[JayW UK]

2026 Off-Season

As soon as the 2025 season was in the books and Boston crowned World Series champs, Cleveland manager Tom Heitman announced that he was stepping down from his management duties and retiring. The Corsairs pursued and eventually got their man to replace Heitman in the form of former San Jose manager Pedro Garcia. The Spartans stayed in-house for Garcia’s replacement, promoting bench coach Al Ewing to be their new skipper while Philadelphia also promoted from within when they tabbed bench coach Don Blair as their new manager. Blair had no previous managerial experience having been the pitching coach at both LA and LV before accepting the role as Philadelphia’s bench coach in 2023, his promotion was thought by many to be a risk. The former Seattle manager, Mike Holdsworth, had spent a year out of the game after leaving the Pioneers and was said to be itching to get back to management, after being passed over for the San Jose job, he was given his chance by Dallas, where he inherited a team lacking top talent and had a very tough job ahead to make the Mustangs relevant again. Tom Heitman’s retirement lasted only two months, as in early January he announced he had accepted the role of Bench Coach with his old team Denver, not everyone was happy with the news though, as rumours spread that incumbent manager Yoshizaku Tanaka did not want Heitman as his No 2 but was overruled by the team’s ownership.
In a free agency period devoid of blockbuster deals, Phoenix pulled off by far the biggest when they lured 2B Dustin Polk away from division rivals Houston, paying him $106M over the next 4 years. Minneapolis splashed the cash signing former New Orleans pitcher Kenny Law to a five year $107M Deal while ex-Indianapolis OF Steve Burgess landed in Oklahoma City on a $71M four-year deal and division rivals Denver strengthened their rotation by adding starter Jimmy Chien from LA on a 4 year $61.5M deal. Pitcher Benedict Lewis did not re-sign in Sanfrancisco as expected, instead he opted to go back to Washington (the team that had traded him to SF the year before) signing for 2 years and $15M. Sanfrancisco got to work replacing Lewis by persuading San Jose’s Barney Howell to join for 4 years, paying him $61M and also enticing 39-year-old Billy Moss, the veteran World Series winner to swap Boston for the Bay area for one last hurrah. Two more pitchers on the move were, former Detroit starter Will Christopher who joined Kansas City on a 1-year $12M deal and Carlos Correa who left Chicago to join New York on a three year $57M deal. New Orleans lost their star CF Jorge Sanchez (owner of the franchise record for career homeruns (213) with two 30 Hr / 30 SB seasons on his resume) to division rival Tampa Bay, Sanchez would earn $42M over the next two years.
Meanwhile Boston, after a relatively quiet off-season, added veteran catcher Alaeddin Cobanoglu to replace Robin Ashburn and signed one of their former stars, RF Brady Avery, to a one-year deal to provide outfield depth.
In the pre-draft process three players stood out, High School CF Marc Smith who projected to be a high contact hitter with plus speed and excellent defensive ability was the top position player, while college stars Kade Blackford from North Carolina, a hard throwing righty, and Arkansas ace T.J Simms were the best pitchers. There were two other players that were garnering a lot of attention, Texas CF Bobby Schoeppell and Mississippi 2B Jack Rasmuessen, both players were outstanding defenders at their positions, already good enough for the NABL, but both had some way to go on the offensive side of the ball.
On draft night it was CF Marc Smith who heard his name called first by Washington, the second player drafted was fellow high schooler 1B Danny Bates, picked by Detroit who liked his power potential. Third was North Carolina pitcher Kade Blackford taken by LA, while Dallas took CF Paul Bryan from Memphis fourth. Bobby Schoeppell was drafted fifth by OKC and college pitcher T.J Simms sixth by Sanfrancisco, Jack Rasmuessen had to wait until the 17th pick to hear his name called, where Denver ended his fall.
Heading into the 2026 season, Boston were still considered the team to beat in the east, although both Tampa Bay and New York had strengthened and were expected to challenge, New Orleans despite the loss of star CF Jorge Sanchez were the only other team thought to be in with a chance. Also of interest was how new managers Pedro Garcia in Cleveland and Don Blair in Philadelphia would perform, with both teams expected to be on the verge of pushing for the playoffs. In the west all eyes were on Seattle to see if their run to the World Series had been a fluke or the sign of things to come, Los Angeles were expected to challenge again after their disastrous 2025 campaign and with San Diego waiting in the wings the Pacific division race was going to be an exciting one. Las Vegas with their dominating pitching and Houston with their powerful offense were once again the teams to watch in the Southwest division while Minneapolis, Oklahoma City and Denver were likely to fight it out for the Midwest division. Denver were an interesting team to watch with their management team of Yoshisaku Tanaka and Tom Heitman not on the best of terms, Denver’s season rested on the two men being able to overcome their differences and work together, otherwise there was the potential for disaster.