One of the ways to save money was not to renew the contracts of expensive staff that were up for renewal (Ok, ok, I forgot to give them extensions). Seven staff were let go this way although Caracas Sting’s rookie pitching coach Yann Manfredi was later rehired as Triple-A Missouri’s pitching coach, with a personal pay rise but a saving on the position’s 2035 costs. Roy Wright was appointed Missouri team manager in his first ever staff appointment while former catcher Dave Tovar, who retired in 2025 after playing 524 games for Greenville, Halifax and Yellow Springs, was appointed manager of A-ball Ocala Seminoles. Mark Smulders, formally pitching coach at Brooklyn’s SA affiliate, moved to Caracas Sting at the same level to replace Manfredi. Mauro Hernandez who had a very brief BBA career at Long Beach and Omaha got his first staff appointment as Hitting Coach for Caracas after he had retired in 2035. Another rookie Hitting coach appointed was Phil Oglethorpe who had a spell bouncing between London & Rome in the EBA during the period 2009-11, he will work in Ocala next season. The final hitting coach appointed was at Double-A Louisville Fire where Steve Law got the job. He never reached the BBA level but spent four years working at Brooklyn’s AA affiliate about 20 years ago. These changes indeed shaved nearly $2 million off the Staff payroll but what it will do to the results of what was a fairly successful minor league system in 2036 we shall have to wait and see.
Pitching Coach Yann Manfredi earned a job at Triple-A after a successful 2036 in Low-A Caracas
There was a bit of trimming the fat at the bottom of the 40-man roster and five players who had represented Louisville at BBA level were released. The highest profile of these was 25-yr-old William Gelinas who had made 341 appearances for the Sluggers, a solid defensive outfielder who can play all across the outfield but was used mainly in centre during his BBA time in Louisville. He struggled to make an impact with a bat though and in his final year hit just .170/.209/.292 in 106 AB’s with a -0.7 WAR. He has since signed a minor league contract with the home of old Sluggers, Wichita. 25-yr-old Vasil Buurman made it to the Sluggers bullpen in 2036 but in 34 appearances posted a 0-4 record with a 7.06 ERA and was released. 30-yr-old Carlos Rivera made four appearances for YS9 in 2033 and made it back to the BBA with Louisville last year, unfortunately in 34 outings (inc one start) his ERA was near to five, his K/BB 45/33 and his WHIP was 1.45 making Sluggers decide his 40-man slot could be better utilised. 25-yr-old Carlos Sandoval made it to the BBA last year and played good defence in left field where there wasn’t really a job for him and mediocre to say the least in centre field where there was a job. Hitting .250 in 85 PA’s he hit 4 double’s, 3 RBI and scored 11 times which was deemed not to be enough to be retained for 2037. The final one of the five casualties was 24-yr-old Javier Tavarez who in 83 BBA appearances, spread over 2035 & 2036, managed a career batting average of just .196 with three homers and 18 RBI. Another one that failed to fill Louisville’s centre field vacancy he signed a minor league contract with Calgary before being grabbed in the Rule 5 draft by the Wichita “Sluggers”.