We Got Wood - 45.05 - Lumberjacks Withdraw 3 Arbitration Offers

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In a continued effort to find money and cap space heading into the 2045 season, the Portland front office announced today that it has withdrawn three arbitration offers to players. Those three players will instead be allowed to enter the free agent pool this off-season where they'll likely rot until signed on by a team for a minor league deal.

Tomas Valadez, a 4-year veteran with Portland and former waiver wire pickup from Vancouver, has played 2B for the Lumberjacks and was projected to get roughly $800,000 in salary next season via arbitration. However, despite posting a total of 3.6 WAR for the Lumberjacks from 2041-2043, his -0.8 WAR last season turned the organization off and his mediocre defense forced the team to use his salary in another method.

The second withdrawal of an arbitration offer was for Rule 5 selection Andino Bianchi. Bianchi spent all of 2043 with the club after his rule 5 selection and posted a 0.2 WAR in just 14.1 innings of use. He spent most of last season in the minor leagues down in AAA where he had some decent success. He threw 2 shutout innings as a Septebmer call-up this year but that wasn't enough for the club to be willing to pay him the $750,000 he was expected to earn in 2045.

Finally, Marcelo Polar will not be back. Polar was the Lumberjack's 6th round pick in the expansion draft from 2039 from San Antonio. Polar's little movement on his pitches never allowed him to have any success in Portland. He made appearances in 4 of the 5 seasons with Portland since the draft, posting negative WARs in 3 of the 4. He really bottomed out this season, appearing in 30 innings and posting a remarkably bad -2.3 WAR. He won't be getting paid $750,000 for that garbage.

"These decisions clear up just over $2 million for us in space" commented newly hired, yet league pending assistant general manager Kate Fiscus. "Why waste that kind of money on bums when we can at least use it on a backup catcher or semi-decent reliever if one exists!"