The Brewers have acquired outfielder Derek Fisher from the Blue Jays for cash and a player to be named later, per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.
Milwaukee is the third organization for Fisher, who began as the 37th overall pick of the Astros in 2014. Houston sent him to Toronto five years later in a 2019 trade that delivered right-handers Aaron Sanchez and Joe Biagini to the Astros.
Fisher didn’t have much major league success with either the Astros or Jays, as evidenced by his .194/.286/.376 line with 17 home runs and 10 stolen bases in 458 plate appearances. He does, however, own a much more imposing triple-slash of .289/.379/.520 with 50 homers in 1,053 PA at the Triple-A level. Because Fisher is out of options, though, he’ll have to earn a spot on the Brewers’ 40-man roster this spring or potentially go back to the waiver wire. Christian Yelich, Avisail Garcia, Lorenzo Cain, Daniel Robertson, Tyrone Taylor, Billy McKinney, Corey Ray and Tim Lopes represent the other outfield-capable players on the Brewers’ 40-man.
Well… someone still sees something in him…
Five rings, baby.
Shocking that the Marlins weren’t all over this.
I’m not sure how this Fisher deal is going to work out but since this is a Brewers article I will go ahead and share my thoughts on the Derek Fisher pick-up and potential moves for the rest of Milwauke’s free agency:
I’m hoping for the best for Derek Fisher. I have to say I’m a little surprised Milwaukee cut Ryan Braun to make room on the roster for him though. I know Braun is just a right handed outfielder reliever with a history of ped injury but the outfield bullpen is one of the Brewers biggest needs right now. Braun has actually been really good when he has thrown. Fisher was really only good in 2019. He was in the minors then and he played in the best hitters league in professional baseball. It also happened to be the exact same season the baseball was more juiced than ever. A lot of players had great offensive outlier seasons that year and especially in that league. He never really did that well before that and has done terrible since Houston traded him to Toronto. I figure a minor leaguer with options has to be pretty bad for even the Toronto to not want to spend a roster spot on him even though they just recently traded Aaron Sanchez to get him. Maybe he will be better back with the Brewers coaching or maybe Braun’s ped injury has damaged him more than we know and the Brewers have lost faith in him.
Some wishful thinking for Milwaukee fans is that the Brewers are in the process of doing one of those free agent “trade” player swaps with the San Diego Padres. The Padres had Trevor Rosenthal as their closer last season and the Brewers had Cory Kenebel. Now that the Padres have signed Melancon it seems like they won’t be going after Rosenthal. The absence of Melancon leaves a perfect Trevor Rosenthal sized hole in the Brewers bullpen. If they re-sign Shane Greene and replace the combination of Melancon and Darren O’Day with Rosenthal I think the Brewers bullpen actually becomes much better than it was last season. Rosenthal was so dominant he could immediately slide into the permanent closer role allowing them to use guys like Will Smith, Chris Martin, A.J. Minter and Tyler Matzek in leverage situations. This might be too much to ask for though. Rosenthal is going to cost noticeably more than Melancon or Greene and I doubt the Brewers are looking to spend that kind of money after the Eric Sogard re-signing.
I think I have a perfect low cost/high upside solution for the Brewers bench. They definitely need a top of the line bench player to go along with Christain Yelich. My suggestion is to just go ahead and sign Yasiel Puig again. If they do decide to bring back the universal designated hitter, Puig would be the perfect candidate to replace Christain Yelich in left field and allow Puig to shift back to DH. If Lorenzo Cain sputters offensively during his rookie season, Puig would be the perfect candidate to play right field allowing Eric Sogard. to shift back to center field. If neither of those things happen, Puig would be a perfect #1 bench player/ #1 pinch hitter/ #4 outfielderr. At this point I would much rather have Puig coming to the plate over Yelcih, McKinney, Pablo Sandoval or any of the other potential bench guys we have. The best part about a Puig deal is the cost. He was going to be dirt cheap last season when he was ranked a top 40 free agent. After not playing at all last season Puig isn’t even considered to be a top 50 free agent now. He is actually ranked below guys like Mark Melancon, Shane Greene, Darren O’Day and even Cole Hamels. He could easily be signed to a one year deal worth no more than a few million dollars. That’s nothing compared to the Braves paying Inciarte around $10 million next season (including his million dollar buyout the Braves are certain to take advantage of). The last time Puig played he was still a very productive hitter with a serviceable batting average and over 20 home runs. He has had great years in the recent past. He still has a cannon for an arm. He hits both righties and lefties so he is a perfect pinch hitter regardless of who the pitcher is. Most importantly, Puig is still relatively young. I think it is more likely that he gets better than he gets worse.
Those are my thoughts on those situations when it comes to Milwaukee. Let me know what you think.
This is an incredible comment. Is it a bot? Very sophisticated. And hilarious.
I think you need to learn brevity. And I’d rather run Sogard out there instead of a dick like Puig
Thanks for the laugh, that was a fun ride all the way from slightly distorted reality through to full blown nonsense.
I loved every line of that comment.
Haha wth??
Jorge. Please be brief and construct your comment for readibility.
That’s how it’s done ladies and gentlemen. You are a true student of the game, Jorge. Hopefully somebody at MLBTR is paying attention and offers you a lengthy contract. You’ve forgotten more baseball than most people on this site will ever know. It’s like listening to Borat discuss America’s past time.
