The Brewster

It is well known throughout the baseball world that Havana is going to have a money crunch coming up soon, with the first wave of their star players completing their arbitration and the second wave entering that phase of their careers. The first domino fell recently when GM Randy Weigand announced a 6 year/$80,200,000 deal with star LF Jean-Luc Lacaze. The supremely talented Frenchman came over late last season in a deal with Huntsville, and Weigand loved what he saw from the young man in his brief stay on the island. "JL brings a professional approach to our organization, as well as his immense contributions on the field, and I am proud to have him be a member of our squad for a long time to come" said Weigand when asked about the signing.

Key factors in getting the deal done included heavily frontloading the salary, with $20.3 million coming in 2035 followed by $12.3 million from 2036-2038 and two team options at $11.3 million each in 2039 and 2040. When asked about the delicate tightrope that is the $110 million salary cap, Weigand said "We know we need to do some cap and budget gymnastics in the coming years if we want to keep this team together and compete for a Landis, and I really appreciate JL working with us on the structure to both get him the salary he deserves and also allow us maximum flexibility for our other guys".

As for why he decided to stay, Lacaze had the following to say regarding his new deal: "I was absolutely ecstatic when Havana offered me a lifeline out of the pit of misery I was trapped in while in Huntsville. I have only been here a short time, but I love everything about this organization and I was thrilled to get a deal done so I can just focus on baseball and not have free agency looming over my head".

udlb58 wrote:

fixed

Makes me feel better about the Chavez deal and the deal Rocky agreed to in principle this sim.

udlb58 wrote:Makes me feel better about the Chavez deal and the deal Rocky agreed to in principle this sim.

ya when i saw Estrada sign for 70 the sim after i grumbled a bit as well. That being said, i like the structure of it as it allows me more flexibility with my other guys.

doesn't Lacaze's split scare you a bit? Couple strong lefty starters in a playoff series puts him and his 20 mil on the bench.

bschr682 wrote:doesn't Lacaze's split scare you a bit? Couple strong lefty starters in a playoff series puts him and his 20 mil on the bench.

splits are not ideal, but his legs and glove should keep him in the lineup even against LHP (albeit further down the lineup). Plus i dont view him as a $20 million guy, i view him as a 13-14 million guy.

also when i see someone like Ken Jenkins getting nearly $22 million AAV in free agency, i realize there is next to no chance i would have been able to afford Lacaze next winter when he hit the market.

usnspecialist wrote:also when i see someone like Ken Jenkins getting nearly $22 million AAV in free agency, i realize there is next to no chance i would have been able to afford Lacaze next winter when he hit the market.

very true.

bschr682 wrote:doesn't Lacaze's split scare you a bit? Couple strong lefty starters in a playoff series puts him and his 20 mil on the bench.

My team is built on high split monsters. I don't think we've been done in by a team full of lefty starters yet (though it could always happen). I think the key is having a couple of right-handed bats on the bench to start vLHP and to hit them just enough to get them out of the game in a reasonable amount of time. The other thing is, I just don't think there are a ton of teams who are as lefty heavy as we are, so if you build a staff to offset our lineup, you could be setting yourself up for failure against a team that is more balanced.