Let’s take a look at the latest from around the NL Central…
- “Frankly, at this point, we don’t think too much about that,” Brewers GM David Stearns told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Twitter video link), MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy, and other reporters when asked what pitchers are currently penciled into the starting rotation. As usual, the Brew Crew will be flexible as possible in deciding which pitchers start games and how many innings they’ll accumulate, with Stearns citing Brandon Woodruff, Eric Lauer, Adrian Houser, Freddy Peralta, and Corbin Burnes as hurlers with starting experience. Peralta and Burnes will indeed still get consideration for starting jobs, Stearns said, though both struggled in the role last season. This isn’t to say that rotation additions couldn’t still be made, and relief help could also come later in the offseason, Stearns said. Milwaukee had interest in re-signing both free agent Jordan Lyles and the non-tendered Junior Guerra before the two pitchers respectively signed with the Rangers and Diamondbacks.
- Eyebrows were raised earlier this week at reports that the Brewers were open to trade offers for superstar reliever Josh Hader. While Stearns didn’t deny the report or dismiss the idea of a Hader deal, he naturally didn’t give any hint about how much desire his club actually had in moving Hader, only saying that “I think we consider him the best reliever in baseball right now.” Obviously, it would take a major offer to land Hader, who is controlled via arbitration through the 2023 season as a Super Two player.
- Since Jacob Stallings is the only catcher on the Pirates’ 40-man roster, it isn’t any shock that GM Ben Cherington told media members (including Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic) that the Bucs are looking to upgrade the catching corps “in some ways.” Biertempfel notes that Cherington was “emphasizing the plural,” meaning that Pittsburgh will look to add multiple catchers for both the big league club and the farm system.
- With so much action on the free agent market so far, “I personally feel like there’s less trade activity likely to happen at the Winter Meetings than in prior years,” Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams told the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bobby Nightengale and other reporters. “I think that’s the trend and I feel like other baseball front offices…feel like it’s gotten to the point where with all the other stuff that’s going on, it’s a time to continue conversations, but it’s really hard to push things across the finish line from a trade perspective.” The Reds have already one major free agent splash in signing Mike Moustakas and have been linked to several other big names, though while Williams “would say it’s entirely possible” Cincinnati makes another signing during the Meetings, “there is not one that I would say is likely to happen yet….I don’t have one that is closing in on a physical or something.”
Ok Brewers take on JA Happ and Clint Frazier from New York because they want to save money on Happ then Frazier can take over for Braun next year then take on Myers contract with San Diego eating part of that contract while they add a prospect in that deal too. Sign Madbum and Matt Duffy for third. Which gives you a line up of
Yellich RF
Cain CF
Braun/ Frazier LF
Myers 1B
Huira 2B
Urias SS
Duffy 3B
Narvaes C
The Cardinals are walking away with the Central. MadBum is going to a contender.
Spoken like a typical best fan in baseball.
The irony? Look at this clown’s name. Obviously, there is a concern over what the Cubs can and have done. Nice work!
Oh, and save your breath. I am not a brewer or cub fan, so you have that too.
LOL
Clepto- spoken like the biggest a hole on this site. You never provide any insight on anything. Just insults. Go away.
He’s not wrong though.
To put in your name a team you troll rather than a team you root for is like 4 year old level use of brainpower.
“What is this? You’re wear the shirt of the band you going see tonight??! ….Don’t be that guy.”
And being the playoffs the last 2 years makes the Brewers…..not a contender……got it….
Not a single comment here referenced the Brewers, they were shots at the Cards dude.
But the post was a direct response to a Brewers so how does that not reference the Brewers???????
You should apply for the next GM opening. Brilliant work.
Quality dig.
Go away
And how are the Brewers gonna get Frazier?
The cheap Brewers won’t take on a contract. They want people with 3+ years of control at league minimum or arbitration. Grandal signed for the exact amount he made last year for the next 4 years with the White Sox. Milwaukee will always be cheap. That’s who they are.
They are the Dollar Store of MLB. Loyal fans have thrown a lot of cash at the organization in recent years and regardless they’ve dismantled last year’s successful team essentially due to their cheapness. Stearns has made so many holes in this roster it looks like piece of Swiss cheese. Brewers had some good success for two seasons but have returned to their cheap ways.
Stearns is cheap because he didn’t want to go 4 years at 18M per on a 31 year old catcher? He went out and got Narváez for 17M less, 3 years younger and actually had really similar splits to Grandal. Narváez was .278/.353/.460 and Grandal was .246/.380/.468. How about we wait until March to see what a team looks like before calling for Stearns head
What are you talking about dismantled the team? Because they lost a pull heavy .250 hitting 3rd basemen that could hit homeruns? Oh no……… All of the important pieces are in tact with Yelich, Hiura, Woodruff and Hader. The people that were released were mediocre talents that brought nothing to the future of the Brewers.
