It had been over a month since the ink had dried on the paperwork signing over ownership of the London Underground from Sir John Fowler Jr. to Cyan Winters, the then-current General Manager of the team. Fowler had essentially hand-picked Winters to buy the team and essentially bent over backward to complete the sale. Any other buyer and the deal would have fallen apart at no less than half a dozen moments. Winters was, relatively speaking, cash strapped and in order to put in a competitive bid even at Fowler’s friendly discount required building a coalition of wealthy individuals, companies, and conglomerates who could all contribute capital or institutional trust to Winters’ bid.

In the end this new entity, Winters Baseball Unlimited, cashed checks from 9 different entities including the namesake of the organization. These 9 entities represented interests in over 30 nations across 4 continents. It was an impossible amount of stakeholders to please and already felt like a crippling fiscal responsibility to ensure they all remained happy and (literally and figuratively) invested. And even then they had barely scrapped together the necessary funds .Winters had at least had the foresight to make it clear that all baseball decisions would be made by him and only him, which kept the daily din in his office to a minimum. But nonetheless the pressure was immense to not just remain financially solvent but to make the promised returns to the stakeholders.

For a man who as General Manager always loathed what he perceived as cheapness from the now-previous owner, it was a deeply painful irony to now have to feel every bit as cheap and then some when sitting on the throne of ownership. He worried that he wouldn’t be able to keep his word to Fowler Jr. that he would invest in making the team a perennial winner and a franchise the British could be proud of for a generation. Already he was staring at balance sheets wondering how small he could keep the team’s budget while still ensuring a competitive young core and it was killing him.

Sir John Fowler Jr. had hired him as General Manager because he saw in him someone who would get blood from the stone and find a way to build a team on a shoestring budget while continuing to build the fanbase, increase revenues, and of course – win games. And now as owner he needed to find another version of himself to take on the General Manager role, but an even better version who could have more success with possibly even less resources. To the probable ire of some Underground fans he turned to his home country of the United States and eventually hired Evan Seary to the role.

Early returns seem good, as the Underground were relatively quiet in free agency but managed to re-sign Juan Hernandez to a discounted single year contract while bringing in some young talent to the bullpen. The young core that Winters had built over half a decade continued to fill out with former first round pick Zak Osmond and by far the team’s most exciting international scouting prospect ever Jose Hernandez both joining the team alongside established young stars such as Rocky Nichols and Jose Cruz. Both Winters and Seary believe the team is entering a several-year window where it can be a highly competitive team while taking advantage of friendly team-controlled contracts. Time will tell if they are right.

The Underground season kicks off with an intense slate of Trans Atlantic matchups with games against Amsterdam, San Juan, and the Scottish in the first week.