Carter Stenberg
Written by: #ImAGausman
Welcome back to the second episode of this series covering the soon-to-be-legendary MLB Franchise: The Saskatchewan Knights. If you didn’t catch episode one, you can do so here!
(Before I start, there was some issues with the tool I was using to gather the screenshots for each season so I do apologize for the lack of visual aids in some places where it feels there should be. I recovered what I could but not everything. I want to say that this has been corrected for future editions.)
Zack Cone wasn’t happy with 2025, but we sold out the park in every game so he’s still happy. We have a smaller capacity ballpark making this objective a bit easier. As the team looks to establish itself, we might consider expanding.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr voided his $18 mil contract year. Probably for the best considering his -1.1 WAR over 126 games last year. We have got lots of work to do.
Goldschmidt, Verlander, Kimbrel, and Maeda all retire.
None of our players win any awards this season. Jhoan Duran and Orion Kerkering win Reliever of the Year for the AL and NL respectively. Minnesota’s Luke Keashall and Milwaukee’s Jefferson Quero win Rookie of the Year.
Max Fried in his first year in NY wins Cy Young, one vote why of unanimous. Jordan Hicks edges out Kodai Senga to win his first Cy Young. Judge and Ohtani are both unanimous MVP. Im already settling in for what should be a lot more of those two.
Manoah, Espinal, and Pena are not given arbitration offers. We may try to get Manoah back on a minor league deal as he has regressed to 2 stars (I still believe).
Keston Hiura got LOTS of trade attention before FA even started, and while I didn’t want to move on already from our first big star, the Detroit Tigers came a knocking.
Spencer Torkelson who had been struggling to get an OPS+ over league avg was angry in Detroit and prime for us to pick up. Rowdy Tellez was the current 1B after Belt’s departure, so this was a much needed improvement.
We go into this offseason with about $33mil to play with. We are able to adjust other budgets if need be but this is already a pretty flexible sum. Take a look at the top FA available:
Looks like Vladdy signed a 9 year deal worth / $37 million a year so he avoided FA and will be Blue Jay for a long time.
Obviously Naylor is a super attractive option. Canadian that keeps fan interest and reigning NL batting title champ. He is asking $40 AAV off the start so it might be a bit too aggressive of a fish to try and catch. Especially when our biggest needs are at SS, OF, and bullpen.
I’ll check back in with you once the dust settles…
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Rule 5 Draft we got stud pitcher Matt Canterino from the Twins. They loaded up their rotation and left him available.
Huge acquisition for us was 3 key pieces. Bo Bichette, Luis Arraez, and Jose Alvarado. Bo Bichette is on an 8 year/$106mil deal. A steal for a guy who can produce big numbers when he is hot. Arraez had a down year in San Diego but we did get him on a 3 year/$47mil deal. Arraez, Bichette, Torkelson is the exact top of the order we need to build around to get competitive.
Around the league in FA, Josh Naylor got a 6 year deal with the Mets, replacing the outgoing Pete Alonso who signed 5 years with Atlanta (I know that is painful to hear Mets fans.) Schwarber and Cease are Marlins now and Kyle Tucker is going to be a Cardinal.
The trades this off season were unhinged. McClanahan and Luis Castillo were traded to the Brewers. The Reds gave up their entire farm system to acquire Tarik Skubal AND Sandy Alcantara. Our division just got a lot more difficult. Not to mention the Draft Lottery sucked, and we got knocked back all the way to 7th.
Opening day rosters! Take a look at Year 2
By the all-star break, things haven’t played out as I had hoped. A horrible April was hard to recover from, but the team played competitive in May and June. We are still last place with a 38-60 record. A 4 win improvement over last year!
Bo Bichette is our sole all-star this year, he has cooled off in recent weeks but has a cool 2.0 WAR at the break.
The draft arrives shortly after the All-Star game. Getting bumped from #1 to #7 by the lottery hurts, but we’ve got some options.
Detroit takes SP Seth “Stony” Whitaker with the first overall pick. Definitely a player to keep an eye on in this series.
With the #7 we actually luck out in both position, handedness, and locality by taking left-handed SP Dave “Big C” Dominey from Edmonton AB.
The presumptive first overall pick, SS Chris Geiselman, falls all the way to the #10th overall pick and is scooped up by the Portland Phantoms. They may have grabbed their first big star.
We luck out in the second round and get the last 5 star prospect on the board, SS Tyler Spangler. He is still a few years away but with fingers crossed he develops well.
In the 14th round, we get our first ever local talent. SP Anson Laviolette from Wadena SK. If you’ve ever been to Wadena, town of 1200, you will know that is about as “middle” of nowhere one can get. Even MORE incredible is this kid apparently travels 3 hours to go to high school in Davidson, SK – a town of 1044.
I hope to make the long hours and commute pay off for this young man who can hopefully reach the bigs.
Come trade deadline, the team actually has been hot. 7-3 in their last 10 including 4 straight wins. Just as we coming into the deadline we get a fantastic offer from the Cleveland Guardians.
Hentges is a 3 ½ star LHP Reliever who I hope we can actually lock in long term. He has a 2.75 ERA over 52 IP this year and will slide in as our closer given Alvarado is floating around a 4.29 ERA in his 35 IP. Big improvement for us. Bae was our utility outfielder this season not getting a lot of playing time – so this was not a huge loss for us.
A much quieter deadline than the previous year. Triston Casas going to Texas for a couple of starters in Mahle and Nicholson likely the biggest of them all.
Bad news. By the time Roster Expansion comes around, we get our latest development report and the Landon Harmon has already regressed down to a 2.5 star potential. His odds of making the show are far from gone, but it definitely is a huge blow for someone who not even a year ago was one of our most highly touted prospects.
Torkelson was such a huge pickup for us. This 4 hit game with 2 HR and 2 Doubles is the kind of production was expected out of him when taken 1st overall back in 2020. Sorry the Tigers couldn’t get it figure out, but he has been incredible the back half of this season for us – ending with 28 HR and 87 RBI.
Let’s see how the rest of the team did this year:
We weren’t last! 69-93 is a respectable second year in my opinion. Especially when you consider Portland regressed and fell to the bottom of the league at 65-97.
Looking at the team stats, we improved in most categories! Our hitting wasn’t there on a consistent basis but we improved both our team .AVG and ERA. The Knights even played close to .500 ball in the last couple months.
Torkelson cooled off in September, but Michael Massey went off huge, easily our best player both offensively and defensively. Bo Bichette wasn’t far behind him. Unfortunately, Luis Arraez had a year to forget, played by injuries that lingered more than took him out of the lineup. I kept convincing myself he would turn it around but he ended up having -1.6 WAR. The worst imaginable thing to see when you’re paying him $18mil the next 2 years.
The pitching wasn’t spectacular, though I’d still describe the starters as “reliable”. Most of them kept the ERA and FIP at or around 4 which I can’t complain about given the quality.
Alek Manoah finished with a 6.65 in both MLB and AAA over 103 IP between both leagues. Confidence in the Manoah project is dwindling
Let’s see how the playoffs shape out:
Not only did the Athletics make the playoffs in their first year in Las Vegas, they also got a cool fancy modern logo (I had no part in this). Perhaps they will have the miracle run the Brewers did last year.
So much for that. Let’s see if the Brewers can keep going!
So much for that. It’ll be a Run The Jewels WS in 2026!
If I could abandon this save at this point I would. Aaron Judge wins WS MVP. Was really hoping Pete Alonso could get it done with his new team. Here is the stats from the playoff series. It wasn’t even particularly close.
261 is better than 1. I will see you next time for Year 3 (2027)!
Bradon Kelliher-Lisson
