Before we begin, we're revamping our whole organization's staff. Everyone must go (except our trainer, who's done a pretty good job preventing injury). Okay I lied, there's a couple guys in the minors I'm hanging on to. But the entire major league coaching staff is gone. I had the AI handling the minors but I'm taking that over too.
Our farm system is now up to #6, with ten guys in the Top 100, and we have to train them right.
Let's see what we're working with this offseason move-wise and then I'll begrudgingly hire an entire organization.
FA roll (0-2): 2
Trade roll (0-2): 2
Carryover: 0
Profit ($11.2M): +1 in each
Worst team penalty: -1 in each.
That leaves us with:
45+ rated FA: 2
Trades: 2
I will take this, obviously, as it's as good as we could have done. Feels good to be able to do
something.
Arbitration leads to a few cuts but nothing of note. When free agents file, we have about $23M to work with, budget-wise.
It's crazy to even say this after a 113 loss season, but just looking at our roster, it's not horribly bad; I see a lot more yellow and green ratings as opposed to yellow and red.
Let's actually take a look at the starting spots, top to bottom. This will help us plan on how to leverage these moves we have available to us, especially since we're on a tight budget.
C: Jesse Brinkman, 50 POT (5/5/5)
1B: Bryant Hammock, 60 POT (7/6/5)
2B: Bill Marek, 60 POT (5/5/5)
3B: Paul Fisher, 50 POT (4/4/5)
SS: Ciprian Popovici, 45 (5/4/4)
LF: Steve Gonzalez, 55 POT (5/4/8)
CF: Mike Gruver, 60 POT (6/6/5)
RF: Adam Broussard, 50 POT (4/6/6)
DH: Luis Gomez, 45 POT (6/5/5)
UTIL: Rich Black, 55 POT (5/5/6)
SP: Joey Parrish, 80 POT (8/6/5)
SP: James LaSpina, 45 POT (6/5/4)
SP: Ben Westerhaus, 45 POT (5/6/6)
SP: Pete Barraclough, 35 POT (5/3/6)
SP: ?
CL: Corey Morris, 50 POT (6/6/4)
SU: Gabe Hanley, 50 POT (6/6/5)
SU: Ryan Barbee, 45 POT (6/5/4)
So taking a look at this as a whole, pitching is clearly a big need. Only one of our Top 10 prospects is a pitcher. 3B and SS look like the bigger needs offensively, but we have some of those guys coming.
Not that we have the budget for it anyway, but there's no true elite arms in FA. We start by getting trying to get a handful of guys in on non-roster invites; minor league contracts that become a major league deal if they make the team with an opt-out clause if they don't. All of these players are rated 40 or less, so don't count against our allowed moves.
But there is one guy who's a 45-rated SP, Mu'Adh Nelson. We had our eye on him a few years ago, but he wasn't a fan of our manager and refused to listen to our offer. With a new regime in place. we're able to make him an offer, if the RNG gods allow it.
He's not a huge stuff guy (5), but has great control (7), and also is a captain and has the "Iron Man" injury proneness designation. With a 3.98 ERA/3.81 SIERA last season and a miniscule 4.7% BB rate, he's interesting. He gave up a ton of homers; the most in the league. But in our park, he may be able to keep that down.
He's a 45, so we'll need to roll 2-8 and get 5 or higher, which we do. We make an offer for one year, $3.75M.
We also explore the trade market. Cleveland is desperate to shed payroll. While we're not in a position to take on the entirety of a big contract, we could utilize our depth to get a player and have them eat some of the money. SP Mike Meyers is a guy I've come across a few times; he's 34 now, with good stuff and movement. The ERA has gone up a bit over the years but the K% and BB% have stayed roughly the same. Last year, a rough BABIP gave him some issues. He's due $21M and has a team option for the following year. If we took the whole contract, we could get him for virtually nothing. But we don't have the room for that; so we ask them to eat 75% and send SP Julian Figueras in return. We signed him out of Cuba for $8.5M back in 1949:
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We DO make a somewhat big move in the international market, making a big splash on SP Julian Figueras, a 17-year-old, 65-rated Cuban RHP.
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He's down to a 40-rated SP now, as the control never panned out, but he's only 20 years old, and Cleveland will take a shot on him. We'll owe him $5.2M this year, and almost certainly will not accept the $21M option on him next year.
Mu'ahd Nelson signs with us shortly after.
FA: 1
Trades: 1
I think at this point I'm content holding here and carrying these into next season. International FA is another quantity play, and not much else happens as we head towards spring training.