April 1, 2063
by Banjo Jackson
Nashville, TN
To wrap up the offseason with a final trip to the development lab, the Bluebirds focused on defense, sending ten players throughout the organization to work on creating more outs.
Michael ‘Shotgun’ Cantu showed up this spring and likely won the starting catcher position over incumbent, David Lopez. It helped that he also showed off in the dev lab, slightly improving his arm, ability, and framing to an already elite skill set.
The rest of the invitees were minor leaguers, most of whom need improvements defensively if they ever stand to see playing time in Nashville. Agha Tarkani, Gerald Hawke, and Cüneyt 'Roomba' Tanju, were all signed as international free agents, the former two just this January. Unfortunately, none of them saw any improvements.
Cris Sawyer, Juan Reyes, and Salvador Rivera are recent top draft picks who didn’t see any improvement, but luckily didn’t suffer any setbacks, either. The latter could be a double play duo in the future, but could really use a couple of bumps. Sawyer is a slugging catcher with decent skills behind the plate.
Kohei Okada and Fernando Hawkins are roster hopefuls who both made their case by slightly improving their outfield defense, range, and arm. Dai-lin Der was a 2063 Rule 5 selection, whose rights were purchased by Nashville so he could spend time in the minor leagues where he belonged. His defense really held him back, but this offseason he saw great strides in his infield defense and shouldn’t embarrass himself quite as much. His bat will still need to come around a bit to be of any use, but at least his defense is passable and he can play the outfield, too.
