[Westheim]

First note to the offseason proper was that Vernon Hudalla went unclaimed and was handed down to the AAA roster without incident, as if anybody wanted a part of his .164 (career) bat.

Early on in November, we signed 1-year extensions with Reynaldo Bravo ($650k) and Ricky Herrera ($575k), none of whom were interested in having their arbitration years and some free agency time bought out with a longer-term deal at this point. Duarte Damasceno ($520k) and Kelly Konecny ($550k) soon followed. In those cases, we had no vested interest in a long deal at this point.

I was then growing increasingly concerned because the Loggers sent a pitcher to a certain declining FL team that I tried to do business with, and received prospects back from them, when what I had in mind was to excise a certain star from that other team, and had already extended my claws that way, and they had been playing hard to get. No, no, guys, listen. You’re supposed to enter rebuilding mode now!

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October 31 – Blue Sox RF/LF Tony Ontiveroz (.283, 37 HR, 206 RBI) announces his retirement at age 28. Ontiveroz suffered a ruptured disc in his back just 20 games into the 2059 season and had been struggling with chronic back pain since. Ontiveroz won a Gold Glove and two rings in his 5-year career.
November 2 – The Loggers trade MR Danny Zepeda (17-10, 3.62 ERA, 10 SV) to the Blue Sox for two prospects, including #111 Vincent Hernandez.
November 5 – The Loggers sent MR Curt Rosato (5-0, 3.34 ERA, 9 SV) and a prospect to the Scorpions for catcher Mark Reed (.308, 2 HR, 6 RBI).
November 11 – The Raccoons swing a huge trade with the Blue Sox by acquiring 29-year-old INF Nick Nye (.315, 132 HR, 586 RBI) for a whole basket of players, including 2B Paul Labonte (.266, 9 HR, 120 RBI), MR Eloy Sencion (32-24, 3.10 ERA, 15 SV), #60 prospect AA/AAA OF Isaiah Birth, and unranked prospect A SP Carlos Gomez.

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Boom! Splash! The Raccoons made headlines!

The Loggers woodchucked around their roster a bit to begin the offseason, but the Raccoons really made the first big move and secured the services of a certified star in Nick Nye. Now, let me fawn about Nye for a bit and then we can also talk about the cost and why he’s not a perfect fit.

Nye was a #45 pick in the 2049 draft, being selected out of high school (which also means the Raccoons passed on him to draft Josh Mayo – currently with Cincy and 11-19 with a 4.46 ERA for his career). He reached the majors halfway through the ’53 season, then batted league average for a couple of years before leading the FL in RBI in his age 24 season. In the last four years, he has been a persistent menace, hitting both in the .330s and in the 30s of home runs. He can steal a few bases, too, and his defense was surely above average (more in a second). He had two rings, a World Series MVP, the 2057 FL Player of the Year crown, four Platinum Sticks, and had been an All Star three times besides winning a batting title and a home run crown (this in ’59). So, he had already won all parts of the triple crown, just not in the same season. He was a charming guy, hard worker, and got along with basically everybody (but wait until they bring out the food bowls…). He was a certified terror in the lineup, and it was only natural he’d cost an arm and a leg. He was also signed for three more years at $4M each, which was almost a bargain for what he brought to the table.

Alright. I am done fawning. (wipes drool from his snout) There were a few … tiny… The first was that his natural position was at shortstop, but we already had a shortstop. Cristiano Carmona fainted when I insisted that Lonzo keep playing short, but Nye had experience at second base, he just hadn’t been there very often. Lonzo knew nothing but short; “Banjo”’s scouting comparison also showed that while they were very similar on defense, Nye was the more agile won and got an extra point in turning double plays and on his error rating compared to Lonzo, but Lonzo got an extra point in arm. Their range was identical, and I wanted the guy with the better arm at short. Now, the full time transition of Nye to second base would probably not lead to a Gold Glove there any time soon, but it was nothing that he didn’t have the skill set to master.

