There's no time to celebrate. It's already time to look ahead to next year. Or at least when you're in pursuit of 100 team news, you have to run all the stories out that you can. And that starts with discussing that relievers Derrick Chaney and Luis Equivel have accepted their options and will return to Portland for the 2060 season.
Neither pitcher exactly performed well in 2059 and Portland likely wouldn't have been to upset had both declined and departed. Chaney, a solid reliever on paper, has yet to stay healthy in Portland. Hes' compiled just 50 innings in his two seasons with the club and was terrible in 2058 sporting a -0.8 WAR. His injury at the start of this season did open the door for Erasmo Gonzalez to debut and make his mark.
In Equivel's case, he's stuck around but in a limited mop-up role out of the pen. This year, he appeared in just 17 games, posting a 5.53 earned run average and -0.2 WAR. He was slightly better last year, throwing more innings and posting a 3.88 ERA but still had a -0.1 WAR. Despite both being on the post-season roster, neither appeared in a single post-season game for Portland.
Chaney returns to a $1.9 million salary in 2060 while Equivel will earn $3.0 million.
"We'd love to have that money to use for some depth elsewhere" commented assistant GM Sandy Mounds. "But I guess Chaney and Equivel can provide the depth. We're fortunate to not be losing a lot from this year's roster so we'll run it back with most of what we had this season in tact again next year."
