[Westheim]

New season, new horrors. Three teams (Crusaders, Scorpions, Warriors) had new ownership, everybody wanted new contracts, and the Raccoons would have to find a mostly new coaching staff after scouting director Miguel Carrasco retired along with our hitting and pitching coaches. Everybody went home as soon as they had rings.

Not me. I wanted more damn rings – I still had empty fingers.

But before we could win another ring, we had some urgent matters to sort out, like an immediate 40-man roster crunch, and then there was also the mighty dollar to chase after or be chased by. The Raccoons got a budget increase from $30.5M to $32.5M in 2027, which saw them merely go from t-11th to t-10th in the ABL. Oh well, we've worked with less, I guess?

The Scorpions retained the biggest budget in the league at $41M, followed by the Crusaders ($39M), Pacifics and Titans ($38M each), and Gold Sox (sic! - $37.5M). The smallest budgets were available to the Indians ($23.2M), Stars ($23M), Loggers ($22.6M), Falcons ($21.8M), and Wolves ($20M). The only remaining CL North team were the Elks, sitting 13th at $30.5M.

The average budget was $30.4M. The median budget was $31.25M.

Urgently enough, having loaded up on salaries prior to the trade deadline in 2026 left us with no budget space right now; every single dime was being spent right now – and then some more. The Coons started the season $541k overbudget (and that was without much of a coaching staff or head scout!), which put a slight crimp into my plan to retain both Kevin Harenberg and Jon Gonzalez to build a platoon of death at first base. Good luck signing extensions! [see the free agent and salary arbitration table at the bottom]

Looking at the salaries for 2027 it became apparent that our biggest earners would be Kevin Harenberg ($2.4M), Mark Roberts ($2.3M), Abel Mora ($2.1M), then Dan Delgadillo, Kyle Anderson, Rafael Gomez, Cookie Carmona all in the $1.8M range. Jon Gonzalez remarkably came only at $1.2M on his slowly escalating contract, AND he was the World Series MVP!

But before we traded Harenberg for a warm meal, we might want to sound out what we even needed in terms of player material. Certainly no infielder; with Harenberg OR Gonzalez at first, not dead quite yet Matt Nunley at third, and our golden middle infield we were still set in this regard. And the outfield? The outfield was a mess.

Matt Jamieson was a free agent and probably expensive, so out of reach right now. Him aside we had Abel Mora in centerfield, Cookie was still around, as was Rafael Gomez, but Terry Kopp was also a free agent (and hadn't exactly amazed in recent times, so the Raccoons would refrain from an offer). There was Gerace, there was Alfaro. Magallanes, too.

Thinking about it, maybe we wanted a catcher. Brett O'Dell was a free agent, and Elias Tovias had been breathtakingly horrible, batting .218 with seven homers and a .658 OPS after already swinging only for a .652 OPS last year, then even in a full season. I know, I always say somebody's gotta bat eighth, but good grief! Little remained from his first two full seasons in the league, where he had swung for 33 homers and a total of 5.8 WAR between '23 and '24. Yeah, picking up a catcher somewhere didn't sound too bad a plan…!

Our first moves of the offseason were much more mundane, though. The Coons waived and DFA'ed relief pitchers Juan Barzaga and Juan Mendez to get them off the 40-man roster so they could get Abel Mora back on and save another dime.

While we were clipping individual pennies in late October, there was also the pressing issue of Rico Gutierrez, who was already an expensive player after the arbitration disaster from last fall. On the other hand, as long as the Loggers were in our division, Rico would be worth his weight in gold…!

We were ticking off a few other arbitration cases in early November, signing 1-year extensions with a number of players. Jonathan Snyder signed for $660k; Tim Stalker agreed to $770k; Billy Brotman would take home $340k;

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October 29 – The Crusaders trade C Armando Leal (.282, 77 HR, 496 RBI) to the Blue Sox, one of his former teams, for OF Nick Hatley (.284, 29 HR, 196 RBI).

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Did you know the Raccoons are sixth all time in terms of winning percentage (.514) in the ABL? Also t-4th for playoff appearances (12) and t-3rd for championships (3).

