Current Key Free Agents
If we are unable to retain any of the players from our roster that have hit free agency, we are going to be losing a total WAR of 17.2, which is second in the league behind Tokyo...Most of that WAR performance is coming from three key players...
George McCoy (RF)
McCoy was without a doubt the best hitter that we had on the roster...Took a 1 year/$1.5 million deal with the Hammers last year and proved that he could hit at the GBC level...McCoy was all over the GBC leaderboard..
Top 5 in a number of categories and lead the team in batting WAR...At the age of 30, McCoy appears to have a lot left in the tank and he's looking to cash in, both from a money and year perspective...
Wilson Lopez (SP)
The first of two key starters hitting free agency, Lopez signed a two-year deal at the start of last season, but declined his option this year a year where he pitched a lot (top 10 in games started and innings pitched) and won a lot of games (2nd in the league)...Scouts even noted that his movement has improved this year, which could have led to his improvement...Ability to strike guys out and keep the ball on the ground prevents opponents from going deep on him as his HR/9 was tops in the league...Might be the most "re-signable" free agent we have, but he wants multiple years and as a "fragile" 36 year old, that one might be hard to stomach...
Jose Castro (SP)
At 34, Jose Castro might have have been the best pitcher in the GBC over the two seasons that he was on the team...Had a dominant 2062 and followed that up with an above average 2063...Strikes a lot of guys out and doesn't walk many batters...Financially motivated though and there is little chance I'll be able to get a deal done with him without hamstringing my team...I'll probably end up doing that at some point, but wouldn't want to do it my first free agency...
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At the end of the day, I would like to bring all three of these guys back, but realistically, that's probably not going to happen...Would like to try and keep some of the lower tiered free agents we have (Jeff Sawyers/Ed Noble) just for the continuity of the team, but even their demands are a little high...Hoping that we see some of these demands come down, but in the event they don't we are looking at a few other backup options just in case...Going to be an interesting free agency period...Getting dropped into the middle of it is going to make things a little more complicated than I'd like, but we'll be able to figure it out (hopefully)...It's not all doom and gloom though and we do have some interesting players on the roster that we can continue to build around and I'll be taking a look at those guys next time...
