Byline: Max Offen Sichtlich
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Reliever Quietly Going About Business
June 10, 2056
Rumors around the Sacramento Mad Pope front office say Dylan Wonnocott is interested in a contract extension, and that the team is mulling over the idea of giving one to him. If so, this would be a far cry from just a few months ago when the club was reportedly trying to give him away for a couple practice balls and a season pass to Disney World.
What’s changed is that, with injuries to front liners Carlos Flores and now Ruben Vazquez, Wonnocott has moved into the starting rotation, if you want to call it that, and that the results have been pretty solid.
Sure, his first outing was an ugly five runs in four innings, but since then he’s settled down to post a 3.75 ERA in eight starts. Take away his last tough stint in Seattle, and that drops to 2.77. Yeah, I know…cherry picking. But, to cherry pick even further, in a string of five starts, Wonnocott allowed only three runs in 18.1 innings, a 1.47 ERA.
That, as they say, will play.
“We’ve kept him on a pretty tight leash,” said pitching coach Gabriel Campos. “We figured we’d keep him under 60 pitches or so, but now that he’s a bit stretched out we’re considering adding a few. We’ll see.”
The strategy has been augmented by the fact that the team's rotation is built around other guys who can go deeper into games, and that the bullpen can handle the extra load. With the rickety Vazquez on the IL for the foreseeable future, one suggests that the Wonnocott gambit will continue for that same foreseeable future.
Wonnocott is due to make $1.3M this season, and insiders say he’d like a bit of a bump to return. The team has given no timetable for when negotiations might start, but if the numbers keep rolling in that way, earlier might be cheaper than later.