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Buncha trades coming. Back story: I went through the mesa minor league system, really looking at assets. I sorted out all the players by age/potential and assigned them to AAA, AA, and A essentially based on "how far from the major leagues are they" (duh), instead of having the AI do it (to save time).

I found a handful of "non prospect age prospects" that could likely serve as 3-5y productive MLBers while top prospects develop. I'm a cardinal fan, so these are the possible Jon Jay, David Freese, Ryan Ludwick types ... that could be above average or a little above.

Anyway, RF Fitzgerald, having a great season, got injured and I brought up RF Orlando Acevedo from 3A ... essentially making RF Gil Felipe expendable. I clicked to make a trade or shop a player to see what I could get for him, and I liked some of the results. So I made a trade. Then explored with another player, and another player, and another player ... and ended up replacing players near the end of their contract or down on the depth charts for younger players for less money, while trading some defense for a bit more OPS. Of course, the Mesa fans hated every move.

With SP Mario Morales struggling after a breakout season in '43 (hopefully not just regression), Guerrero could serve as a fill in for a bench ed Morales or replace other SP that may be moved.

Ortiz will serve in the bullpen in 2044 and possibly move to the rotation in 2045. Chavez was struggling in the pen, and well overpaid. Fans reacted like we just traded our ace.

Mississippi offered Apodaca for Chavez, but that seemed far too good of a deal, and I thought it might be a mistake ... so I did not take it.

This one was tough. Norman making 3.6M in the last year of his contract has been solid for back to back seasons. Mesa tried to extend him but were too far off in $ with Norman wanting 14M/y and Mesa looking for ways to free up money for a long-term extension for JJ Sutton or to add a another frontline SP. Martinez is an interesting player .... will play 2B, but also maybe some SS as Mesa continues to look for a SS solution while top prospect Contreras makes the jump to 2A as a 20yo. Martinez offers decent gap power, but more importantly OBP that Mesa is seeking for the top of the order.

With 2B depth acquired by Mesa, Reid found himself as the next money-saving situation and was traded for a very good 3B prospect that should be MLB ready about the time 3B Kaynetli is due for a big arbitration raise or free agency. I have to be honest: I did not realize Reid could also play SS, and he may have been a better option at SS than what we've been playing. Over sight on my part.

This one was devastating for the fans (and GM), as fan favorite CF Jim Bond was traded to rival LA. Bond, who will likely win his 3rd straight GG in CF this year wanted 20M/y for 5 years as an extension, and Mesa wanted to use the money for other things. Mesa has 2 solid options in 3A to replace Bond, offering more OPS, but lesser defense. Fredericks is a solid IF piece that can play all position other than C. He will likely starts at SS, sharing time with Emmanuel Reyes.