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My #1 goal in the offseason was to get out from under the 2-year/$3.1 million per year option that Tom Brunansky picked up in the offseason. Despite hitting 15 home runs last year, he ended the year a -.4 WAR with an OBP of under .300 in 365 AB's. He wasn't going to get that many AB's this year, but nobody wanted anything to do with that deal on its own.
We had the #31, #32 and #33 prospects, all starters and I felt we could add one of them to try to get a starter. Rafael Novoa is 21 and was an All-Star at AA for us, but even that wasn't enough to get my target. But by taking on 20%, or $600,000 for each of the next 2 years of Brunansky's deal, we got ourselves a 30-year old 3-time All Star pitcher from St Louis in 1984 Cy Young Award winner Andy Hawkins.
Hawkins has 3 years left at $3 million a year and he's coming off a career low 7 wins but still sporting a quality 3.20 ERA. He was on the DL for 5 weeks with a sore shoulder last year, but that was his first injury in 7 years. While the fans were not at all happy to see a fan favorite go, they were equally happy to get a "natural born leader" in Hawkins.
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