Second baseman Jonathan Schoop has endured a dreadful couple months since the Brewers acquired him from the Orioles at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. Nevertheless, considering what the the Brewers gave up for Schoop, they’re “unlikely” to non-tender him in the offseason, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets. Schoop’s projected to earn $10.1MM in his final trip through arbitration, and that salary figures to help weigh down the 27-year-old’s trade value if Milwaukee tries to move him. Schoop was one of the game’s best second basemen in 2017, but his numbers dipped in the first half of this season with the Orioles and have gone in the tank in Milwaukee, with which he batted .202/.246/.331 in 134 regular-season plate appearances. And while the Brewers will advance to the World Series if they win Game 7 of the NLCS on Saturday, Schoop hasn’t been a factor in their playoff run, having gone hitless in seven at-bats. Unsurprisingly, Schoop’s not in the starting lineup for the Brewers’ series-deciding game against the Dodgers.
A bit more from the majors’ Central divisions…
- Fresh off his second straight 20-home run season, one which featured unspectacular overall production (104 wRC+) across 496 plate appearances, White Sox DH/corner infielder Matt Davidson would like to do more pitching in 2019. Davidson, who chipped in three scoreless innings of one-hit ball as a reliever in 2018, will spend the offseason working to become a legitimate two-way player, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score reports. The White Sox have okayed Davidson’s plan and will be able to monitor his progress in the offseason, given that he lives close to their Arizona-based complex, according to Levine. Davidson was a high school pitcher, notes Levine, who writes that Chicago’s coaching staff sees “decent movement” in his 92 mph fastball. Should Davidson achieve his goal, the soon-to-be 28-year-old would work out of the bullpen – albeit not in high-leverage situations – as a way to help keep the team’s conventional relievers fresh, per Levine.
- Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported earlier this month that the Cardinals would seek left-handed relief help in the offseason. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak confirmed as much this week, saying (via Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com): “When you’re looking at last year versus this year, I do feel like we’re looking at more depth than we had a year ago at this time. I also recognize that I think the biggest Achilles’ [heel] right now in our bullpen is the left side.” The Cardinals shuffled through numerous southpaw relief options during the season, but none inspired much confidence, as Langosch details; moreover, they don’t seem to have a dominant lefty under control going into 2019, Langosch points out. Notably, MLBTR’s Jeff Todd took a look at the lefty relief market for the upcoming offseason earlier this week. That piece should be of particular interest to Cardinals fans in light of Mozeliak’s comments.
Schoop was acquired for 2019, not ’18. Anything he does this year is a bonus, and sadly, that has been a slim bonus so far.
David Sterns is that you?? Lol. The guy was acquired at the deadline so he could help the team in 2018 and 2019.
Lol. Agreed BB
Justin Turner how in the world can you make such an absurd statement? Wow.
JKB, WOW is right. and he mocks everyone’s posts.
Uhh, why would the Brewers have had zero expectations for Schoop this year?
Schoop is about the only Brewer on the roster that hasn’t had a ridiculous six week stretch…career stuff up and down the roster.
Send him back to the orioles. We’ll give you Beckham in exchange.
Schoop’s stats were bloated by playing at Camden Yards. I like to think GMs are more intelligent than to just look at stats, but I doubt you’ll see Manny Machado put up Oriole-like stats next year….unless he re-signs with Baltimore. Manny’s a terrific player, but no way he’s putting up power numbers like in Baltimore.
Davidson pitching is going to be like the poor mans version of Ohtani and I love it.
What would an arbitration case like that even look like given intangibles of 2 sides of the ball played?
I do not see it having any impact on his arb case. He is lucky to have a job. Its a player offering to serve mop of duty out of the pen. He is not getting paid based upon that.
How can he warm up in the bullpen if he is on the field already he is for the most part a regular in the lineup
Why would anyone have any confidence that John Mozeliak is capable of land a star quality left handed reliever, or impact hitter or impact starter? Let’s face it, Mozeliak’s in ability to bringing impact players of any sort for the past 6 years is the reason for the Cardinals post season demise. Mozeliak is too hung up on thinking a rookie from within will be an immediate all star. Think that doesn’t put the heat on the rookies??? Plus, he’s a Low Hanging Fruit type of guy and that’s the type of players who the Cardinals have on the field. They don’t deserve to be called the Cardinals. With Mozeliak still in charge, it should be the St. Louis Low Hanging Fruit.
