November 29: I have officially lost my mind:
So not only did I trade not 1 - not 2 - but 3 top 30 MLB prospects, I also added $25M in salary for the next four years. But sometimes that's the price to pay if you want to acquire the best player in baseball, and one who fills a great need for the team. So welcome to Tampa Bay, former MVP Jeremy Begley - let's hope you're worth it. I talked about Begley in the previous post under MVP consideration and he did finish 2nd this year. Here's his profile page:
The man does it all (except maybe draw walks) - and not shown on this page is that he had 9.8 and 6.8 WAR seasons in 2033 and 2034; he's averaged 8.4 WAR/season over the last five. And as also mentioned in the previous post, he's not just a gold glover - he's a platinum glover. Last year he had a +26.4 ZR and that's no fluke as he's had previous years of 26.8, 27.1 and 29.6. Plus we get him for the next five years and while he'll be expensive he'll be a relative bargain with the 40% of salary Oakland is picking up. With his addition and the other moves we've made to address the defense without sacrificing offense we're now one of the best fielding teams in the league after being one of the worst.
But yes the price was very, very steep. Marion was the one it hurt the most to let go of since he was on the verge of stepping into the rotation. Right now what's holding him back is 40 control but he has the potential for 60 and if he gets there he's a potential 65/60/60 starter - in other words, an ace. And Route has similar potential although he's much farther away. Brown meanwhile was a 6th-round pick who blossomed into one of the game's better prospects and has a broad-based set of skills. But now I'm more comfortable with
Mario Urizar as the fifth starter, given he was the pitcher most hurt by our bad D last year and should now thrive with Gold Glovers added at SS and RF. This also gives us a bit of a glut in the middle infield with
Justin Blackwell and the newly-acquired
Isaiah Jackson fighting for the 2B job with Blackwell the better bat and Jackson the far better glove.
Now back to the regularly-scheduled offseason:
December 19: Added Cs
Dan Tolliver and
Willie Barahona to the 40-man roster.
Really didn't have any prospects to add to the 40-man this year, mainly because those drafted in 2033 were either traded away recently or haven't been good enough for me to worry about being claimed in the Rule 5 Draft. Tolliver could have a future as a backup catcher and Barahona is nominally a catcher but is really future DH with decent power. We still have a couple of 40-man spots open so if someone in the Rule 5 draft catches our eye (especially a reliever) we can make a move.
December 21: The Rule 5 Draft pool was underwhelming so we didn't take anyone and only lost veteran OF Luis Matos off Durham's roster. A non-event.
December 31: Former Rays lefty Joe Scheu, last seen helping pitch Memphis to a World Series victory over us, signed a 5/78 deal with San Diego. Scheu is a groundball/contact guy who was badly hurt by our defense last year (although the 10 HR in 63 IP despite being a 70 movement guy didn't help, though he only gave up 2 in 61 for Memphis) before we dealt him for Tony Alicea, but ironically would probably be really good for us next year.
January 6: The Hall of Fame voting is in:
Mookie sailed in while Yelich came agonizingly close again. Surprise showing for Yoshimoto who was a really good closer for 10 years but hardly HoF material to me. Also Harper should be in by now but there seems to be some resistance for whatever reason. Former Rays star Brandon Lowe was one and done, receiving 0.0% of the voting.
January 7: Time to make another deal, this one to bolster the bullpen:
That's NL Reliever of the Year Stan LeVea, although I still contend he was a questionable choice for the award, earning 1.0 WAR with 6 saves (albeit with a 1.60 ERA). Still he's a very good reliever who will fill a need in our pen and could close for us, rated 60/75/50. In exchange we part with Quintanilla, a borderline prospect with 45/45/50 potential as a starter who had one of the worst pitching seasons I've ever seen at Class-A Charleston: 2-14, 8.37, 147 hits and 73 walks in 95.2 IP with only 48 whiffs. He at least kept the ball in the park (9 HR) and suffered a .387 BABIP but oof. LeVea is a free agent after 2038 and was on the trading block which explains the low price.
January 9: As it is in many early-20s OOTP saves, 38-year-old Spencer Torkelson is a power-hitting legend and he took his 587 career homers to Milwaukee on a 2/49 deal.
January 20: It's international amateur free agent signing season and we inked a 16-year-old Italian, Lamberto Benizi, to a deal. He's a slugging 1B with 75 potential power.
January 22: Vlad Guerrero Jr. is still kicking around and after spending 18 years in Toronto followed by one with Boston, the 38-year-old was dealt to the Nationals. He has 422 career homers and a lifetime 291/355/488 slash line.
January 24: Jadon Smith signed a 1-year deal with Houston for $10.7M. Here's hoping he blows a bunch of saves for the Astros, our direct rival for the AL pennant, like he did for us this past season.
January 25: And another bullpen piece from last year finds a new home. Ruben Abeyta inked a 3/12.6 pact with the Cubs. I had made him an offer of 3/12 but didn't want to go higher, especially after acquiring LeVea.
February 4: Owner Jon Paige decided to boost our payroll budget $12M so I might just go after an ace reliever (Tony Alicea from our club last year and former Ray and veteran star closer Eric Lewis are both out there).
Also our old friend Wander Franco has found a new home in Boston. The 36-year-old signed a whopping 3/76 deal which seems like a massive overpay considering he's been barely a 2-WAR player the last couple of seasons. The fan interest "almost crashed" after his signing elsewhere but they'll get over it.
February 8: And there it is:
Welcome back, Tony. We now have our closer with LeVea and Gammage to set him up as the bullpen should now be set. We've spared no expense in money or prospects this offseason to build a champion for 2038 and I look forward to getting the season started.
March 7: We won our first spring training game 17-2. Maybe it's an omen.