The Brewers were the team that won the claim for Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links). Milwaukee engaged in serious conversations about acquiring the 25-year-old before the waiver placement was revoked by Los Angeles.
Intriguingly, the trade dialogue between the two organizations included star Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun. It seems reasonably likely that there were quite a few other moving parts involved, but those two players undoubtedly make for fascinating centerpieces on either side.
It is not yet clear whether the clubs intend to revisit the matter in the offseason, though it certainly seems plausible. Los Angeles was not interested in parting with Puig unless it obtained a “better player” in the swap, per Rosenthal. If that remains true this winter, then Braun — who is older and more expensive — would certainly fit the mold of the type of asset that could be pursued.
Puig remains controllable for three more seasons, his age-26 through age-28 campaigns. Two of those are guaranteed at $14MM total, and Puig can still opt into arbitration, but the total commitment falls shy of his talent level. The question, of course, is whether his poor recent play and somewhat spotty track record at maintaining focus can be reversed.
There’s really no question as to the current performance level of Braun, who is carrying a .312/.374/.544 batting line with 24 home runs and 14 steals over 468 plate appearances this year. But he will turn 33 in November and has battled through a laundry list of injury issues.
Braun does have a rather robust no-trade clause, but the Dodgers are not on this year’s iteration, meaning he can be traded there without his consent — at least until he has his next opportunity to modify the list. Even assuming his PED past is mostly a non-issue at this point, Braun’s large contract is also a factor in limiting his marketability. He is owed $76MM over the next four years, including the buyout on a $15MM option for 2021.
Wow! A legit claim with a (seemingly) legit offer. Wish it had happened.
Had it been Braun and his contract straight across for Puig that would have been jaw-dropping. Don’t want to imagine what else the Brewers might have wanted but we can guess it was significant.
” The question, of course, is whether his poor recent play” Who is this stupid writer. Has he looked at the stats lately. Yes his club house problems are real, but his play has been great for quite a while.. Writers need to get facts instead trying to stir people up with non truths
That would have gone down as one of the biggest waiver wire deals.
True, that.
I don’t think it would have topped the Red Sox/Dodgers Adrian Gonzalez deal in 2012. But it definitely would have been a biggie.
I thought Gonzales had cleared waivers before that trade but I could be misremembering.
They all did: Crawford, Beckett, Gonzalez, and Punto. As did Braun this time around. Basically because of salaries.
As I remembered, thanks. Crawford and Beckett were also on the DL so it was a cinch for them to clear. Come to that it’s a little surprising that Braun cleared. Big salary, but not so much for his production.
No, Gonzalez was definitely claimed on waivers. Beckett might have been or he might have had a no-trade clause or something, but his involvement wasn’t that cut and dry either. I remember that much for sure.
You are correct, Gonzales was a waiver claim. Beckett was too. Crawford had cleared waivers.
Hm, shame this trade didn’t go down…but maybe it’ll just happen in the offseason. It certainly makes for fascinating trade scenarios
Called that
Want a cookie?
I would love a cookie.
I will toss you mine.
Wow that would have put the Dodgers over the top! Wonder why there was no trade brewers must have wanted prospects to.
Probably 2 things occurred. #1 -Brewers wanted LA to pay all of Braun’s contract. #2 – Brewers wanted Puig plus 2 or 3 MLB ready prospects.
How many players of Braun’s caliber will be available this winter for the 4 / $76MM that Braun will be owed or less!?
I think it would be asinine for any team to expect the Brewers to include any cash whatsoever in any Braun deal. A player like Puig and his contract maybe, but no additional cash.
I agree, it seems like it’s a must that we add cash. He’s on a good contract, less than 20 mil a year in today’s market. I hope they don’t chip in cash
They why did Braun get through waivers?
