As we continue to close in on Spring Training, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. DFA’d players who will have their situations resolved today
Four players were designated for assignment seven days ago, and a conclusion to those four DFAs is due today. Julian Merryweather and Junior Fernandez of the Blue Jays, Andres Machado of the Nationals, and Oliver Ortega of the Twins are all still awaiting resolution on their status. None of the four have enough service time or the prior outright assignment needed to reject an outright to the minors, so if of them clear waivers, they’ll likely remain with their organizations. Fernandez and Ortega have both been claimed already this offseason, making their situations ones to watch, as they easily could simply be claimed once again. Merryweather averages better than 97 mph on his heater and has above-average spin on the pitch. Machado has posted a combined 3.41 ERA in 95 innings with the Nats over the past two seasons, albeit with strikeout and walk rates that are noticeably worse than the league average.
2. Brewers fan event tomorrow
For fans in the Milwaukee area, the Brewers are hosting a free fan event tomorrow evening called “Hot Stove & Cold Brews.” The event will feature a meet-and-greet with Brewers players Willy Adames, Freddy Peralta, Aaron Ashby, Garrett Mitchell, Owen Miller, and Sal Frelick. There will be voting opportunities with the players as well. Manager Craig Counsell and general manager Matt Arnold will also be in attendance for a Q&A session after an offseason that has seen the Brewers acquire just one free agent of significance (Wade Miley) but pull off significant trades for players such as William Contreras and Jesse Winker.
3. MLBTR Chat today
MLBTR’s Steve Adams will be taking questions from readers today when he hosts a live chat at 1pm CT. You can submit a question in advance, and the same link will take you to the chat when it begins later today if you would like to participate live.
When did Wade Miley become significant?
39% above average in 2021 and 31% above average in 2022 sounds significant to me.
2018
And ever since, of course.
Miley becomes significant if the Brewers stink in the first half. They’ll consider trading Burns. Need someone to pitch innings
I doubt they will trade him after they give him a 5 year 100 million extension soon.
Make it 200 and maybe.
People keep saying that, but the fact is they have control over him for the next 2 years. And he will make MAYBE around 25 million total for those two years.
If the Crew offered him 3 or 4 years at 20 million a year he’d be wise to take it. 40 million instead of 25 is a huge difference and it could all be guaranteed and probably most of it paid as a signing bonus (and 30 million up front would be great).
For the simple reason that even if his market value when he finally hits FA is closer to 35 million, he could get injured in either of the next two years and that value drops to zero.
A bird in the hand….
(not to mention that they developed him, he likes it here, and maybe he owes the team a homegrown discount)
I was thinking about the free agent years, though that is a good point that I usually emphasize with guys like Reynolds getting “only 75 million.” Players have no loyalty, but that’s more of a general human trait when it comes to money.
The fact that he made 28 starts for the Reds with their bandbox home park and had an ERA of 3.37 in 2021 was super impressive. Outside of those years he played for Baltimore (and admittedly his first go around for the reds) he has been a good pitcher his entire career. He had a couple of really good years in Arizona when he first came up as well. He has been significant pretty much from the get go.
You know what’s insignificant in regards to Miley? The new pitch clock. I don’t have much other opinion of him as a pitcher, but I always liked his pace.
How come Pirates can’t do this, (Just kidding they did do this, I met Chase De Jong, Wil Crowe, JT Brubaker)
At least it’s free. Here in Texas they charge admission to meet players.
$50 to talk to scrubs hell no!
Wow, at least you got the Astros though.
Which doesn’t do you any good if you are a Rangers fans.
It’s like telling an Angels or A’s fan they have the Dodgers. Or a Mets fan they have the Yanks.
95 bucks in Boston to meet Pedro, papi and wade Pitt the elder boggs
Sports talk radio this morning in WI suggested the Crew should/could be looking in in Trevor Bauer. I’d imagine plenty of clubs are doing just that. You have to find any edge you can in competitive sports I guess – certainly the small/mid-market teams. I’m guessing he’ll wait until spring training to see what his market is.
I hope the brewers go after him.
More good pitchers is always a good thing but not sure it would be worth the controversy for a team that already has good starters like the Brewers that needs offense more than anything.
Sure, he is elite and would help any team, but I thought the Brewers already have enough good starters that they are trying to trade some.
Never enough GOOD starting pitching.