Talk about a delusion. You need to sip more lightly on that Brew Crew kool aid.
Believe what you want to, losing Grandal, Moustakas, Davies, Lyles, Pomeranz, Thames is very significant. Especially when you want to replace it on the cheap.
Just look at the names you listed there for a second. Is anyone besides Grandal tough to replace? The rest of those guys are truly average. You won’t even remember their names next April except that we’ll have to play against Moose 16 times or so.
That’s ludicrous. In today’s market what would it cost to replace Moose, Lyles, Pomeranz and Grandal for next season ? Assuming you are replacing those performances also. The answer is about 50 million bucks. The Brewers would like to do it for 5.
Well they already replaced Grandal for 17 million cheaper. Pomerantz and Lyles were not even on this team till July. They didn’t sign Grandal or Moose till after January 20th last year. Moose was good but hit .250. Thames is not signed by anyone yet. They let Claudio go and already signed him. What you are talking about is right now replacing 7 wins. And replacing a reliever in Pomerantz who pitched better fromSeptember 10th on. Before that not that good.
Cheap. Highest payroll in club history last year. Don’t be an idiot
That’s one of the worst lineups in the NL.
It’ll be better than the cubs after they trade Bryant and Contreras
And what exactly are you giving the Yanks for this trade?
So the team now operates like the Dodgers and Yankees?
Happ 17mil
Myers 22mil
Bumgarner 20? per year
Duffy 4mil?
So that’s doubling the payroll as it sits now and exceeding the highest payroll the team had last season. What else are the Brewers getting from New York?
Wait, NY has a worse minors than Milwaukee? OMG. I guess they can send their #1 prospect over, the only one ranked in the top 100.
That’s a great lineup for 4th place in the central
Well we play to win the game .
Stubby: free advice. You put out a lineup. No matter how brilliant or not so brilliant it is,there are 800 Johnny GMs plus 400 Johnny Super Scouts on here that know better. And, unfortunately, there are far more Johnny Morons on here, like Themed, ForestCobrAL, Mo4ever, or CFAP, that no matter what is said, they will rattle off some false reality about the Cardinals or whatever their favorite team of the week is. These people just can help themselves.
So, while your lineup may be good….it will meet more disdain than anything else here.
This has been a free PSA. You are welcome.
Thank you. You know I just like to talk baseball and shoot out ideas that teams could try . I mean San Diego and the Yankees want to move a couple of these contracts with willingness to eat money. Then they are willing to add prospects to get it done. So why not consider it .
That’s a whole lot of money for a typically low payroll team. They aren’t typically the guys who eat a bad contract unless they are mired in the basement, which they clearly weren’t after their Yelich-less run late last year. I personally would expect them to be looking more for one-year alternatives or cheap young trade targets. Duffy seems like their kind of move though
You are dreaming. The Brewers will fill significant holes with cast offs and bargain basement hopefuls. I am surprised the Brewers aren’t shopping for players with coupons.
^^
Stubby, see, here is a classic example of the third bucket.
Karlander. The guy who brings nothing to a discussion.
Sure
Cards aren’t running anything, Reds have pitching, pitching, pitching, Moustakas and more to come
Cards may be tough this year and don’t be surprised if they sign Mad Bum. They are used to being perennial contenders and strive to put themselves back in contention. If they grab some decent pieces, like Ozone, of which they are perfectly capable, they’re going to contend.
I hope we don’t sign him. That would be way to much money for a 3.9 ERA. He is getting old. Another bad contract for the cards if they sign him
Yeah I understand that. Plus the projections are going the wrong way, with WAR and WRC+ metrics reflecting below average performance. He does eat a bunch of innings though.
I don’t like that guy Ozone. Too many holes in his game.
Ba dum ting! Climate change jokes in the house, it’s warming up in here. Based on the negativity on some of these commenters, I would say the acidity levels are rising as well.
If Burnes is in the rotation to start the season I don’t want to hear that the Brewers are trying to win. He was demoted twice last year and ended the season at AA. That’s where he should be until he proves otherwise. .
hahahahaha
I don’t understand what kind of case Bryant even has. If the players don’t like the way teams manipulate the situation to have an extra year of team control they can take it up at the next CBA.
The players are really mad because the owners are utilizing loopholes in the existing CBA to save money. Harold Reynolds opined that owners should just pay players as if those holes didn’t exist because players would not have approved the current contract had they realized owners would actually use these loopholes to their advantage.
MLB has one of the strongest unions in the world. Nevertheless, I’m befuddled that the union is mad at the owners for abiding by the contract that the players’ union agreed to.
The Player’s Union should be upset with Tony Clark and not the Owner’s….MLB sides with the Cubs, as if this could lead to other players following suit if Bryant was to win. I don’t see this as a “loop hole” on the Owner’s side. The Player’s did get what they wanted in return of the current deal.
