If you had any doubts about Mikel Skreen or Ty Franklin returning to the Columbia Bison, you can put them to rest. These two aren’t going anywhere for quite a while.
Franchise owner James French has locked up Mikel and Ty each to $25/5-tournament contracts. James himself, became a free agent too, but of course since he owns the team it is not big news that he signed himself as well to a small $3/3-tournament contract.
Of the three, Mikel played the best in JAL XII and drew some attention from other team owners. Around the league the consensus was that he would eventually re-sign with the Bison, but people expected him to at least fully explore his options first.
The “James, Mikel, Ty” era of the franchise began back in JAL X and will seemingly continue on for another handful of tournaments. Columbia’s record during this era (JAL X - JAL XII) is 3-7, with 1 playoff appearance.
Aware of the team’s struggles and with $3 in cap space, James says he will be looking into signing a 4th player to the roster this off-season… Particularly a pitcher.
In JAL XI Ty started at pitcher, but was replaced by James after getting roughed up. James surprised people with his success throwing and went on to be named to all-star selection. To start JAL XII, James was obviously the starter, but history repeated itself and James was eventually replaced by Ty for the same reason.
The team is in obvious need of reliability at the position. We'll see if James can fill the void before JAL XIII.
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