Dugout Dirt 47.03 - Hurricane Time Machine – Rebuild Ground Zero

[DugoutDesperado]

Trade Deadline of the 2042 season – Jacksonville puts SP Chris Kelly on the Trade Block as he is coming off a nine-month stint on the DL. Amidst four solid offers, the Canes decided to hook up with the River Monsters from Twin Cities. The trade would bring along 1B Pancho Costa, RP Angel Gomez and SP Cristo Munoz.

All three of these players are in their fifth full season with Jacksonville. All three of these players have had a noticeable impact on the Canes’ bid for a playoff run thus far in the 2047 season. Tied with the second-best record in all of the BBA at 62-36, the Canes are positioning themselves to be playing in their first October in 8 seasons.

On the offensive side, Costa is hitting .315 with a .360 on-base percentage while tacking on 17 dingers and swiping 40 bases. He does not hurt himself with the glove either with an above average range. All in all this has Costa on pace to project toward a WAR of 5.7 this season.

On the pitching side, Angel Gomez has done well with setup duties pithing 21 innings in 17 games while bolstering a 1.29 ERA. Gomez has a modest WAR projection of 0.4, but as a setup man his job is to get the games into the hands of closer, Jose Castro, who has notched 31 saves in 38 appearances.

Meanwhile, Cristo Munoz was converted from a starting slot back into the bullpen where he has pitched 59 innings in 42 games as the main avenue to get the game from the starters’ hands into the 8th inning where the setup men and closer can try and latch things down. Munoz has cranked out 73 K’s in his 59 innings of work resulting in his projected WAR coming in at a 2.4.

Whether this will result in a deep post-season run for the Canes is yet to be seen. However, the Canes’ faithful view this move as the beginning of the rebuild era and may have been one of the better moves for the Canes in the 5 plus seasons of the Greathouse tenure.