2056.1: DEADline

[Rubaboo]

As the calendar flips to September, the Aztecs find themselves in a very familiar place; fighting against Rocky Mountain for the Frontier division lead. A rash of injuries in the Aztec camp sees the club currently carrying Stewart Illingworth and Mr. Aztec himself, Fernando Moreno on the Injured List. For those of you keeping score at home, that's both of the team's opening day corner outfielders on the shelf for at least the next month. Not ideal for a team trying to win a division race.

One might think, 'Ah, corner outfielder is a need, huh? Good thing there's always a trillion of those available on the trade market for next to nothing. This will be fine.' You would be correct for thinking that but, somehow, that thinking hasn't translated to the Mexico City front office. The Aztecs stood pat at the deadline, leaving some confusion as to what the plan is going forward.

Aztec GM Fred Holmes offered vague reassurance on the subject, "We had a number of discussions, some very productive even, with several teams while we sifted through options. For one reason or another, none of those talks bore fruit. We've got a plan moving forward that we're comfortable with and we're ready for what should be an exciting stretch run."

Plan indeed. The most viable internal option, Jonathan O'Quinn has been with the big league club since Illingworth's untimely demise on July 30th and has hardly been lighting the world on fire. The team could move acting DH Donald Nixon back to the outfield and look to promote again, with Alfonso Rivera likely being the call-up in that instance but there's no guarantee that he'd be able to turn his excellent AAA production into anything worth having in the majors. Ivan Sosa has been excellent as a senior citizen in the minor leagues and has pretty much seen it all at the big league level but relying on him to do anything above what his career numbers show he's capable of is probably a fool's hope.

Could there be a surprise FA that might be on the radar? Maybe. Would a free agent that's still available in September be one you'd really even want though? It wouldn't be crazy to wonder if the plan is to call up an all-glove type and ride the pitching the rest of the way either. Whatever the answer is going to be, it's something the front office needs to get on now. Mexico City currently sits 2 games back of the Oysters and it's not difficult to see the Colorado club pulling away while the Aztecs are bailing water leaving them traveling for the first round of the playoffs, a situation the team surely doesn't want to explore.