my interest in Drury is mainly that I hope I can turn him into a comp pick after this season.
With Drury on my team, it is very unlikely that I will pursue Altuve, though Drury could also play 3B.
Next I made several initial offers:
- Masahiro Tanaka $1.15 million for one year
- Patrick Wiseman $.6 million for one year
- Gui Yuan Xu $.75 million for one year
- Jake Godfrey $.75 million for one year
- Mitch Trees $.75 million for one year
- Ka-fei Qin MiLB contract with $.05 million signing bonus
- Javier Moran MiLB contract
Trees is a new target as he didn't show up on my top 500 rankings, but he is a young catcher with great defense and intangibles. He will likely just be minor league depth. Moran is also a new target who didn't show up on my custom rankings, but he had a high potential rating by my scout, so I decided to make an offer.
After advancing only a day, Qin already signed an MiLB contract with Cincinnati. I'm not sure why I wasn't given a chance to make a secondary offer, but this is a loss as Qin was the highest potential prospect on my target list.
Two weeks later, Wiseman is the first player to sign with me. A few days after that, Moran signs. Otherwise, all is quiet: no one else has responded to my offers.
I am still waiting for Michael Feliz asking price to drop. It started at $4 million for four years, then increased to include a fifth option year. After that the annual salary dropped to $3.8 million and then jumped up to $9 million annually for five years. What is weird about this is it seems that he doesn't have any formal offers from other teams yet, at least not offers that he prefers. I will continue to keep tabs on him.
A few days later Godfrey signed with the Winter Meetings approaching. And then the Winter Meetings passed with no action for Montreal.
In the Rule 5 Draft, I made an unusual move and selected four players though I might only keep one of them past spring training.
- Zacrey Law, 26, a CF with average or slightly above average batting ratings in the main categories.
- Chris Medina, 26, a potential future closer if his curveball develops and control is at least average.
- Todd Peterson, 24, a pitcher with great stuff and repertoire but average movement and below average control.
- Kolby Allard, 25, a borderline lefty starter with above average stuff, movement, and control. If he is able to develop a better changeup to complement his fastball and curveball, he could make a backend starter.
The next order of business was to check back in on contracts. Gilbert Lara's demands dropped to $1 million so I offered him a one year contract for $.8 million. Feliz asking price dropped just a little.
There are three potential closers I started tracking: Carter Capps, Tony Zych, and Enny Romero. A player I passed over on my initial target list, 32 year old OF Darrell Ceciliani, has been offered a little under $6 million for two years -- less than half his initial demand -- and is back on my radar. Though less likely for me to sign, Dylan Bundy is the best remaining SP available according to my overall ratings.
I advanced a few more days and Trees, Xu, and Tanaka all signed with me. Tanaka is obviously the player here that I have the highest hopes for as I think he has a chance to make my starting rotation.
With $9 million still remaining in my budget available for signing free agents, I decided to offer Ceciliani a two year $5.7 million annual offer. If he asks for more, I will probably let him go, but at this price he could provide veteran outfield depth, especially if I trade one of my younger outfielders.
After ten days, Ceciliani still hasn't decided on my offer, but Lara did accept his. This adds a SS for my AAA team that has potential to play into a promotion.
A few days later, Ceciliani accepted the two year offer. I think this is a good addition for my club as he is #138 overall in my custom rankings. The risk is that at 32 age is starting to get the best of him. Three years ago he put up 4.0 WAR, two years ago 1.7, and last year 0.6. His main batting ratings suggest that he can still play at a high level, however.
This signing leaves me with just a little more than $3 million in my budget for signing free agents. It also puts my 40 man roster at 39. I can try to get a closer with this, but it will probably be best not to spend it so I have money to sign international amateur free agents.
When I advanced to the start of the preseason, my owner surprised me by increasing my payroll by $10 million. Now I should be able to add a relief pitcher or two and possibly boost my scouting or development a little more. The only bad news is that Feliz ended up signing for a little over $3 million annually for three years and the closers I was tracking signed the same day my budget increased.
I decided to offer Felipe Rivero a 31 year old lefty a three year $4.75 million annual contract. The second year is a player option and the third a team option.
Rivero accepted the offer and I am glad to add him to my team. He has great pitching ratings and a great three pitch repertoire (fastball 93-95 mph, curveball, and changeup). If not for his low stamina he would probably be an effective starter. He has posted ERAs ranging from 2.20 to 3.33 over the past three years and two years ago had 38 saves. Last year his FIP was an impressive 2.55. If all works out as planned, he will be my closer and pitch well enough to decline his player option and a qualifying offer at the end of the year, granting me a comp round draft pick.
For my last preseason moves, I increased scouting to the maximum $24 million and set development to $23 million.
Overall, I'm happy with how this played out. I wish I would have gotten Feliz and Qin, but feel like this is a team with enough depth to be able to withstand a trade or injury.
Next up is spring training...