Among retirees at the start of the offseason is ex-Coon Brett Lillis, who had been with Portland in the second half of 2019 and then again from 2021 through 2024, saving 129 games during those stints. Overall he had 303 career saves and a 3.22 ERA in 796 apperances, all in relief. Things went really south for the 37-year-old in 2026 and he posted a 10.70 ERA with the Buffaloes, prompting him to focus on golfing in the future.

Other notable players throwing in the towel included catchers Jamal White and Pat Walston.

Oh, I have some more news. We signed an extension with Rico Gutierrez as well, but not just for a year or two. On November 5, we announced a 9-year deal with Rico Gutierrez that would keep him tied up until 2035, which would be Rico's age 36 season. The deal was worth $900k in '27, $1.43M in '28, then $2.09M annually. Overall the deal was worth $16.96M. The final two years were team options worth $550k each.

We also are eagerly completing our staff again, signing coaches left and right, and we also added a new head scout in early November. Jorge Perez was 47 and from Cotza… Coxta… Coaxa… from somewhere in Mecixo, ehm, Mexico. He had no preferences, and was a good scout all around. He would certainly find us some gems!

So, it's still a week to the free agency deadline. We still have four players left over that we would take to salary arbitration, and the question is whether we have to save some coin here: Alvin Smith, Elias Tovias, Daniel Bullock, and Omar Alfaro still had not signed a contract. Was Bullock worth $360k? I didn't think so, but there was Cristiano Carmona again, feverishly producing presentations of how he was of immense value hard to put into words or dollars. I remained unconvinced.

Tovias will probably be retained because I didn't want to hunt after TWO new catchers, but what about Alvin Smith? We already have six starting pitchers crowding for five spots with Roberts, Gutierrez, Delgadillo, Nomura, Anderson, and James. If you are that close to foreclosure, maybe skim a bit with the seventh-string starting pitchers…

What do you do with Alfaro? We have waited for him to break out for five years now. He hit three home runs this season. Had he played a full season, he would have hit about 11 or 12. He was 26, clumsy, nonchalant, infuriating. Who was going to be our rightfielder in 2027? A clumsy, nonchalant, infuriating sixth-year player with a 162-game average of .244 with 14 HR and 60 RBI?

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ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: SAC C David Drews (.310, 31 HR, 111 RBI) and TIJ 1B Kevin McGrath (.302, 31 HR, 120 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: LAP SP Dave Christiansen (19-9, 2.74 ERA) and NYC SP Mike Rutkowski (16-10, 2.00 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: LAP OF Justin Fowler (.262, 14 HR, 69 RBI) and POR SS Alberto Ramos (.307, 3 HR, 38 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: LAP CL Alex Ramos (4-4, 1.51 ERA, 48 SV) and POR CL Jonathan Snyder (1-2, 1.34 ERA, 36 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P LAP Dave Christiansen, C SAC David Drews, 1B SAC Luis Moreira, 2B TOP Chris Owen, 3B CIN Ricardo Rangel, SS DEN Rich Hereford, LF LAP Firmino Cambra, CF SFW Pedro Cisneros, RF WAS Tsuneyoshi Tachibana
Platinum Sticks (CL): P CHA Greg Gannon, C LVA Tim Robinson, 1B TIJ Kevin McGrath, 2B BOS Rhett West, 3B TIJ Shane Sanks, SS OCT Alex Serrato, LF VAN Alex Torres, CF VAN Tony Coca, RF OCT Luis Sagredo
Gold Gloves (FL): P SFW Vinny Olguin, C DAL Armando Galan, 1B POR Kevin Harenberg, 2B SFW Ricky Tello, 3B CIN Ricardo Rangel, SS CIN Frank Eisenberg, LF SFW Jeff Wadley, CF PIT Carlos de la Riva, RF RIC Dan Dalton
Gold Gloves (CL): P NYC Carlos Marron, C TIJ Pat Sanford, 1B SFB Tomas Caraballo, 2B TIJ Dave Bross, 3B BOS Adam Corder, SS IND Mario Pizano, LF IND Ricky Loya, CF VAN Tony Coca, RF VAN Brian Wojnarowski

A Rookie of the Year, a Reliever of the Year, and a Gold Glover that spent four months with the Wolves – not a shabby harvest. Right? Right?