He has a no-trade clause with 23 teams. So only 6 teams can even attempt to claim him.. Does Arizona/San Diego/ LA Angels and Miami no good on this season. San Fran and LA are only teams to have a use for him this season. They are on Luxury Tax threshold. So claiming Braun and Milwaukee barring a pullback and discuss trade or just let Braun be claimed by the two which boom Major Luxury Tax hit. So have Milwaukee put in a claim for Puig if you want to discuss Braun trade
There are a variety of reasons Braun cleared. Some teams don’t have the budget in August to risk taking Braun’s whole salary now.
Depending on exactly when Braun cleared, some teams may not have been “all in yet.”
Big market contenders such as the Dodgers, Giants, and perhaps even the Yankees could have also known from July conversations that a deal might have taken more than the few days a waiver claim affords and let him through to buy more time throughout August to structure a deal.
All of the foregoing and one of my initial suppositions that MIL acquiring one or more players of value with moderately priced but still substantial contracts such as Puig’s *would* make sense are reasons Braun could have cleared and still have real value at 4 yrs. / $76MM after 2016.
Just because he has a NTC doesn’t mean a team cannot claim him on waivers. If Atlanta had claimed him and Milwaukee didn’t pull him back, then Braun would be a Brave with no say in the matter. Of course Atlanta (or anyone else not on the list) couldn’t trade for him without his permission, but a waiver claim is not a trade.
I’m pretty sure no trade clauses also afford players the power to block waiver claims, as stated in a 2009 PurpleRow.com / Bleacher Report primer on the topic among others, available by searching for “Waivers and DFA.”
Per that article, “Like outright waivers, a player with a no-trade clause who is claimed must be pulled back if the player’s no-trade clause allows him to block a deal to the claiming club. However, the player may waive the no-trade clause and join the claiming club.”
Puig has more trade value than Braun. Braun cleared waivers and Puig didn’t. If Braun had more trade value than Puig it would have been the other way around.
Perhaps, or maybe each player’s value relative to the other is more nuanced and varies from team to team as I argued above.
That is completely faulty logic. All that says is that Puig had more value at that time to the teams other than the Brewers that claimed him. If two teams other than the Brewers claimed Puig, then he would have more relative value to only those two teams. Logically, the other 26 teams could easily value Braun higher.
In baseball, you are worth as much as the highest bidder thinks you are worth. Since the highest bidder was willing to pay all of Puig’s contract but not all of Braun’s contract, Puig has more trade value.
Why the Brewers would want puig is beyond me. They’re already stocked rich with talented outfielders in the minors. Glad that deal fell through
Why would they not want him? Who cares what their minor league system looks like. Get Puig while his value is extremely low and let him attempt to build his value while those other guys are still in the minors. Then flip him at the end of the year or at the deadline for a legit return if they like their players in the minors better. It’s not like the team is going anywhere this year anyways. It would make a ton of sense for them to take a chance on Puig.
Yeah taking a chance with Puig when LA includes multiple Prospects. Urias alone. Or Bellinger and De Leon. Because taking a chance on Puig when you have a 66-72win team for next 2years is not taking a chance with him. Bye bye Puig while Milwaukee doesn’t make playoffs and hello nothing of value returned for an MVP caliber bat.
Jeff, the link to Braun’s stats is broken.
Odd. I’ll fix it.
What does “better player” mean? Is that a comparative term (better than Puig) or a descriptive one (like the “better sportswear” section of the department store?)
Everything goes better with butter. Or is that beer?
Shorthand for a RF upgrade, no doubt.
Yeah I saw that too. That’s like me going into a car dealership and saying I want to trade my car for a better car but I don’t want to pay any money. They can ask for a better player but in order to get that they would have to take on payroll or throw in some prospects. Just don’t really get how they expected that to work. Braun is a better player, decent salary like everyone has already said. Be very curious to see what the Dodgers didn’t like about that deal.
From a Brewers fan’s perspective Thank God this did not go through. With all the young prospects coming up in the next few years, why would anyone would want Puig in the clubhouse with them is beyond me. The only way this would’ve came out evenly for the Brewers was to dump Braun’s salary, hope Puig reverts back to ’13-’14, then flip Puig for more prospects.
