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2019 Off-Season
In a relatively quiet offseason Dallas made headlines when they let manager Jose Porfeiro go, stating “the team had stagnated under his leadership and that it was time for a change”, the 2016 Western League Manager of the year was unceremoniously dumped after a second consecutive disappointing campaign. Porfeiro was said to be angry about being fired while also letting it be known through the media that he felt he was undermined by “certain senior players” and that “senior Front Office personnel had a vendetta against him”. Thus, the scene was set for a damaging war of words between all parties involved, which was not a good look for the team and put off many prospective candidates for the manager’s job. Eventually Dallas settled on Kevin Casey to fill the role, he had been cutting his managerial teeth at Orlando Rockets a minor league affiliate of New Orleans and many observers felt the appointment was a panic move destined to end badly for both team and manager. Two other teams were on the lookout for new managers, Kansas City, after Alfonso Miranda unexpectedly stepped down an away from baseball completely citing family reasons and Denver who chose not to extend incumbent manager Eddie Gray. The Tornadoes chose to stay within the organisation (no doubt impressed with the results Atlanta had after hiring bench coach Jeff Taylor) by promoting their own Bench Coach Hector Guerra to be their new manager. Denver chose to go the veteran manager route by luring Tom Heitman away from Miami, his impressive resume included four playoff appearances with three division titles in his five years at the Everglades.
Denver also made a splash in free agency, enticing two-time Outstanding Hitter award winner Andrew Parker to town on a 2-year deal. The Wildcats then focused on their pitching, aggressively chasing former Minneapolis ace Anthony Barrett the two-time Outstanding Pitcher award winner, eventually bringing him on board with a 5 year $97M deal. Minneapolis wasted little time after losing Barrett by bringing in Ron Titley from Phoenix on a 4 year $77M deal to replace their ace, he would join second year starter Dave Cahill, Anibal Ramirez and Frank Tuzzi to form one of the best rotations in the league. Vicente Padilla signed on with Oklahoma City after leaving Washington in a deal ($34M over 2 years) that many believed was an overpay by the Outlaws. Las Vegas lost star Catcher Robin Ashburn, who signed with San Diego on a bumper deal at $110.6M over six years. One player who didn’t get the deal he was hoping for was pitcher Lou Murphy, after injuring his elbow the previous season he had been released by Oklahoma City when they decided not to take a risk and offer an extension to his contract. After working back to fitness Murphy found his options to be very limited with most teams wary of his elbow and unwilling to give the now 38-year-old former Pitcher of the year, more than a one year prove-it deal. Eventually he settled on Las Vegas and signed for $3.35M for the season in the hopes of proving his fitness and getting one last multi-year contract.
As the offseason moved on to the draft the general consensus was that 2019 draft class did not contain many blue-chip players but there was still talent to be found. San Jose drafted another college pitcher, this time USC’s Chris Romero, first overall while Phoenix also tabbed a Californian college pitcher, Manny Garza of Cal-St Fullerton, third overall. The top position player taken was Ohio State’s 2B Dustin Polk who many scouts believed was already good enough for the majors, he was drafted sixth by San Diego. The Boston Pilgrims snagged High School star Lucio Martinez 11th overall, he was widely considered the best Catching prospect in the draft.
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