We Got Wood - 41.09 - The One Where We Go Big

[7teen]

If you had the Portland Lumberjacks signing the biggest free agent fish in the pitching market this season then go cash in that big winning ticket and enjoy your spoils. Odds are, many people didn't have Portland going after, or especially landing, Feliciano Rafael, as a real possibility. I mean why would they? An expansion team coming off a 58 win seasons blowing its load on one big free agent pitcher? I mean, why? From the Portland front office's perspective, the answer was "Why not?"

"Everyone needs pitching" said Lumberjacks owner David Wallace, "so we went after the biggest free agent pitcher on the market and we got him. Does this move transform us into a contender? Hardly. Doesn't even make us a wild-card team? Probably not. But does it help us as a franchise looking for some credibility early on? Does it fire our fan base up? Does it create excitement and generate a buzz around the city of Portland? You betcha!"

"You ever heard of this thing called 'The Master PlanTM'" chimed in GM Chris Wilson to the response of several eye rolls from the media, "yeah, sure you have. Well, this fits right into that mold. We have so much flexibility now in what we can and want to do by adding in a pitcher like Feliciano that a move like this is a high reward move with little to minimal risk we decided to go after it. When we contacted Feliciano and his agent the day free agents filed, he was all on board. He has spent most of his career on the West Coast, felt a little slighted by some former clubs, and was all in on coming to Portland to help us kick the next phase of Lumberjacks baseball into gear. Ohh, The Next Phase? That has a ring to it. Might need to file that one away for later."

From a financial standpoint, the move makes easy sense for the Lumberjacks. Felicano's contact is 6 years at $20 million per season. He has an opt-out clause after year 2 and then a player option for the final year so he holds all the cards when it comes to his financial status. The move does push the Lumberjacks to the brink of their budget in 2041, but with over $30 million coming off the books next season the club regains some more flexibility. Clearly there is always a risk at signing any player, especially a pitcher, to such a long term deal. But at the age of 27, who else are you going to risk it on?

"We've always said year 5 was our target window all along" said owner David Wallace. "We don't have any major contractual players that far down the road yet as our prospects won't be getting paid so this deal doesn't affect our numbers down the road. If Felicicano stays with us all the way through, then we work around this contract down the road and hope he is a key piece in our 5 year window. If he leaves, then we just have a lot more money to make moves later."

From a competing standpoint, the Lumberjacks have way too many holes for one starting pitcher to fill. The club was 2nd to last in runs scored last season while finishing dead last in runs allowed. The addition of Feliciano is like putting a bandaid over the hole in the titanic. Espcially when you look at the fact the club only had 2 pitchers last season with a WAR over 1.0 and one of those departed to free agency.

"Rafael knows this team has holes and isn't necessarily built to win at the moment" added in Wilson. "But he also knows that if it does, he'll get a lot of credit. He also knows we will have a very good defense behind him and we play in a fairly neutral ball park unlike what he was accustomed to in San Fernando for years. But we also talked it over with Rafael and his agent to make sure they also realized that Rafael could also be a valuable trade chip. He understood which is why we worked out the multiple options and opt-outs with he and his agent. If we don't play well and trade him away, he wanted decision making ability as to whether he wanted to stay for $20 million or depart. That goes for here or any team we may trade him to in the future. We won't talk about the trade option now, but we'd be foolish if we didn't think trading a hot commodity pitcher for some useful parts to our franchise building hadn't crossed our mind."

[HoosierVic]

So, this actually seems thought out and everything ... you sure this is part of the Master Plan (TM)? Where’s the fog? Where are the internal contradictions? You brought in an outside consultant for this, didn’t you?

[7teen]

So, this actually seems thought out and everything ... you sure this is part of the Master Plan (TM)? Where’s the fog? Where are the internal contradictions? You brought in an outside consultant for this, didn’t you?

Have you met the Assistant to the GM, Kate?

[HoosierVic]

So, this actually seems thought out and everything ... you sure this is part of the Master Plan (TM)? Where’s the fog? Where are the internal contradictions? You brought in an outside consultant for this, didn’t you?

Have you met the Assistant to the GM, Kate?

So you finally gave her the job? Espionage may be a waste of her talents ...