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2024 Off-Season
After their disappointing 2023 season San Jose chose to move on from GM Ted Garneau appointing former Kansas City Scouting Director Brian Halliday as his replacement. Halliday at just 37 years old was the youngest executive in the NABL and his first move was to overhaul the scouting department bringing in Ricardo Comparo, his former International scout in KC, to be his new Scouting Director. Comparo was given the task to improve the talent in the San Jose farm system through both the draft and making use of his international contacts, to achieve this task, Comparo was to be given the biggest international scouting budget in the NABL.
While these changes were happening out in San Jose, several managerial moves had been made. Detroit appointed former Washington Manager Keith Bennett as their new skipper while Washington did not give their vacant manager’s job to Cris Estrada as many expected, instead opting to hire Matt Hunt who had left Minneapolis. Hunt managed to persuade Estrada to stay on as bench coach on the understanding that he would not stand in Estrada’s way if he chose to pursue another managerial role in the future. Minneapolis stayed in house to replace Hunt by promoting bench coach Jason Middlemas while Boston’s new manager was longtime AAA skipper Gary Hatcher, who had just led his Anaheim Titans to the AAA Championship.
A busy offseason for player movement was kicked off by San Diego completing a trade with Houston, the Mariners sent 2B Dustin Polk along with 1B prospect Brad Schmidt and reliever Lou Stephens to the Stars for 3B Jose Montoya and $2.5M in cash considerations. Denver got in on the act by trading LF Jarrod Cross and prospect Anibal Portillo to LA for pitcher Roberto Gutierrez, the Wildcats had found themselves needing to make this deal after the loss of ace pitcher Anthony Barrett who joined Las Vegas on a 3 year $69M deal. On the plus side Denver pulled off the biggest free agency coup by far, persuading superstar LF Dixon Bodean to sign on the dotted line for $135M over six years, they also added former Austin 3B Luis Sanchez for $39M over 3 years, former Chicago closer Marcos Diaz for one year at $15.4M and after he was released by Washington, OF Andrew Parker for one year at $14M. Washington were also busy picking up former Tampa Bay SS Michael Matthews on a 5 year deal at $22M per year, they also added stud closer Min-Jae Choi from LA for 3 years at $33M. Former Washington closer Alfonso Vargas signed with Chicago for $28M over two years while pitcher Jason McCullough left Atlanta for Minneapolis in a 4 year $92M deal to join up with Dave Cahill and form a formidable one-two punch at the top of the Bears rotation. Tampa Bay at the behest of manager Paul Ladd, added catcher Jeff Green from Dallas on a five year $92.5M deal.
The 2024 draft had several quality college players at the top of the prospect list, led by CF Jason Clement from Temple, Arizona catcher Chris Coates, Kansas State’s 3B Michael Ford and 1B Randy Harrington from Pitt, while only a single high school player, outfielder Gregg Bambridge, was expected to be drafted high.
Armed with the first overall pick Detroit made CF Jason Clement their man, while Austin, picking second, surprised many by drafting New Mexico pitcher Philip Cooper. Picking next Miami also went with a pitcher tabbing Steven Reynolds of Long Beach State before Phoenix chose 3B Michael Ford fifth. Boston nabbed 1B Randy Harrington sixth overall and Las Vegas, surprised that he was still available, were ecstatic to pick catcher Chris Coates eighth. San Jose’s first pick on new GM Brian Halliday’s watch was High School outfielder Gregg Bambridge, taken with the eleventh pick.
On the eve of the season all eyes were on the Denver Wildcats, having spent heavily in free agency they were the early favourites to win the World Series, Los Angeles, the other heavyweight in the west, were expected to be just as strong as ever and were looking to get back to the World Series after falling to Denver in the 2023 WL Pennant Series. Minneapolis and OKC were expected to be the main contenders for the WL wildcard. In the east the picture was less clear cut with no team standing out, never-the-less Atlanta were expected to make the playoffs once again despite losing pitcher Jason McCullough to free agency and Indianapolis, looking to keep their 5 year playoff run going, being the other team favoured to challenge in the east. While in Tampa Bay, the pressure was on manager Paul Ladd, with the Hurricanes having the highest payroll in the east expectations were high, and a run at the EL Pennant or even the World Series was the least that Ladd was tasked with delivering. The one thing that most people could agree on however, was that Detroit and Miami would once again resume their places as cellar dwellers in their respective divisions.
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