LF Mark Kimball was released from the Valencia squad this week. The 31 year-old was due an $8.7M salary with a $1.3M buyout over the next two seasons.
Over the last four seasons, the Stars front office say his production decline from 24 homers/106 RBIs down to 10 homers and 30 RBI's, albeit in half the at bats in 2062 compared to 2059. Kimball's averages went from .285/.339 in 2059 down to .219/.293 in 2061 although he did rebound a little bit in 2062 to hit .271/.324.
All in all, the numbers over the last two seasons both resulted in a negative WAR. "That $8.7M salary was just too much to stomach," Greathouse stated in a press release. And we all know that he has stomached a lot over the last few seasons.
With the departure of Kimball along with the other free agents, this marks the end of the players that Greathousr inherited when he tooks the reins over 4 seasons ago with the exception of third baseman Tim Bartlett.
The move drops the projected Valencia payroll to $50.2M with another $5M in cuts anticipated as soon as the off-season begins. This should result in a $20M+ profit in 2063 compared to the $20M+ loss each of the last two seasons. The series of moves between the Firesale, Firesale 2.0 and off-season RIFs has resulted in the front office indicator to move from ABCON 1 back up to ABCON5 much to the relief of the male members that work there.