You asked us to let you know what we think. After reading your post, I may have lost my ability to think. So I guess I just have to say no.
I’m just in awe about how madly insane this is. This has so many twists and turns you don’t know how it’ll end up, but like a car crash you just can’t look away. This is some dedication to being as insane as possible.
At one point I thought the Brewers and Braves had combined. And Cain being a rookie just blew my mind. This is so mind bottling it’s amazing lol.
Does anyone remember the scenes from “Airplane” when Striker is telling his sad story about Elaine and the people listening are killing themselves?
One of the funniest movies ever. I’m laughing even now about the guy pouring gas all over himself.
“If Lorenzo Cain sputters offensively during his rookie season…” GOLD
You lost me at “I’m”.
thanks chief
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out Derek
He was painful to watch. Good riddance. The only saving grace is that Sanchez and Biagini crapped out also and wasted two roster spaces for the Astros.
A shame he could never put it all together. Big time pop, fast as hell, just can’t catch a baseball or consistently hit one.
why?
He’s worth a 40 man roster spot in my opinion. Wouldn’t completely sleep on him yet as being as useful big leaguer.
The problem is he’s out of minor league options so he really has to make the 26 man.
He was good with the Lakers.
GOAT mlb the show reference
Ben Nicholson-smith is a familiar name…
get Matt Barnes an addy
He could make a nice platoon with Avisail Garcia. Both have untapped talent. Both should be expected to hit better than their defense gives up. Just can’t count on it happening.
now Fisher and McKinney have both been unloaded on Milwaukee by Toronto
Too bad they no longer have Justin Smoak.
Fool them once
Vogelbach!
Thames also
Who’s next? Matt Dominguez?
Matt Dominguez was already with the Brewers
And the Stros!
Makes sense. Stearns was in Houston when the Astros drafted him.
Finally! Dump Derek Fisher…he’s just a mold spore on the roster. I wonder what they’ll get for him…a foam cheddar cheese hat or an autographed baseball card of Teddy Higuera?
Nice name drop… one of the best Brewers of all time in my book.
On a deal like this, it’s usually the standard $20K waiver claim amount.
Teddy ruled.
I think if they ask nicely, the Jays might obtain one of Gary Sheffield’s used jock straps.
Brewers like the Jays castoffs. Problem is, they aren’t the quality castoffs.
Fisher’s problem is from the eyes up. Maybe the Brews can unlock his potential.
Met him when he was still in doubleA playing for the hooks, def a little full of himself back then
Ball off the face hopefully humbled him.
Jays like the Brewers cast offs too. I think he and Robertson will fight for the final bench spot.
Enjoy. He strikes out more than a third of his plate attempts, cannot throw, and literally looks scared in the field. Balls seem to hit him in the face a lot, hence the nickname “face catcher”. Plus he’s out of options, so needs to stick on the 26-man. He really belongs in Asia, not MLB. Jays fans will tell you it’s addition by subtraction.
probably brewers give him a janitor job? lol
The Fisher trade was a mistake all the way around, but I feel far too many fans jumped all over him from day one. He was never going to live up to whatever expectations people wanted to place on him since he was what the Jays got for 2 fairly well-liked pitchers. It seemed to me like he was trying his best and perhaps was trying too hard.
Maybe with a new organization and with little pressure to perform, he might finally be able to relax and find the best of his abilities on the field.
It was just never going to happen in Toronto.
It wasn’t actually a bad trade in retrospect. Biagini and Sanchez were even worse for the Astros than Fisher was for the Jays. Dumping two terrible players for one terrible player is a win of one freed roster spot.
Holding Fisher blocked one spot on the roster because he was out of options. That spot could have been given to Alford or McKinney to sink or swim. Instead Fisher was allowed to linger on the roster doing absolutely nothing productive.
What is worse about the trade was the fact Fisher didn’t have options. He could have been (and probably would have been) dropped by Houston. All it was was a salary dump of Sanchez. They could have dealt Biagini and had that one freed up roster spot, keeping Sanchez and then non-tendering him at the end of the season.
Now can we fire Atkins?
Can we fire you?
I think Derek Fisher can end up like Chris Davis. Struggles then 6 good season and then falls flat. They are too similar
Yeah all along I though Derek Fisher was part of a dynasty with the Lakers? Who really cares about an overrated baseball player with the same name?
Sweet take bro. Clearly you care enough to take the time to comment.
Stearns loves these post-hype guys. Probably takes McKinney’s spot as 26th man.
Thank god
I got angry every time he took an ab away from another player on that team.
garbage player, can’t believe someone actually wanted him
Now, how about doing something about that disastrously bad starting rotation?
The rotation is okay if Ryu and Pearson can stay uncharacteristically healthy all year, but a nightmare of basically 5 number 5 starters if they don’t.
Hopefully we can finally dispel the myth that Stearns is some kind of boy genius, guru as a GM!
Look at the trades during his Brewer GM tenure. Just because he pulled off the acquisitions of Cain, Grandal & Yelich many “experts” raved about his eye for talent. He’s highly overrated and a majority of his player moves in Milwaukee have been failures.
Stearn’s barely hitting above the Mendoza line!
If you think this I question if you actually follow baseball.
@SharksFan stick to hockey… the sharks suck worse than the Brewers in the NHL lol… and the NHL has a salary cap Baseball doesn’t