Chasing The Storm 2052-7 Offseason Preview

[njherdfan]

Heading into the offseason Seattle fans will, once again, hope for improvements that can lead the Storm to a better performance in 2053. They are faced with a familiar conundrum: should they worry about players who might leave in free agency? After all, if your team went 64-98 in the year before, how concerned should we really be about any specific player leaving? We'll take a look at what players might be leaving Seattle, and what, if anything, we can expect Seattle to do this offseason.

Raul Fernandez appears poised to hit free agency this year. As previously discussed, he was, by far, Seattle's best hitter this past season, and Seattle has consistently indicated that they would like him to come back next season. There are whispers that some folks in Seattle's front office are concerned about his age (he is 34) and they anticipate declines in the future, but we'd still expect Seattle to make a respectable offer to attempt to bring him back.

From off-the-record conversations with Seattle executives, it appears pretty unlikely that any of the other Seattle players who are hitting free agency will be brought back. That doesn't mean it's impossible, of course, but there doesn't seem to be too much chatter in that direction.

Once free agency hits, it will be interesting to see what Seattle decides to do. The Storm have been very clear about their goal of building their pitching through the draft. So far, it's fair to say that the approach hasn't worked, as Seattle had the Frick League's worst ERA this past season. Does that mean that Seattle might be in the market for a starter this year, or will they bank on improvement from their internal options? That will be a key question that will determine the rest of Seattle's offseason.