The Toronto Titans are looking to rebound after a cinderella season concluded by losing Game 7 to the Hendersonville Hitmen. Toronto faced alot of tough off-season decisions and learned from their mistakes last off-season in order to play the patience game in their favor.
Lets take a look at the off-season:
Salvadore Perez SP: Toronto identified him as one of their key pieces of their rotation this season. Toronto was able to keep him through arbitration and also was successful in extending him one season at $12M. This 16 winner is predicting a 20 game win season in 2014!
Guillermo Mendoza SP: Toronto then switched their attention to their staff ace. Toronto management convinced Mendoza to sign a 4 year extension worth $36M or $9M per year! In order to even dream about winning a BSA title you better have a #1 SP that can compete vs. the BSA's best on the mound.
Chien-shih Cuan OF: Toronto then successfully signed Chien-shih to a 3 year - $14.2M contract extension. Cuan is solid defender and great contact hitter. When you play in a large park like we do in Toronto it is nice to have some OF that can get after the ball with their amazing range. When trade talk winds are in the area, Cuan is usually the one player the other owners want to discuss. We are happy to have him here for the next 3 years.
Ricky "Hollywood" Bolden SP: Toronto then pulled off a great win-win trade with LA who was looking to bank roll some payroll for other moves. Toronto traded 29-year-old minor league starting pitcher
Nick Reed, 26-year-old minor league left fielder
Santiago Farías and 19-year-old minor league reliever
Juan Velázquez to the
Los Angeles Bruins, getting 30-year-old starting pitcher
Ricky Bolden in return. Ricky provides a solid 3rd ace to the rotation along with Mendoza and Perez.
Jaime Torres - C: Toronto then continued its great off-season by acquiring the premier hitter in Free Agency. Jaime Torres signed a 1 year $13M dollar contract to play for the NL champions. Jaime will play some Catcher and will also see sometime at DH for the Titans. The rumours were swirling when other teams said they had offered a better contract to him but, he signed with the Titans instead. "We are happy to have an elite bat added to our lineup!" said GM Goldberg.
Jose Murillo - MR: The Titans then went back to the well of one of the most respective pitching systems in all of the BSA - Los Angeles to sign FA Jose Murillo. Last year in the BSA he was one of the most dominant relievers in the game. "A 1.82 ERA and 0.97 WHIP will get your attention everytime!" said, GM Goldberg. We know the hard work the GM Mike Brouillette puts into his pitching system in LA and we loved Murillo's mechanics on the mound and we feel he can help Toronto bring the 1st ever BSA title to a NL team. The contract was a 1 yr deal worth $4M dollars.
Jose Brito - SP: Toronto fans were devasted at Jose Brito's performance in the BSA finals this year vs. Hendersonville. Brito had the ball in Game 4 with Toronto up 2-1 to put the hammer lock on the series and came up lame with an injury and then in Game 7 with Toronto battling back to tie it 3-3 with a win the night before in chaotic Hendersonville crowd; Brito could not hold on to a 2-0 through 2 innings lead. Despite the set-backup GM Goldberg said, "He is just a perfect fit for our park that it was hard not to reach out to him at the end of Spring Training to see if we finally could put some realistic $figures on the table". Brito signed a 1 year $4M dollar a year contract.
Jimmy Sanders - SP: Then a hail mary offer was made as Toronto signed the injured Jimmy Sanders to what management feels was a no-risk win only contract at $2.76M for the year. If Sanders returns to form, our starting rotation we feel will be one of the best if not the best in the BSA this season. The doctor's said Sanders on 10/02/2014 was diagnosed with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament and would miss 8-9 months. However; under the care of the Toronto doctors the injury has been reduced and the strong feeling his that Sanders would be joining the Titans by the trading deadline.
John Crowe - 1B: The Titans were strongly persuing "Headgame" from day 1. After sending a bunch of solid talent to KC last year to acquire him there was no chance that Toronto would not bring this future BSA HOF back for at least one more year. GM Goldberg said, "Head game is a power hitter that opposing pitchers in the BSA still fear". The move does mean that Raul Gonzalez would likely not be back with the Titans this year. Raul Gonzalez one of the most consistent 2nd tier players was a rbi machine year after year. "We wish him all the best and hope he lands with another BSA team!" said a Toronto fan.
There were other smaller moves made that included add and subtracting to our deep pen in addition to moving Jose Romero C to the LA organization because of our depth at catcher.
We are excited about the 2015 season in the BSA and the moves above send a message to the other teams in the BSA that the Titans are here to play some ball that counts in the fall.
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