|
The 1960-1961 Offseason
107 wins. No playoffs.
We have five departing free agents
C Angelo Arizmendi (.223/.263/.355, 10 HR, 1.4 WAR)
Playing in a little over half of our games this year, Arizmendi struggled offensively as expected, but still finished with a 1.4 WAR due to his defense behind the dish. He wants $25M per year for four years, which isn't going to work for us. We do offer him a $20M qualifying offer and hope he declines.
RP Danny Hamilton (3.48 ERA, 24.4 K%)
Hamilton has been a lefty that we've relied on out of the pen for parts of the last eight seasons. With a career 3.75 ERA and 25.8 K%, he's always been good, but never great. The walk and home run rate ticked up a bit over the last two seasons, and while he doesn't want a ton ($6.5M/yr for 3 years) I think we'll try to fill this role internally/cheaply.
1B Nick Henriksen (.246/.305/.497, 22 HR, 0.7 WAR)
Henriksen spent some time on the IL to start the year recovering from a knee injury suffered right before the end of the 1959 season. He was able to get 400 PA, and he was okay. With a 117 wRC+ he was better than average but supplies virtually no defensive talent and has a significant platoon split (82 wRC+ vs LHP/119 wRC+ vs RHP). He's open to a team-friendly deal, relatively speaking, at $69M over five years. But with his injury history and now 30 years old, we're going to pass.
CL Jerry Johnson (2.08 ERA, 51 SV, 31.6 K%)
This is the guy I'm going to be sad about losing. He's got electric stuff as a lefty and has been lights out against hitters on both sides of the plate. While I'm tempted to offer him a QO, his asking price is about $5M below that ($15M/yr for 4 years) and the thought of paying a reliever, even one as good as Johnson, is tough to swallow.
With all of that said, let's roll our imaginary dice and see what kind of moves we can make this upcoming year:
FA roll (0-3): 3
Trade roll (0-3): 0
Carryover from last season: +1 FA
Profit ($4.27M): +1 to both
Worst record penalty: N/A
Win World Series: N/A
Total:
45+ rated FA: 5
Trades: 1
Okay, so a little lopsided here and not really in our favor. While we have a lot of money coming off the books this year and far fewer arbitration-eligible guys, money is always tight here in Portland. Right now, payroll looks to be around $89M or so with about $32M in budget room, if our accountants are correct.
I guess that is quite a bit more than what we're used to.
Anddddd that didn't last long. C Angelo Arizmendi accepts the QO we offered, cutting into $20M of our budget. I'm honestly shocked that he did. Shit.
Free agency begins, and we'll have about $13-14M to play with.
|