Maybe because Puig is ready today, and might be gone by the time prospects become ready? Speculating, here.
Arcia is already up and next year we can probably expect to see Brinson and Hader sometime in 2017. Do you really want Puig in that clubhouse with them?
Don’t know why they want him. Maybe get him and prospects and then trade him. Bonus get rid of Braun
Can’t believe the trade details were not leaked, no one in baseball can keep a secret. lol
Interesting. The Brewers clearly want to rid themselves of Braun’s contract. He will probably be gone this offseason. There’s no other reason to include Braun in a Puig trade, a player LAD is motivated to get rid of. Unless MIL knows something no one else does, like Braun is still cheating and flirting with another long suspension?
Why does MIL want to get rid of Braun so badly? He doesn’t cost all that much for the value he provides. Braun is at $19m and Puig is around $7m so a straight swap would save them $12m a year. I mean that’s chump change and for $12m you’re not gonna get a Braun quality player unless you have prospects ready to go and if you have, why do you want Puig? I just don’t get what they are trying to do. Can anyone explain?
Puig has a higher ceiling, makes less money, and would come with prospects.
I don’t understand why the Dodgers would have to include prospects. Seems like the savings on the respective contracts favors the Brewers to begin with.
Sure, Sure. You get MVP type Numbers and we’ll take your AAA headache. You’ve save a team with 60ish million in payroll 16million over 2years…Thanks. Enjoy that MVP type you don’t have at the plate….
Dodgers probably said Jose De Leon(why he remained in minors) Brewers wanted Julio Urias and end of story
Wait, who has MVP type numbers? Surely you do not mean Ryan Braun. And if the Brewers asked for Urias, the Dodgers were 100% correct to say no.
While I’d call Braun a “strong middle-of-the-order bat” at this point instead of “MVP Type,” I totally agree with your analysis of Braun vs. Puig.
Dodgers could have just claimed Braun and they didn’t. If they weren’t willing to take him and his contract, they’re not going to want to part with Urias or De Leon to acquire him.
Braun finished top 15 in MVP in 2010 with a little less batting numbers. MVP vote getting talent. He won’t get 1-5 but 6-10 is MVP caliber of player.
By complaining about MVP type, then Corey Seager by that standard, would deserve 0 votes since he has approximate identical numbers as Braun does.
I have been asking this question as well. If things go as well as they could (which is virtually never the case), then the Brewers’ prospects will be contributing before the end of Braun’s contract. So ostensibly he could contribute to a winning Brewers team in maybe 2020-2021.
The only thing that that causes me to conclude is that the Brewers must strongly believe that Braun won’t make it to the end of his contract providing the same value as he is now. Ergo, the way to maximize his value is to trade the guy who is good now to a team that actually needs his contributions on the field to win now, rather than hang onto the star player who is helping win meaningless games and ultimately causing the team’s draft picks to be lower. It seems to me that’s the sad reality.
They’re a bad small market team going through a rebuild. There is no reason to be paying 20m a year to braun while doing that.
So you’re campaigning that Milwaukee have about 32Million salary next season? What will the Owner do? Half Off all Tickets for 2017 since salary is half of what is #29 team ranked payroll is in 2017?
Why does any of that matter? If you’re going to be bad, be bad. The astros did it. It doesn’t make sense to spend money to be “less bad”. You know what that got them, Carlos Correa (and could have been Kris Bryant).
Seemingly can’t win, so don’t bother trying. Pathetic outlook on sports and life in general.
it’s about realistic expectations. who knows, maybe the Brewers can win it all next year. but is that likely? Or is it best to think that maybe in 18 or 19 they can challenge. Would Braun at age 35-36 be a key contributor or would the guy they get in return for him be a better option? And isn’t saving a buck or two a smart idea, especially for a small market team?
Look bro, idk why you are so opposed to tanking but unless you have bottomless pockets like the Yankees or Dodgers it’s how successful teams are doing things now.
