On the Lam, 61.1 - Adios to the Ace

[trmmilwwi]

The Outlaws had a relatively quiet offseason as most of the quality free agents were priced way out of our bargain bin budget. After having made a splash bringing in one of the top defensive centerfielders in Hector Cano Jr. there wasn’t much room for quality additions. However, there was still a need to fill the corner slots both in the infield and the outfield.

During spring training I noticed that ace pitcher Sakutaro Kawano had lost some velocity and dropped a point of stuff. With a price tag of $13.6M and a team option of $14.6 next season the time to find trade value appeared to be reaching its tipping point. A block was quickly posted seeking help at 1B and a few inquiries came in. After taking a look at some of the messages regarding veteran options at 1B there was an offer from Sacramento for 1B/LF Michael Schultz. He was an up and coming prospect that had a few years under his belt. The Bear’s offseason trade for Yuu Suzuki made the 27 year old 5th year player expendable. Negotiations went back and forth a few times to try and balance the salary component and pretty quickly reliever Hughie Dunstone was added to the mix. The Outlaw bullpen was in need of a quality loogy type player and Dunstone appears to be a perfect fit.

All in all the deal was put together very quickly and negotiations were easy. It is likely that we could have held onto Kawano until closer to the trade deadline when teams are looking to add game changers to their rosters for the playoff push but the chance to get a quality player with another year of cost control was worth the gamble.

[BaseClogger]

You shoulda traded Kawano before last season when I inquired