Brewers sign Jackie Bradley Jr. (2-year/$24M with player option after first year.)

[Jopal78]

The Brewers don’t “spend money” for the sake of it. Almost every free agent they sign is a value signing. This is too, a quality player with a short term commitment. Lee in mind JBJ reportedly was looking for 4 years at the outset

[PeaveyFury]

Yelich was their own guy...I personally don't count that. I expect my teams to re sign their most important players. I'm talking about doing that with Free Agents, ADDED to your own guy(s) you re signed.

 

Like signing Lorenzo Cain to a 5-year, $80 million contract as a free agent?

[PeaveyFury]

Do you think Haudricourt wakes up on a morning like this and pages back to his "the Brewers have no money to spend" article and cries a little bit?

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

This almost cements that Braun won't be coming back.

No Cespedes either.

It's not a sexy signing, but we are certainly going all in on defense.

 

The offense will be there, provided Yelich and Hiura don't suck again. What they likely don't have is the offensive horses to pick up the slack if those guys don't return to being high-quality offensive performers, though.

 

But I agree that the Brewers have made a commitment to run prevention defensively to highlight the pitchers at the top of their rotation, and what could be an elite bullpen.

[vandy54]

Based on CBS' free agent tracker, the Brewers have now signed the 12th and 19th best free agents... after hearing about how they didn't have any money. They'll never spend like the top teams, but I don't think we can complain when there are a lot teams not really even trying. Regardless of how you feel about JBJ, I don't think it's fair to say the Brewers aren't spending.

[JohnBriggs12]

Brewers certainly have a lot invested in their outfield. Maybe they have offers out there for Cain and they're willing to eat about what they're paying Bradley?

[ThisIsMyCrew]

Yelich was their own guy...I personally don't count that. I expect my teams to re sign their most important players. I'm talking about doing that with Free Agents, ADDED to your own guy(s) you re signed.

 

Like signing Lorenzo Cain to a 5-year, $80 million contract as a free agent?

 

$80 mil isn’t significant money.

[StearnsFTW]

Can we now put to bed any notion that this team won't spend money or has no money? That has been strongly disproved.

 

Though I like this signing, for me anyway, this doesn't tell me or show me the Brewers won't spend money. It's a two year deal with an opt out after 1 at 12 million/yr. VERY team friendly. To show me they are willing/can spend money I would need to see some long term deals..3 years minimum(preferably 4-5) for Free agents before I'm inclined to think they will spend $$. No, re signing Yelich doesn't count(in my book). Now get 2 or more other guys locked up like that, THEN I will be convinced they spend money.

 

It's actually not very team-friendly. It's a player option, which immediately takes away "team-friendly".

 

I like the signing, but I certainly wouldn't call it team-friendly.

[Jopal78]

Do you think Haudricourt wakes up on a morning like this and pages back to his "the Brewers have no money to spend" article and cries a little bit?

 

They signed two players for what Braun made last year, and a handful of other free agents with multi-million dollar deals walked. Haudricourt still isn’t wrong.

[StearnsFTW]

Do you think Haudricourt wakes up on a morning like this and pages back to his "the Brewers have no money to spend" article and cries a little bit?

 

I think he wakes up and goes on Twitter to see what's happening with the Brewers.

[Jopal78]

Can we now put to bed any notion that this team won't spend money or has no money? That has been strongly disproved.

 

Though I like this signing, for me anyway, this doesn't tell me or show me the Brewers won't spend money. It's a two year deal with an opt out after 1 at 12 million/yr. VERY team friendly. To show me they are willing/can spend money I would need to see some long term deals..3 years minimum(preferably 4-5) for Free agents before I'm inclined to think they will spend $$. No, re signing Yelich doesn't count(in my book). Now get 2 or more other guys locked up like that, THEN I will be convinced they spend money.

 

It's actually not very team-friendly. It's a player option, which immediately takes away "team-friendly".

 

I like the signing, but I certainly wouldn't call it team-friendly.

 

Right, but if Bradley has a huge year he will have delivered great value for the 12 million dollar salary (which by today’s standards isn’t much), and Bradley will decline his option and enter free agency. Even if he puts up his career numbers and exercises his option for 2022. 12 million places him right in line with what other non-marquee corner outfielders for like Joc Pederson, Kyle Schwarber etc

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

At the end of the day, having Cain, Bradley or Garcia as your 4th OFer is an enormous upgrade over Fisher, McKinney or Taylor, or even someone like Gamel. This significantly adds to the overall quality of the 26-man active roster. You can't have too many good players.

[Hopper]

I think you can just compare the Brewers payroll to the rest of the league to come to conclusions on whether or not they spend money.

They certainly don't sign the big name free agents, those guys are still pretty much only going to large market teams.

Some things never really change.

As Brewers fans, we pretty much have to be happy with signing guys like Wong and Bradley because we are never going to sign the crippling contracts that the big namers get.

If anyone is expecting that to happen, just follow a different team and put yourself out of your misery.

(yes, we gave Yelich a giant contract, I am not discounting that, however, had he not been on our own roster, we wouldn't have given him that contract on the free agent market because someone else would have paid him more, it's just the way it is)

[areacodes]

Yelich was their own guy...I personally don't count that. I expect my teams to re sign their most important players. I'm talking about doing that with Free Agents, ADDED to your own guy(s) you re signed.

 

Like signing Lorenzo Cain to a 5-year, $80 million contract as a free agent?

 

He used to play for the Brewers so I think that falls under the “their own guys” exclusion clause.

[JohnBriggs12]

Do you think Haudricourt wakes up on a morning like this and pages back to his "the Brewers have no money to spend" article and cries a little bit?

 

They signed two players for what Braun made last year, and a handful of other free agents with multi-million dollar deals walked. Haudricourt still isn’t wrong.

