Three-way trade with A's, Braves; Brewers get William Contreras

[TURBO]

Just now, DR28 said:

My god I love our offense now!!!!

Yelich

Adames

Winker

Contreras

Tellez

Urias

Mitchell

Taylor

Turang

I'd love it a lot more with a real 3B and Frelick in place of Taylor.

[Joseph Zarr]

I think a major part of the reporting missing on the A's side of things is:

 

They must really love bunt singles.

 

And, that is my Esteury Ruiz joke to close my 2022 calendar year.

[TURBO]

3 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

I prefer Justin Turner. Hopefully we can get to him before the Marlins do as it's rumored they've made him an offer. 

I'd be on board with that!  Would love to know what it will cost to sign him though.

 

[Brewcrew82]

2 minutes ago, JosephC said:

If it is just Ruiz, then it's not only a major miss by the Baseball Trade Values site, but also every "prospect reporter" that puts together organizational lists.  To make up what would figure to be nearly 40 million dollars in surplus value that the Brewers would receive in this deal, Ruiz would have to rank as a top 50 prospect on the top 100 lists.  I haven't seen him valued like that anywhere, not even a bottom end top 100, much less a top 50 ranked.

Here's the only top 100 list I've seen with him in it...Even then, only listed at 92...

https://www.justbaseball.com/prospects/2022-mlb-top-100-prospects/

[wibadgers23]

Why the Braves and A’s even invited the Brewers to the party, I have no idea. Did they just sneak in and nobody noticed?

[Jopal78]

16 minutes ago, Ron Robinsons Beard said:

Big time egg on the face of the BTV site on this one. Huge swing and a miss on Ruiz's value especially. 

Maybe some front office folk in Atlanta do use it to "check their work". hahaha

[SRB]

My recollection is that Ruiz's value skyrocketed based on his performance in 2022. It's possible all of the prospect evaluators were factoring in outdated information, and that his skills genuinely turned a corner. Whatever, even if he was a consensus top 100 prospect outfielder, I would love this trade given our needs and the other top prospect outfielders we still have.

[MrTPlush]

Braves: “Sounds good Oakland, but we don’t need Contreras now and have to get rid of him.”

Oakland: “Oh well…just ship him to Milwaukee or something.”

Braves: “Good idea! Then we can ship a few more players so he isn’t lonely on the plane ride!”

Oakland: “WOAH SOLVDD”

[brooks_quichenick]

Matt F. Arnold!

[Fear The Chorizo]

I think it's a solid move for Milwaukee to acquire a good and young everyday offensive catcher by using developed OF prospect depth - even if Ruiz winds up being the best MLB outfielder among Frelick and Mitchell I think it's a good trade because they're all probably holding a roster spot for Chourio, who's going to be in Milwaukee sooner than later.

Looking at Ruiz's and Frelick's stats from their 2022 AA/AAA seasons in a vacuum without knowing draft pedigree or career arc, and there'd be plenty of a case for Ruiz to be more highly valued.  

 

[Lathund]

We get 5 years of William Contreras for just Ruiz? And a decent middle reliever (And a AA relief prospect I've never heard of, so not gonna put much into that..) on top of that. 

Like... I get the upside with Ruiz. That kind of speed and newfound plate discipline if he can develop even above average contact skills and below average power is a very good player. But the Brewers have 4 other OF prospects just as good or even better. And even if he does turn into a good player I'm fine with it. There's much risk involved in his profile, turning it into a more proven player at a position and role of need is worth it. 

Brewers needed a catcher, Brewers needed some offense, and Brewers needed to improve against LHP. Contreras is a 24 year old catcher with 5 years of team control remaining, with a career 121 wRC+ so far, who has a career 158 wRC+ against LHP for his career. 

This is one hell of an opportunistic trade. 

[JosephC]

8 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Here's the only top 100 list I've seen with him in it...Even then, only listed at 92...

https://www.justbaseball.com/prospects/2022-mlb-top-100-prospects/

Thanks for the list, some interesting out of the box thinking on that one.

[brewcrewdue80]

6 minutes ago, wibadgers23 said:

Why the Braves and A’s even invited the Brewers to the party, I have no idea. Did they just sneak in and nobody noticed?

Gotta be something along the lines of they wanted to send Contreras and Oakland didn't want a catcher but an OF.  Brewers had the OFs and needed the Catcher.  Maybe Oakland also wanted a RH CF/Utility vs one of our LH batting OFs.

