Crawdad Chronicles 58.04 Tough Decision looms on Donestavez

[JimBob2232]

The New Orleans Crawadads are facing a tough decision on the future of star player (and future HOF) Juan Donestavez.

Donestavez who has been with the club since 2042 will turn 38 years old before opening day. He has been a fixture of the Crawdad community for years. He is an 11 time ALl Star, 2 time Sawyer Silk, 2 Zimmers and 4 Pucketts to go along he with his 2,706 hits, 432 Home Runs, and 575 Stolen Bases.

But despite his age, he hasnt shown a ton of signs of slowing down, at least not when he is on the active roster. In 2058, in just 116 games - he hit .358 with 28 HRs and 6.5 WAR, and finished 3rd in the Sawyer Silk - again after playing in just two-thirds of hte teams games.

GM Jim Roberts tried to rest him every few days - and told the manager to keep him off the field...but that didnt happen as much as he would have liked. Still, despite being healthy all year, on September 11th he went down with a herniated disc in his back. This injury was to the same back he had had issues with several other times in his career - and caused him to miss the playoffs for the second year in a row.

The Crawdads have a team option for 2059, at $7.7M. On the surface that seems like a reasonable price to pay for someone who had 6.5 WAR last season. The medical team will huddle over the coming months, combined with a new way GMs in the league will evaluate players to determine their worthiness - a decision wont be imminent. New Orleans isnt exactly swimming in cash. After droping over 100M last offseason, New Orleans is only projected to be about 17M under the cap - so freeing up Donestavez's salary may be viewed as a positive.

Donestavez also has a team option for the 2060 season. That one increases to over $10M. Thats going to be a tougher one for the team to swallow. So if it hasnt already happened, 2059 may very well be the final curtain call for one of the Crawdads all-time greats.

[BaseClogger]

Oh c’mon you’re totally gonna pick up the 2059 option.

[JimBob2232]

Oh c’mon you’re totally gonna pick up the 2059 option.

Probably. Im waiting for him to come of the IL - and see what the move to the new OOTP does to him.