What is the worst that could happen considering the Crew essentially is based on run prevention? Aside from the PR stuff, which will be brutal, as long as no other revelations come forth, any team would want to bring that talent in. I’d expect a team like the Brewers to pull in the key members within the clubhouse, gauge their feelings, and make a baseball decision. I’d like to think a one year deal with a mutual option could get it done. Then you see what you have at the trade deadline. Maybe Burnes and Bauer both are dangled and you reload the farm.
PR won’t be bad as most see through the hypocrisy and shaming games of the media.
He’s the best chance brewers have to compete next season. Hope they act accordingly.
The media just don’t like real men. Bauer should be the face of MLB. There aren’t too many like him.
Please elaborate.
Well I wouldn’t go that far ! Emotional intelligence is an important trait in a team environment, and even “real” men should respect that.
@deGrom Texas Ranger, please tell me you’re joking. Real men don’t abuse women.
Hyrax, he is an idiot.
Real men don’t
beat women
for pleasure…..
Don’t you need to be employed by MLB/team to be a MLB spokesperson?
I want to clarify. I do condemn violence against everyone. That is not something I promote. However, people expect him to just sit and take the false allegations. It takes courage to take on everyone and not let people misconstrue consensual relations as nonconsensual. Regardless of how bad this is, it certainly isn’t that much worse than what others have gotten for similar things. MLB wanted to make an example out of him for being an alpha, and he just wouldn’t take it. The accused have every right to fight back, whether in public or private. There are legal penalties for filing false claims to law enforcement, but none at all for making those same claims on the internet. His wrongs don’t make MLB right in any way.
Where is the “wow” guy when we need him?
Degrom, full on stop with the Alpha nonsense. Anyone using the term Alpha unironically is cause for immediate disregard. He is not an Alpha. He suuuuuuucks. Good pitcher though.
The tabloid folks are one thing whiffa – they live to create controversy. But there is a real narrative here that is quite damaging and the media is not to blame for the creation of that narrative.
There is clearly a group of folks that simply use their identity cards to judge these things…some on the left, and many on the right. I don’t know all of the facts behind the sexual assault, but clearly it is messy. MLB is hot handing out 300 plus game bans for nothing. The folks that automatically want to say that the accuser is making it up are just as big a part of the problem as someone like Bauer and the tabloids.
@Carver That is actually the most balanced and level comment I have read on here.
You don’t make it to professional sports, much less to the very top, without being an Alpha.
Of course, you are an Omega and wouldn’t know that.
Adding one more good starter could make it even easier to conclude that one should be traded for a bat.
He has no market. He’s still under contract for the year; it’s just that the Dodgers will pay the whole amount except for the league minimum that any signing team will have to pay. And after the time off, he’s not getting an extension until people see what he still has and whether the controversy surrounding him will die down/how the clubhouse works with him in it. So really, it’s just a question of where does he want to go among teams that are willing to have him? Money doesn’t have much to do with it.
Absolutely correct on the league minimum, my bad. Even more reason for teams to try to bring him into the fold.
Our sports talk radio here is Pittsburgh, 93.7 the Fan, sucks. Talk talk talk never takes calls. And their talk is irrelevant. Probably the same I’m Milwaukee
Honestly, most everyday it is nonstop talk about the Packers. I’m in the Green Bay/Appleton area. Even when the Bucks and Brewers are doing well, this market is all about the Packers, all the time. It is annoying, for sure.
Ever since they got rid of fan favorite Homer True and his staff it has been awful.
Mostly because that time slot–I listen in Madison–which is the best time slot, got taken over by the Alt Right moron Ben Brust (the only Badger who refused to meet Obama after they made the Final Four and whose FB page is Trump sucking).
It was great when Steve, the Homer, True was in the best slot.
It has been terrible since the Alt Right Ben Brust took over (3 or 4 years now). He was the only Badger who refused to go to the White House when they made the Final Four.
It’s all Packers for 23 3/4 hours a day
Which especially sucks in the off season.
The last thing we should be talking about right now is the Packers, since MLB is about to get started and off season moves are happening. And of course the Bucks are now in the second half of the season and on the way to the playoffs (even worse, they focus on the NFL draft and on mini camps and other boring stuff that has no real bearing on the actual NFL season, right when the Bucks are in their play off drive).
Madness.
Exactly. Now when we should be talking about the Bucks run and pitchers/catchers reporting in 3 weeks, the inevitable conversation will be about who will trade for Rodgers. The NFL is just a monster right now, sucking up the airwaves and dollars like a vacuum. Ironically, NFL trade rumors site is about as dull as it gets!
That he enjoys beating women is just one of the reasons Bauer is a total dickbag.
Sports talk in every market is probably saying the same thing. Gets people involved, brings in ratings.
