Financial Rebuild 1.5

[handaspencer]

While GM Spencer has been very conservative in adding talent to a team that is really struggling he has been very aggressive in stripping down the team finances. Within the past week he has moved SP Manuel Pena to Omaha for 500k in bonus fund money and just sent Luis Gonzalez to Huntsville for Vicente Chavez. The moves saved the team 38 million over the next 4 seasons and potentially up to 77 million over 6 seasons.

Due to lack of team performance ticket sales have plummeted and payroll cuts seem imminent GM Spencer has been working hard to get out in front of this issue. These are decisions I didn't want to make when I got here because I felt we had at least one more season before a rebuild would be necessary but our record indicates otherwise. Pena and Gonzalez can absolutely help a contending team and being in a winning environment could actually improve their performance. When I look ahead where we want to go I felt it was important to have maximum flexibility to improve this team going forward. What I don't want to see happen is Pena and Gonzalez lump and end up like Charles Martin and simply become unmovable unless I sent assets in return. We are working hard to clean the long term books up to avoid future issues when we hope to return to playoff contention.

We have some nice young assets here doing well in the BBA. Juan Santana is playing at an all start level at age 23 and the Lopez brothers Vicente Lopez and Jesus Lopez are under 24 years old and is the makings of a starting rotation. We believe obtaining this financial flexibility will create some options for us that was not available before. Even though this forces us to take a couple steps back I believe long term this really opens the door for brighter things. With the young talent we have on the BBA roster I want to find ways to surround them with talent and we have really been restricted for financial reasons. According to sources Vicente Chavez might not want to get very comfortable in Montreal it is believed they are very open to moving him again this season to free up additional money.

[niles08]

Your doing some good things for sure. One of the key things I was able to do when I started was clear the books, while only being willing to take on a bad contract if it

A. Saved me money in the long term.

Or

B. Brought in a prospect in addition to the "popular player" and his contract but not would interfere with wanting to compete in a year or two.

[handaspencer]

Your doing some good things for sure. One of the key things I was able to do when I started was clear the books, while only being willing to take on a bad contract if it

A. Saved me money in the long term.

Or

B. Brought in a prospect in addition to the "popular player" and his contract but not would interfere with wanting to compete in a year or two.

There is certain times when its ok to have long term contracts on the books and some situations like mine where having long term deals hurt you from doing things that need done like buying prospects or being in position to make trades that improve the current roster. Once I get the finances right I can steer this thing in the right direction.