The second thing was what we gave up to get him. I had already gone into how Eloy Sencion was a bit of the odd man out in a bullpen that ended the year with six southpaws and didn’t know where to stuff them all, and despite his longevity on the roster he was actually the guy that hurt me the least to give up. Gomez had only this year debuted in single-A after being signed for a critical $900k as a July free agent a few years back, but Birth looked like the real deal as a centerfielder. We’d perhaps rue the day of this trade down the road, but hopefully not before taking home a ring or two. Birth was at least one year or even two away. Nye was now, and we didn’t know how much of a window we actually had.

Since Nye was batting right-handed, I also wanted to retain Paul Labonte (who would be only 25 on Opening Day), who would have nicely complemented the right-handed Nye and Lonzo and could have given them regular days off against right-handers, but the Blue Sox were pretty insisting on getting a serviceable infielder back and it wasn’t like we had much else to give. Lonzo had 10/5 rights (as if I had traded him anyway), and the rest of the infield crew was living on borrowed oxygen to begin with.

Birth was our top prospect out of the window then and with how everything else was going we could just as well embrace having the worst farm in the game again. We entered the year with six ranked prospects, and two of them (LaBat, Morris) exceeded rookie limits during this season, so we were now down to three: #75 A RF/LF Jose Corral (who missed half the season injured), #84 AA 2B/OF Miguel Ulloa (second full year in Ham Lake), and #164 AA SP John Bollinger.

Finally, in the last items before the free agency period of the offseason arrived, Arturo Bribiesca signed a $500k extension for 2060, and 35-year-old catcher Deshawn Beard was waived off the 40-man roster.

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2059 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: SAC RF/CF Will Buras (.370, 22 HR, 107 RBI) and BOS 3B Randy Wilken (.273, 35 HR, 106 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: SFW SP Ricardo Montoya (18-3, 2.34 ERA) and BOS SP Jayden Craddock (16-8, 2.01 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: NAS SP Juan Sanchez (9-6, 3.07 ERA) and NYC OF Tommy Branch (.231, 17 HR, 60 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: TOP CL Bill Hernandez (10-6, 1.47 ERA, 38 SV) and POR CL Matt Walters (1-1, 2.09 ERA, 42 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P RIC Steve Hawkins – C TOP Matt McLaren – 1B SAL Belchior Fresco – 2B PIT Alex Vasquez – 3B TOP Alex de los Santos – SS NAS Nick Nye – LF TOP Dan Martin – CF SAC Will Buras – RF SFW John Kaniewski
Platinum Sticks (CL): P MIL Julian Dunn – C LVA Casey Burgio – 1B POR Joel Starr – 2B SFB Armando Montoya – 3B BOS Randy Wilken – SS LVA Miguel Veguilla – LF SFB Grant Anker – CF POR Noah Caswell – RF MIL Perry Pigman
Golden Gloves (FL): P SAC Mike McCaffrey – C SAC Nate Danis – 1B SAL Belchior Fresco – 2B LAP Jesse Sweeney – 3B TOP Alex de los Santos – SS RIC Jason Turner – LF CIN Aaron Pile – CF DAL Tyler Wharton – RF SAC Israel Santiago
Golden Gloves (CL): P TIJ Marco Clemente – C BOS Jorge Arviso – 1B VAN Jose Campos – 2B NYC Omar Sanchez – 3B BOS Randy Wilken – SS NYC Nick Fowler – LF OCT Tim Weant – CF CHA Cory Oldfield – RF NYC Sean Zeiher

You can’t say the Titans didn’t get full value out of the 1-year deal with 36-year-old Randy Wilken, which cost them just over a million bucks and netted them the Player of the Year and a sweep of the third base awards. And all of third place in the league, but that wasn’t necessarily Wilken’s fault.

Matt Walters snatched his third award for being such a ninth inning nightmare. He was taking them home every odd year now (2055, 2057, 2059), but he was excused for missing out in 2058 when he was still on the DL for the first two months, and in 2056 he didn’t win but led the CL in saves. He was also signed through 2063 at a passable rate of $2.22M annually, which amounted to roughly $50k per save.

Sneaky Joel Starr nipped a Platinum Stick in his first full season in the majors, and we silently hope for more good things to come. He was not exactly fresh-faced, having turned 27 in September, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have room to grow anymore. For Caswell it was the third Platinum Stick of his career, and all came consecutively, one with the Wolves and now two with the Raccoons.