At 21-35, the Brewers have virtually no chance of making the playoffs this year. Speaking to Michael Hunt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, GM Doug Melvin was frank: "If we make any more trades this year, it's going to be for two or three years from now instead of now. I'm not going to be trading any young players to win games." It seems obvious that the last-place Brewers wouldn't be making win-now trades in July, but now Melvin has put it out there publicly.
The "two or three years from now" part is interesting to me, because I had assumed Melvin would focus more on acquiring players that can help them next year, to take advantage of the window of having Ryan Braun, Carlos Gomez, and Jean Segura relatively cheap and in their primes. Braun is under control through 2020, but his salary will jump from $12MM to $19MM in 2016. Gomez is signed through '16. Segura is under team control through 2018 and arbitration eligible after 2015, and the Brewers offered a long-term extension in April.
I wrote a trade candidate piece about Yovani Gallardo yesterday, and if the Brewers' focus is less on 2014, moving Gallardo makes even more sense. Notable on that front: initial word is the Orioles don't have strong interest in Gallardo, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Other potential trade candidates on the Brewers include Aramis Ramirez, Kyle Lohse, Rickie Weeks, John Axford, Tom Gorzelanny, Mike Gonzalez, Francisco Rodriguez, Yuniesky Betancourt, and Corey Hart when healthy.
