2062.1 FA depart Omaha

[handaspencer]

As the free agency filing period approached there was hope in the front office to return some of the Omaha players. In a little shocking and somewhat controversial decision GM Spencer let all his pending FA walk into the open market. We really wanted to bring back a couple guys and we worked hard all the way to the 11th hour and we even though we had worked out a deal with one of them but we just couldn't cross the finish line. Money is not the issue, the desire to win is not the issue its how we spend the money and where do will fill out the holes in our roster. What made it challenging for us is many of the guys we let walk is many of the guys had career years and it drove up the prices for us and we wanted to see a bigger track record before we entered a long term arrangement. We was very open with the guys about that and we wanted the market to decide for them. We intend to offer some extensions in the open market and see how it goes for us. We are still rebuilding in Omaha we had a great season last year but we have to make sure the talent we acquire is within our direction.

In perhaps the most shocking of all was Omaha let Felipe Mendez become a FA and he will be one of the top SP on the market. We acquired Mendez in the rule 5 draft after he spent all last season in AAA and really was struggling finding a home in BBA. We wanted Mendez back and we still do but at our stage of the rebuild we didn't want to extend ourselves for him. We definitely will be monitoring his situation this offseason and if the price gets right we will get involved. We had some guys last year that we picked up off waivers, some from the rule 5 draft etc... that really fell in love with Omaha and had career years. We are hoping they can cash in the offseason and get paid for their performances.

Omaha is sitting on a lot of money this offseason and we don't intend to give it back to our owners we want to invest in this team. We have some areas we are targeting and have already made some offers to some FA's. It's a fun position to be in this offseason GM Spencer said. I am hoping we can start to form an identity with this club of what we want Omaha baseball to be. But we have to be smart and aggressive at the same time. I am excited to see what the offseason holds for us.

[Trebro]

Looks like that one worked out in the end for you.