I’m guessing the only ones talking about going after him IS talk radio and sites like this.
The Crew’s management is far too concerned with image. They would never even kick the tires.
MIlwaukee would be a perfect place for him. Smallest market in MLB. Media could care less about Milwaukee. after the first report. He keeps his head down and pitches and keeps his mouth shut.
You might have a point there. It would be a good place for him to fly under the radar and let everyone forget about him.
Good thoughts, as always.
Bauer can’t keep his mouth shut. Never has, definitely won’t after he feels vindicated by retro the league.
That’s a problem.
And I’d definitely do my players a favor and sign him after camp. The media will park outside the spring training complex and make life miserable for everyone.
Get the players back to the home park, have Bauer at camp by himself for a couple weeks, bring him in on a road trip.
haha….not the MKE media. They’re still going to be in MKE getting fat on sausage.
It’s the ESPN’s and national media.
Side note: I like Maryvale Park better before the remodel. Not a fan of that brown they painted it. Great back fields, though.
If one has a good team with a good clubhouse and care about the overall reputation of the franchise, one does not sign Bauer. Not worth the distraction, the media circus, the large % of the fanbase that will be unhappy with it or the risk inside the clubhouse.
He was a polarizing figure before all of this came out, and didn’t play well with others. Not always a bad thing unto itself, but too many folks have called him a self-absorbed jerk to think that there isn’t some truth. Phils wouldn’t touch him with a 100 foot pole.
I still think some team will sign him. If Michael Vick can go on to have a second half to his career after the dog-fighting scandal, then Bauer will probably get a 2nd chance, too, especially if a team need only pay him the league minimum.
It is plausible that some team just might sign him hyrax…agreed. Although not a certainty for sure as his is a troubling case. I just think that there is more potential for downside than upside, unless your clubhouse is already leaderless and your franchise rudderless.
The Vick signing certainly took away a lot of my respect for my hometown Eagles at that time. People are complex, and everyone is flawed and I am not saying that he is an awful human being as a result of one thing. But it was a BIG thing (just as sexual assault is a BIG thing), and I just found it hard to root for them while he was there.
Oh, he’s lost a ton of fans for sure. And deservedly so. I just don’t think his career is over.
Throughout, he’s maintained his innocence and hasn’t worked at rehabbing his image by speaking out against abuse or, to my knowledge, going through counseling. I would find it hard to root for him, too, even if my White Sox got him. Character matters more to me than performance.
You might want to look at Vick’s public actions after he got out of prison. He appeared to have worked hard to rehabilitate himself.–such as his work with the Humane Society and the time he spent going to schools to talk to kids about why dog fighting was wrong.
Thanks Wes – I am from Philly, and know the narrative. If you read what I said I was not throwing him under the bus in totality at all. That was the reaction at the time that he was brought on board. If kinda’ appalled me.
Of course, he was mandated to do what he did with the rehabilitation as well. But overall, he seems to be a much nicer person than Bauer for sure.
At the moment, he seems more likely to take the Roberto Osuna path to obsolescence, being a player that can still contribute at a very high level but is too much of a distraction and controversy to be worth talent.
The difference here is that dogs don’t buy tickets and women do. Big distinction!
Women don’t buy tickets (see: THE WNBA).
Their boyfriends buy them and they reluctantly tag along for the beer and bad food.
Glad the Brewers aren’t a bunch of cowards, unlike the White Sox FO. Canceling SoxFest just because they don’t want to hear fans complaining is dumb; how about giving us fewer reasons to complain?
Complain about what?
Roster construction, wasting two years of their window on TLR, not going all-in, overspending on the BP when there are glaring holes in RF and 2B, and a few more. The FO did well starting the rebuild, but have really mucked it up rounding out the roster and getting them from talented upstarts to legit contenders. Many White Sox fans are pretty unhappy with the FO and no longer believe a word that comes out of Hahn’s mouth.
And it all started with one stupid move: Reinsdorf’s interference which resulted in Renteria being let go.
What are voting opportunities with players??
They get to vote off their least favorite players acquired in the off season.
You don’t really think the FO runs the team?
Sounds like a lot of fun for that event with the Brewers. They should let the fans slide down the slide, as long as they sign a wavier that doesn’t make the Brewers or anyone affiliated with the Brewers, legally responsible for injuries. I’m looking at you, David Vassegh!
They let Vogelbach and Aguilar do that one year and the slide was out of commission for weeks!
…And by tomorrow night you’ll see a bunch of old dudes on eBay trying to sell the autographs and memorabilia they used their kid to get.