Okay, technically it is not a loophole, but that is how the players obviously view it. The point remains the same, however – it is a part of the CBA that the players feel is a workaround for owners in lieu of paying the players what the players feel they deserve. And when most people realize they did something stupid, voluntarily, which cost them, their natural reaction I’d to get upset and blame someone on the other side. We agree.
To be fair, it is pretty impossible for a union contract to include everything.
I think Bryant’s argument likely revolves around that the team did not act in good faith, which the CBA likely requires both sides to exhibit to some degree.
Contacts can’t cover absolutely everything, so it expects both parties to act in reasonable good faith. If there is a dispute, that is what arbitration is for.
Yes, and if I recall I believe there is precedent for trans intentionally manipulating time for the sole purpose of manipulating time to gain an extra year. To be clear, I’m not saying Bryant will win, but it is very unpopular and perceived as bad faith, regardless of the arbitration decision. At least the Yankees are committed, they cancel the contract altogether…..
It’s hard to believe the union didn’t foresee something like this happening. Every side needs to look at ways the agreement can be interpreted and used for or against them. When this first happened it was a big story. At the time I remember thinking the Cubs were wise on the one hand and foolish on the other. It doesn’t create good will and teams should know better.
The irony of the whole Bryant situation is that the Cubs manipulated service time to try and keep him Cubs for 7 years, and by doing that they’re only going to keep him for 5
They did offer Bryant 200 million that he turned down. Will be interesting if they trade him what prospects come back.
I don’t see how Bryant wins. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t treated badly, but under the CBT there really seem to be no remedies for this behavior. It should be addressed in the next one. Find a better solution than this
A bit of a hot take, but I don’t get all the Kris Bryant love or why he is put close to the Lindor/Betts tier of trade asset.
I see a:
87.4 mph exit velocity(23rd percentile)
34% Hard Hit Rate(25th percentile)
Batted Ball Distance is trending down(204ft,196ft,186ft, 179ft this past season)
.33 gap between wOBA and xWOBA(in bad way)
Issues with off-speed stuff.
He just hasn’t been quite right since 2016. Seriously, go to the Statcast leaderboards. Look at the names below Bryant for Exit Velocity or Hard Hit%. Excluding elite gloves/speed demons, find me a stud that is making it work…..there aren’t any.
I just get Matt Carpenter type vibes from Bryant. A good enough hitter to hide underlying issues thus far. But if some of the underlying numbers tick down just another tad, suddenly things aren’t looking too hot(especially because he is no Arenado/Chapman with the glove).
I’m not saying the sky is falling, but that it COULD fall and I wouldn’t be shocked.
No way he’s in the same category as Lindor. Lindor is better by all metrics. He will demand much more.
You must be new to baseball. It’s because Bryant is a Cub….therefore he is the greatest player to ever pick up a bat……
Thank you for the lesson. I feel as though my baseball IQ has reached a new level. Cubs player = greatness x2
He was a MVP and did beat Lindor’s Indians. Scored from 3rd on a sac fly shallow lf. Moved almora over to second in top of 10th and fielded last out of World Series to end a 108 year curse. He has a special place in my heart.
I know it’s within the division, but could a Starling Marte trade centered around Andrew Knizner work?
I’m a reds fan. I’ve been waiting for awhile for them to have a chance. But I do believe they have a chance in the central. They have the best pitching in the division right now. They have added moustakas and are looking to add more. All while brewers and cubs seem to be shedding salary and cardinals have plenty of question marks. I think this division is wide open this coming season.
Stearns stuck his foot in his mouth clean up to his knee by stating publicly that Hader is the best reliever in baseball. Because Hader is a Super Two that little comment could cost the Brewers a lot of money in arbitration.
That comment is more likely to try and convince another team to increase its offer in a potential trade. With all the money they’ve trimmed from last year’s payroll, any increase in his arbitration case seems rather insignificant to me.
And I’m currently still of the belief Hader isn’t officially available, which does make it somewhat odd for him to say anything at all…
I think he just wants to see if a team will offer their whole farm for him. But I think it’s very unlikely he gets traded.
Why am I not seeing Kris Bryant mentioned in this article with a headline connecting him with the Padres?
He obviously knows Ron Fowler because he played in a stadium named after him at USD. I have mentioned it before; shifting Manny and Fernando to the left, putting Fernando Tatis at second base, preventing some of his over-aggressive injuries from occuring… ¾ of a Hall of Fame infield would be a good move for San Diego. Even if AJ Preller is at the helm.
Bryant going back to SD makes sense, but I wouldn’t want that if I’m a SD fan. I’m not saying this because I’m a Brewers fan, but Bryant just isn’t the same since his shoulder issues. I wouldn’t want to trade good prospects and pay Bryant a lot.
The operative phrase is “makes sense.”
Unfortunately, Preller does not make sense. He falls in love with people and overpays for them. There is no “love” for Bryant. The story may be different if he was at 99th round draft pick for Texas back in 2011.