Crawdad Chronicles 43.05 Justin Jackson not expected to return

[JimBob2232]

Sources close to the New Orleans crawdads have indicated that it is unlikely Justin Jackson https://statspl.us/brewster/reports/new ... 36472.html will return to the crawdads for the 2044 season.

The 2037 Sawyer Silk winner was signed to a mega 4 year 96M contract in the 2042 offseason. New Orleans was looking to fill a major hole in their outfield - and were hoping Justin Jackson would be the one to fill it.

But after a lackluster 2043 season where he hit .254 with 24 HRs and 0.5 WAR - the crawdads were hoping that was an anomoly. It can only get better was the prevailing thought. Nevertheless, the crawdads invested another 18M this season on OF Fernando Reyes https://statspl.us/brewster/reports/new ... 40253.html - making the total invesment in the left field slot a whopping $51M for the 2043 season! Reyes became the every day starter - while Jackson and his $23M salary sat on the bench a lot. At years end, Jackson strolled in with a .212 average, 14 HRs and a -0.4 WAR. Not great production from a guy earning 23M.

Late in the season the crawdads placed Jackson on waivers - which he cleared. A couple teams were reportedly interested in him - but did not have the salary cap room to take the chance.

Jackson is owed 23M for the 2044 season and the team has a buyout option for 2044 season at $5M. GM Jim Roberts is rumored to be willing to trade him away to an interested team for nothing.

New Orleans could use the cap room - and it seems likely they will cut Jackson to make room for some extensions. Reyes is now a Free Agent. Will New Orleans bet big on the OF slot again? We'll have to wait and see.