[Westheim]

In early December and the run-up to the Winter Meetings, the bidding for … (looks at the notes again) … Tatsukichi Yonemura – he’ll need a nickname immediately should he arrive here, because that’s entirely too many syllables for me – kept going back and forth and our offer stopped having a 2 in front and going to a 3. For the total contract length, not per year (snickers). By January, that’d be per month. No, it was eight figures with a leading 3, which were entirely too many numbers for the little dimwit to comprehend anyway.

On the side, we were looking at left-handed relievers, and while there were some killer options like the Gold Sox’ Kelvin Castillo, the Sox had won 97 games and figured they could get past the Warriors somehow, eventually, but not without their closer. So that was not a move that was gonna get made; the Elks had a relatively young lefty, Tyler Walton, with a cutter to die for, and there were two things about the Elks: they were already overbudget by a couple of millions, and you never wanted to leave the Elks with anything that could turn out to be of value… which is why I thought of Cam Jackson. They were not interested though, even as we tried to cover the difference in salaries with loose dosh.

They’d take Crispy Bear, though. Yeah, sure. Always stay loosey-moosey on your side of the border.

The Winter Meetings began with a report that Yonemura had signed with the Titans – that turned out to be false. Instead, he might want more money, and a 6-year rather than a 4-year deal, and at this point the Raccoons began to be pushed out of the conversation.

By the third day of proceedings, I was slipped a note by Cristiano on a drive-by that Yonemura now wanted $34M for a 4-year contract. The Raccoons didn’t even have that budget space readily available. Can we throw a player to the Wolves? Or the wolves, if need be? And we better do it quick…!

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December 2 – 30-year-old 3B/2B Carlos Castro (.268, 44 HR, 499 RBI) takes his World Series ring with the Miners and takes it to Cincinnati for a $1.98M contract for 2074.
December 2 – The Thunder sign ex-Condors CL Chris Thompson (29-32, 3.28 ERA, 99 SV) for $3.44M over two years.
December 4 – The Miners win the bidding for ex-Bayhawks OF Jake Ward (.282, 103 HR, 650 RBI) with a 7-year deal worth $37.28M.
December 4 – The Knights sign up former Titans reliever/closer Cody Kleidon (70-83, 3.19 ERA, 403 SV) for $3.16M over two years.
December 4 – The Caps acquire INF Dennis Wright (.243, 12 HR, 81 RBI) from the Rebs in exchange for OF Larry Nelson (.265, 19 HR, 155 RBI).
December 5 – INF/LF Edgar Gonzales (.271, 66 HR, 489 RBI) moves from the Falcons to the Thunder in exchange for right-hander Mike Blanchard (7-9, 4.74 ERA, 13 SV), who appeared in a league-high 89 games in 2073, and a prospect.
December 6 – Richmond wins the services of former Bayhawks backstop Hugo Valdez (.272, 51 HR, 381 RBI) for $18.56M over four years.
December 8 – The Bayhawks acquire catcher Carlos Mora (.230, 6 HR, 70 RBI) from the Falcons for SP/MR Max Hamlin (22-27, 3.98 ERA).

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That was the end of the Winter Meetings. Yonemura hadn’t signed, but sure made everybody around him – he was there with an entourage of assistants and translators – sort of mad.

We had not gotten any outlandish offers for some of our starting pitchers, either.

But we have a Hall of Fame ballot…!