[Bub13]

2047-48 Off-season, cont'd.

Free agency opens, and I'm not spending any money! Or wait...maybe I am!

We make a pitch (ha!) to two relievers who just wanted minor league contracts, only to have both come back upping their demands to just below a million per. No thanks. Rumor has it that we've been in talks with several other pitchers, and an infielder or two. No comment.

We do, however, make a trade, sending pitcher Mickey McCarthy to Minnesota for IF Joe Sayers. McCarthy was a 2nd rounder from the 2042 draft, but who never panned out. At least, I don't think he's got it, and he struggled for us in AAA this year. Expendable. In Sayers, we get a slap-hitting, no-strikeout (also no-power) middle infielder who's fielding is at least "good enough." He'll compete for one of the utitily infield spots, and if he doesn't make it, at least he's on a minor league contract and won't count against the 40 man roster. What a stunning testimonial. Welcome aboard, Joe!

......

Back to free agency... Richmond (four players) and Cincinnati (three) make the most early grabs. My former seat of power, Richmond, won 64 games this season and is looking for a shortcut to competitiveness, it seems. They grab a SS, Evan Weiser, at $14M per (overpaid, a .250 hitter with Gold Glove potential); two decent middle relievers (including one newbie from Japan); and also grab our reject Ryuma Sato (at only $5.1M, so no supplemental pick for me). Cincy grabs SS Enrique Antunez away from Seattle (out of the division! yes!), who's a .280-hitting solid defender; they also nab aging stars D.J. Breland (SP, out for five more months) and Lance Powell (C, former MVP winner). Both of these picks would have been brilliant 5 or so years ago. They also lost their ace, Juan Valdez, who went to Oakland (boooo) where he'll torment me for the next two seasons. Or, one and a quarter seasons, as he's on the shelf until August (at least) with a bum shoulder.

...Seattle inks pitcher Edgar Tinajero for $68.5M over 5 years. That's a lot of term for a 32-year-old who has had exactly two seasons pitching more than 100 innings.
...Milwaukee grabbed a guy I've never heard of, 1B Luis Ruiz (from Arizona, that's why), for $56M over 4 seasons. Ruiz is good for 30 HR a season, and should also help boost the Brewers lovely .226 team batting average from this season.
...the Winter Meetings kick off with six trades on day one. None are particularly big, but one did catch my eye. KC got backup OF Cory George and potentially useful prospect pitcher named Henry Galvan, in exchange for 2B Brian Pifer, who's off to Washington. So what, you say. Well, in parts of four seasons with the Royals, Pifer has "earned" -4.5 WAR, and this past season batted a studly .101 before being kidnapped in the middle of the night and dumped in a field somewhere outside Wichita. Somehow he found his way home, and now is off the nation's capital, where with his survival ability, he'll be a Senator or ambassador in no time.
...the White Sox sign the second former Islander, this time getting OF Joseph Hart for $23M over 3 seasons. The fans aren't happy. Boo hoo. Hart is sure to smack a grand slam or two against us next year, but que sera sera.
...the Dodgers stay true to their own selves by signing a...wait for it...closer. This time it's Lorenzo Quinones for three years, at $17M total. The Vegas over/under on the total number of off-season-Dodger-closer-signings is 4.5.
...Hawaii gets in on the act, signing South Korean reliever H.C. Kym to a 2-year, $5.2M total deal. Kym brings a 99 MPH fastball, a sharp curve, and gets a lot of groundball outs. His control is not the greatest, but I can live with it (for now). Plus, he's a lefty, which I wanted.
...six more trades on day two of the Meetings, but nothing worth discussing.
...the Dodgers actually sign a non-closer, getting catcher Juan Luarca. Although they did make a trade for a reliever.
...Milwaukee signed Daniel Becker away from Toronto. Becker, this year's AL Cy Young winner, will get $158M over the next seven seasons. I think this will prove a terrible contract, as Becker is 29 and never had a season worth writing about until this year.
...Boston makes a splash, inking SS Victor Sanchez for $109M over 6 seasons. Sanchez has topped 40 HR in five of his last seven seasons, but I think this contract will also be a mistake. At just 30, Sanchez's ratings have already started dropping, and despite hitting 46 HR last year, his average dropped nearly 20 points, and he has stopped taking walks. He's also lost his speed and has no range for short anymore, and should really move to third. But that would actually make sense...
...Milwaukee decided to add another all-HR batter to the pile, grabbing catcher Antonio Chamorro. He hit 33 HR for the Reds, but batted just .210, and had a smashing K/BB ratio of 186/20.
...Boston signed OF Faustino Whitton away from Richmond, for $32M over 4 years. Whitton has lost a few years due to injury (and more than a few steps in the outfield), but at 32 he still has a chance at reaching 3000 hits over the term of this contract.
...Detroit is all fired up about signing Japanese free agent Hideki Matsuro to a 5-year, $41M deal. But...he's 30, has ratings lower than his ceilings, was signed as a 3B but listed as a SS (even though he's only suited for 2B), and may not hit over .230. He is, however, captain material, and averaged about 120 walks a season in Japan. And he is an improvement over last year's model, Leo Renteria, who hit 18 HR but batted just .231 with a .278 OBP.
...We add one more piece to the team, signing IF Marcus Walker to a one-year, $1.1M deal. Walker, 32, spent five seasons with Baltimore and one with the Yankees, starting at third base all that time. He's got the chops to play anywhere in the infield, and seeing as how his hitting seems to be declining, he'll be a backup at most. He's a lefty who has produced 15-20 home runs a season, will take a walk, and won't strike out much. Useful as a utility guy, but not so great as a 1-to-2 WAR starter.
...Oakland looks like they're trying to load up, signing SS Daniel Hopkins for $102M over 5 years. That's a lot of dough for a lifetime .268 hitter, but one who does average 25 HR a season. He's also got a noodle arm, so how the Mets managed with him at short for five seasons is beyond me.
...Tampa gets the biggest plum so far, signing top free agent Dan Starr for 3 years, and $79M total. Having spent 15 years with the White Sox, Starr is no longer the 40-HR hitting guy he was in his 20s, but he still produces over .900 OPS and is closing in on 500 HR in his career.

...the Rule 5 Draft comes and goes, and once again we make no selections. We do lose one player, catcher Justin Cecil, taken by Texas. Cecil was a 6th round pick in 2043, and played in AAA last season. He wasn't going anywhere in our system, so won't be missed. Overall, 41 players were selected in the draft, with Richmond and St Louis taking four players each.

......

At the close of the calendar year, we're near the bottom in the "offseason summary by team" chart, having lost over 11 WAR to free agency. No worries from me, tho: I think between our new acquisitions and improving youngsters, we'll more than make up for that loss. Anway...we're a month away from preseason, and almost two months until spring training starts. I doubt we'll go after any more MLB-level free agents, but I'll be on the lookout for some minor league (AAA/AA level) help, especially middle infielders and maybe a few pitchers.