[Westheim]

If there was a position where the Raccoons could not have less of a squeeze, it was catcher. We definitely needed a new one with Elias Tovias having turned into David Vinson II in a hurry, and this time we would not waste an entire decade. Except that Tovias had not even been THAT good. For comparison, Tovias had batted for 19 homers at age 23, 14 homers at age 24, with the better OPS (.755) in the latter season (2024). Vinson had swung for eight homers and a .792 OPS at age 24 (his sophomore season after a late-start rookie campaign in '88), then had homered 21 times for a .912 OPS the following year – the foundation of his entire major league career because that 1990 season held the Raccoons (and me in particular) out on the hope that there would another such season coming.

By 1997, none had come. Vinson finished his career tingling through four more towns in the next six years and finished a career .238/.367/.383 batter, generally seen as a disappointment. He was not even on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2010.

This time, we'd pull the plug earlier. And since splurging on free agents was not an option this time around until we shed some salary, we had to have a look around the league to see what the other GMs had on offer. This quickly got me to the Condors, coincidentally once David Vinson's first stop post-Portland. They had Pat Sanford, a 28-year-old right-handed batter from coastal Oregon (Myrtle Point near Coos Bay to be precise), who was a bit of an aim-for-the-fence type of guy. He had five double-digit homer seasons to his career, with a high of 18 in '23, all with the Condors. Hitting for average had been his problem for a while, but he had hit .306/.388/.528 in an injury-riddled 2025 campaign, now .279/.356/.441 in '26 while playing in 138 games. He was smart, defensively capable, and under a relatively affordable contract through 2030.

The CL South was also the longtime home of Ruben Luna, the Knights' slugger who had fallen into a chasm prior to this past season and had never emerged from it, going from .266 with 31 homers and an .880 OPS in '25 to .225 with 14 homers and a .705 OPS in '26. If he was gravely injured, we sure hadn't noticed it. He was also 34 years old and in a contract year, and made the mind-boggling amount of $3.8M in 2027. I think we'll pass.

The Capitals had David Lessman, 26, who had gone deep 23 times for an .828 OPS this year and had actually hit for a .930 OPS last year, albeit also in an injury-shortened season. One of those great half-seasons that will fool you forever… not that I would ever be guilty of that. (gnashes teeth) He was also signed through 2030, but his salary would go up to $3M next year, and if we could avoid paying $3M to a catcher at all, we'd probably try our best.

How about Keith Leonard on the Titans? He was a special sort of batter. From 2023 through 2025 he had led the Continental League in walks drawn as well as OBP. Yup, a catcher. Too bad he also ran like a catcher and was the perfect lump of hair to clog up your drain, or the bases. He was worth 5 WAR more or less every year, which showed again what useless stat WAR was, because he made any lineup construction endlessly difficult. You sure want your best OBP guy to be leading off (or so this book here says), but if we would have him leading off, we would have Ramos or Spencer batting second, but if they both get on, Ramos or Spencer would not be able to exploit their speed. Then we want the big bats in the middle; now all of a sudden a guy like Ramos has to bat sixth. Makes no sense.

Also, since trading for a catcher with any sort of contract would inherently require us to shed a first baseman, and I was extremely reluctant to give the Titans anything they could use against us, a trade for Keith Leonard was sort of prohibitive from the start.

On the other hand, the (probably?) best candidate for addition was Sanford, but the Condors could hardly be tickled with a first baseman given that they had Kevin McGrath, who was not even arbitration-eligible yet and thus played for the minimum, and had merely led the CL in doubles, homers, RBI, slugging, AND OPS this year. .302/.367/.539 with 31 HR, 54 2B, 120 RBI. They needed Jon Gonzalez or Kevin Harenberg as badly as a hole in the forehead.

Nope, still no progress, I have a brainlock right now.