 

Speaking of Braun, am I the only one with a tinge of sadness that this closes the book on any chance that Braun returns?

[Hopper]

Do you think Haudricourt wakes up on a morning like this and pages back to his "the Brewers have no money to spend" article and cries a little bit?

 

They signed two players for what Braun made last year, and a handful of other free agents with multi-million dollar deals walked. Haudricourt still isn’t wrong.

 

Speaking of Braun, am I the only one with a tinge of sadness that this closes the book on any chance that Braun returns?

 

Yup, I feel the same way.

I think he deserved a bigger send-off than going out in a covid fueled nightmare of a season.

[Jopal78]

I think you can just compare the Brewers payroll to the rest of the league to come to conclusions on whether or not they spend money.

They certainly don't sign the big name free agents, those guys are still pretty much only going to large market teams.

Some things never really change.

As Brewers fans, we pretty much have to be happy with signing guys like Wong and Bradley because we are never going to sign the crippling contracts that the big namers get.

If anyone is expecting that to happen, just follow a different team and put yourself out of your misery.

(yes, we gave Yelich a giant contract, I am not discounting that, however, had he not been on our own roster, we wouldn't have given him that contract on the free agent market because someone else would have paid him more, it's just the way it is)

 

If the team is to succeed they need to follow the models proven successful by teams like Oakland and Tampa Bay. Neither of those two teams sign free agents to big multi year contracts. Rather they constantly churn the roster and add free agents on shorter deals, or where they assess there to be unexpected value. Hoping the Brewers act like the huge media market teams on the coast or in Chicago isn’t realistic.

[StearnsFTW]

 

Though I like this signing, for me anyway, this doesn't tell me or show me the Brewers won't spend money. It's a two year deal with an opt out after 1 at 12 million/yr. VERY team friendly. To show me they are willing/can spend money I would need to see some long term deals..3 years minimum(preferably 4-5) for Free agents before I'm inclined to think they will spend $$. No, re signing Yelich doesn't count(in my book). Now get 2 or more other guys locked up like that, THEN I will be convinced they spend money.

 

It's actually not very team-friendly. It's a player option, which immediately takes away "team-friendly".

 

I like the signing, but I certainly wouldn't call it team-friendly.

 

Right, but if Bradley has a huge year he will have delivered great value for the 12 million dollar salary (which by today’s standards isn’t much), and Bradley will decline his option and enter free agency. Even if he puts up his career numbers and exercises his option for 2022. 12 million places him right in line with what other non-marquee corner outfielders for like Joc Pederson, Kyle Schwarber etc

 

Just saying it's not team-friendly. If he has that great year, he's gone. Which is ok, like you said, but you sure would wish that 2nd year wasn't an option.

[Hopper]

I think you can just compare the Brewers payroll to the rest of the league to come to conclusions on whether or not they spend money.

They certainly don't sign the big name free agents, those guys are still pretty much only going to large market teams.

Some things never really change.

As Brewers fans, we pretty much have to be happy with signing guys like Wong and Bradley because we are never going to sign the crippling contracts that the big namers get.

If anyone is expecting that to happen, just follow a different team and put yourself out of your misery.

(yes, we gave Yelich a giant contract, I am not discounting that, however, had he not been on our own roster, we wouldn't have given him that contract on the free agent market because someone else would have paid him more, it's just the way it is)

 

If the team is to succeed they need to follow the models proven successful by teams like Oakland and Tampa Bay. Neither of those two teams sign free agents to big multi year contracts. Rather they constantly churn the roster and add free agents on shorter deals, or where they assess there to be unexpected value. Hoping the Brewers act like the huge media market teams on the coast or in Chicago isn’t realistic.

 

I agree.

Which is why I said if anyone expects anything differently, they need to follow another team.

Some people see moves the Yankees make and think we should be able to do the same thing.

Nope, until we have a salary cap of some kind, we will never be run like the large market teams.

[patrickgpe]

This is likely a 1 year deal with the opt out and pending labor dispute. Its hard to get upset about the brewers spending money rather than sitting on it. Like it said in the other thread, if the brewers are worried about Cain's quad, I'd rather have JBJ in center than Tyrone Taylor. This is Garcia's last year of the deal, so if he is the 4th outfielder, that is pretty nice too if JBJ will play right every day.

 

I also disagree with those who said that the brewers offense is still bad. They had a weird 50 game season where pretty much the entire team had career low offensive numbers. I'd be shocked if that occurs again.

 

they should have a great defensive starting 8 which will only help their pitching. i think this is a great value signing.

[Jopal78]

 

Yup, I feel the same way.

I think he deserved a bigger send-off than going out in a covid fueled nightmare of a season.

 

I recall Braun said late last year, he did not like doing the season with the Covid protocols. My guess is he is waiting to see what happens with the virus situation. If it greatly improves between now and summer, I bet we see him back or maybe even next year with a rejuvenating year of rest.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Whatever self-defined, goalpost moving, personal definition anyone may have of what spending money is, signing Jackie Bradley Jr is "spending money". I might not consider stopping at QuikTrip and grabbing a Gatorade spending money, but someone else might.

 

Whatever anybody thinks about the Brewers finances or payroll, signing a guy like JBJ is certainly better than the dumpster diving that everybody says we were doing last off season.

[Invader3K]

Good move. This makes for a much stronger outfield all around.

 

I agree that it's sad this pretty much closes the door on Braun coming back as well.

[MoreTrife]

Due to being two years older and taking a year off, I expect Cain to have a really really bad year so this is good insurance.

[MrTPlush]

There is no place for Braun on this team and honestly that is a good thing. Time to move on, we are better without him. It was a good ride, but he just doesn't isn't what he once was. I would much rather have Bradley Jr. than Braun for many reasons.