Those would be some interesting jerseys!
Interesting take by Cardinals17 and I think he nailed it
What, Brett Cecil not fit the bill? I’m sure Cecil’s a hit at the local bank.
Jose Martinez for Taylor Rogers and Tyler Jay (Twins #22 prospect) I think is a fair deal. Twins get a viable DH who’s controlled for multiple years at a cheap price. Cardinals get Rogers, an immediate boost from the left side. Posted sub 3 ERA, FIP, and xFIP in 2018 and still has three years of control. Jay is also a live-arm lefty prospect, though he’s still a project at this point.
Seems like a good haul for Jose.
I read a lot of trades on here. 99.99% are a cross between screwy and hysterical.
What you wrote was thoughtful and realistic.
Kudos!
That’s not an unrealistic trade at all. Martinez is a valuable player in the AL. Rogers is a good reliever, but he’s not dominant. Jay is a reliever at best.
I’d do that trade for cards
Probably should trade Jose Martinez. He’s made for the DH role.. Butcher at 1B and not much better in RF. Should be able to get something of substance in return. JMHO, but I don’t think Wong is ever gonna live up to his prospect hype from a few years back. Plus, the guy can’t stay healthy. Cards should sign Bryce Harper.
The Jonathan Schoop trade was useless and stupid. No way to defend it.
Terrible trade by Milwaukee. Just Terrible.
Well, it’s not like they didn’t already have a good starting second baseman who had just shifted to the position due to an earlier trade, oh wait, they did!
If the Moustakes deal hadn’t have been made, the addition of Schoop would’ve made sense, but since it did, it made absolutely no sense at all.
The Schoop trade is what it is this year but next year he will be the starting second baseman for the Brewers. He is an impactful player and will get plenty of playing time the question is if he plays like he can and if he does do you trade him at trade deadline or does he help the Brewers in a pennant race. Honestly reminds me of Rickie Weeks.
So if he plays like “he can” why would you want to trade him at the deadline
He’s definitely impactful, in fact I’ll bet the brewers opponents would be happy to pay his salary next year if he’s at 2b for the crew again. He shouldn’t even make it on the brewers AA club next year.
Technically, the Cardinals also maintain control over Tyler Lyons, since no one grabbed him off waivers when he was designated for assignment, and I suppose it’s possible he bounces back into a good MLB reliever, seeing how he went the other way from great in 2017 to just awful in 2018 (along with the general instability of reliever performances in general), but I don’t know if the Cardinals will still hang on to him once the offseason is over.
Are players who were out-righted off the 40-man roster still eligible for arbitration? If so, then Lyons will probably be non-tendered. He might also just qualify as a Minor League free agent given his amount of both Minor and Major League service time.
Lyons is now a minor league free agent.
Hindsight is always 20/20. Nobody knew how Shaw’s transition to 2B would go. Ortiz was the best prospect traded and he was rule 5 eligible, so they made the decision they weren’t going to put him on the 40 man roster. Yes, it didn’t workout for them this year, but we can keep him next year, work on flaws in his swing over the offseason and hope he returns back to 2017 form in a contract year. Y’all act like this trade was detrimental to the team and to the future.
Its not really hindsight. Most people were critical of the trade immediately for the reason that Shaw could not play second base. I would say almost everyone knew the transition would fail and it did. That is not hindsight. Thats calling a stupid trade for what it was. And stupid trade and calling it stupid right away.
Shaw ‘s transition to 2B was not a failure. Schoop was traded for to add insurance in case that transition didn’t work and to add RH bat. The hindsight was not knowing he would post terrible number at the plate with the Brewers. Thinking Schoop could play SS was a failure, but Arcia’s resurgence at the plate in the second half kept away the need to play him there.
Why is JoMo the only one we ever hear of calling the shots as far as trades and FA signings go? They have a GM. Let the GM do his job. He’d probably be better at it than Mo anyway.
Davidson is brutal with the bat and should not be in the lineup next year UNLESS it’s in the bullpen……
He’s definitely impactful, in fact I’ll bet the brewers opponents would be happy to pay his salary next year if he’s at 2b for the crew again. He shouldn’t even make it on the brewers AA club next year.