Well in that case Puig is not whom you’re talking about for the future without Braun as he’ll be long gone by 2019.
The Dodgers want Braun so they will have a chance to win.
Once a Cheater always a Cheater, He’s a Low Character indivdual !
That would be like the Kemp signing. Dodgers organization has a bright future in the outfield. We need to worry about pitching in the off season. Braun’s numbers are nothing to wow about. Go Dodgers!!!
Have you looked at his numbers he had 10hr in Aug hitting. 320
You are difficult to please if your are not impressed by Brauns numbers.
If you look at his stats and his salary I’m not hard to please. There’s a reason we got rid of Kemp, he has more home runs than Braun. Braun is a from Southern California. Always been a fan, however we have a lot of talent in the outfield and management should think about spending money on relief pitching and a good starter.
The Brewers also could slide Braun to 1B if enough of their OF prospects emerged and–assuming his 3B-turned-OF hands are at least as good as Carter’s at 1B–produce a net gain in average dWAR across their starting lineup.
That would be interesting. Youth and potential with the personality baggage, versus aging but proven player with financial baggage. That’s the kind of stuff you go to MLBTR to hear happened!
So, when you say “personality baggage “, who are you referring to? Braun is as dirty as they come. At least Puig is not a cheater.
I’m not saying players don’t deserve some PED stigma, but saying Braun carries more personality baggage than Puig is more agenda than reality
Doesn’t that depend on how you define and value personality baggage?
Sure, if we weren’t talking about Puig, and if we weren’t trying to extrapolate moral absolutes out of a post describing how it would be kind of cool to see a trade like that.
However I’m pretty confident everyone knows precisely what “personality baggage” means in this context.
I’m not sure I follow your reference to moral absolutes but otherwise you seem to make my point. Characterizations of Puig’s “personality baggage” vary so much depending on the predisopsition of the person making the characterization, and they are so seldom grounded in any known reality, that it’s certainly worth asking what Puig’s “personality baggage” really is, and what impact it should rightfully have on his trade value.
It would be out of character for me to mischaracterize the characterizations others have made in characterizing Puig’s on- and off-field adventures. All I’d like to do is note that such characterizations exist, while acknowledging that it’s very characteristic of certain characters in the media to mischaracterize the character issues of players like Puig.
What a character!
So Preller passed on him?
The Dodgers are thinking, Braun would help us win now and his salary is not crazy (as crazy as that is) and Puig has burned a lot of blue bridges,
The Brewers are thinking, Puig has a high ceiling, we are not going to win anything during the remainder of Braun’s career, and if we can save some money and add youth it’s a no-brainer,
I would suggest the Dodgers didn’t want to give up any top prospects AND pay all of Braun’s salary, One or the other. Brewers wanted both. More talks to come.
Puig is a Salary dump player. He’s not wanted on the Dodgers and neither is his salary. So for Milwaukee to trade Braun and take on Puig is saving salary for LA. I think Jose De Leon was kept down all this time as potentially the big piece in acquiring Braun. Now that, the time has passed guess what? Here is De Leon’s promotion. I’d imagine, and rightfully so the Brewers asked for more than just De Leon and Puig’s salary dumping and the Dodgers balked on the price.
Maybe the Dodgers didn’t want to also take like Garza,
Ugh, Garza.
Slingin’ Stearns at it again.
In winter meetings this Braun talk will be out the window. It’s what you call talk, no more no less.
Mistake for LA to trade for the Jewish juicier, numbers inflated and low Character person!
Good god, the Jewish juicer… really…
Mistake for the Brewers to acquire a player who’s such a douche nozzle that Clayton Kershaw himself approached the front office and pleaded to get rid of said douche nozzle. Also you know you’re a cancer when Zack Greinke throws your luggage off the bus onto a downtown Chicago street.
Really? Zack Greinke has a pretty bad reputation in baseball as a hothead jerk too.