[nate82]

I think the A's like Ruiz because of his speed.  Their current stadium requires the player to cover a lot of ground.  I think the Brewers got an excellent return for Ruiz.  So the Hader trade now is Gasser, Contreras, Yeager and Payamps plus Lamet and Rogers.  I would say that is a really good deal. 

No idea how the A's and Braves valued Ruiz but it seems as though they valued him higher than any independent scouting would have valued him at. 

[MrTPlush]

Important consideration: the pedigree and talent in front of him at the OF position in this organization, it is pretty likely he would have never seen the light of day at Am Fam field.

Even if he becomes a good player, he probably never would have never gotten the chance to flourish here and to get this kind of value for a guy buried on the organizational chart is an A+.

[TURBO]

2 minutes ago, brewcrewdue80 said:

Gotta be something along the lines of they wanted to send Contreras and Oakland didn't want a catcher but an OF.  Brewers had the OFs and needed the Catcher.  Maybe Oakland also wanted a RH CF/Utility vs one of our LH batting OFs.

Maybe, Pina is going to back up Langeliers, so I can't imagine that Pina had any value in that deal.  They must have REALLY wanted an outfielder bad, or wanted Ruiz bad to even involve us.

[bensheeps]

Unbelievable trade!  At least with it seeming so lopsided, all my proposed trades from now on will feel like they have a possibility. ?

 

Being serious...What's reasonable to expect from Contreras next year?  I see he caught 60 games last year and DH'ed in 34 others.  Can he almost double his workload at catcher and play 100 games behind the plate while DHing another 40-50?

[Outlander]

14 minutes ago, wibadgers23 said:

Why the Braves and A’s even invited the Brewers to the party, I have no idea. Did they just sneak in and nobody noticed?

Maybe the Brewers have discussed Murphy with the Athletics and Ruiz was in those discussion. A deal couldn't be worked out so asked the Braves to send something to Milwaukee to get Ruiz.

[TURBO]

This thought just creeped into my head.  With Contreras signed for another 5 years (until after the 2027 season), where does Quero now fit into the plan.  I'm high on this kid, and if he is ready to go in 2024, 2025 at the latest, what do we do about it?

[jonescm128]

Just now, TURBO said:

This thought just creeped into my head.  With Contreras signed for another 5 years (until after the 2027 season), where does Quero now fit into the plan.  I'm high on this kid, and he is ready to go in 2024, 2025 at the latest, what do we do about it?

I can guarantee you the organization has not thought about this at all. You just grabbed arguably the best young catcher in the game. 

[Brewcrew82]

3 minutes ago, TURBO said:

This thought just creeped into my head.  With Contreras signed for another 5 years (until after the 2027 season), where does Quero now fit into the plan.  I'm high on this kid, and he is ready to go in 2024, 2025 at the latest, what do we do about it?

You let him continue to develop in the lower minors and wait for him to force the issue a la the Blue Jays. A really good "problem" to have. 

[trwi7]

This is an incredible deal.  When it first came down and eventually Ruiz’s name got out my first thought was ok what else and nothing else ever came and I’m stunned.

[Robocaller]

20 minutes ago, JosephC said:

If it is just Ruiz, then it's not only a major miss by the Baseball Trade Values site, but also every "prospect reporter" that puts together organizational lists.  To make up what would figure to be nearly 40 million dollars in surplus value that the Brewers would receive in this deal, Ruiz would have to rank as a top 50 prospect on the top 100 lists.  I haven't seen him valued like that anywhere, not even a bottom end top 100, much less a top 50 ranked.

I don't think people understand what BTV is doing. It doesn't predict what a player might get traded for, it estimates what similar players have been traded for. Different teams obviously value different players differently. If you're a good trader (and Arnold seems to be a god among GMs right now), you identify teams that value your players more than you value them.
But if Ruiz is all we're giving up, Oakland is valuing Ruiz as high as Adames. Which is insane. BTW, BTV has increased the value of Woodruff, which many of you had been complaining about.

 

[Jopal78]

Just now, TURBO said:

Maybe, Pina is going to back up Langeliers, so I can't imagine that Pina had any value in that deal.  They must have REALLY wanted an outfielder bad, or wanted Ruiz bad to even involve us.

Well, Langeliers was the #9 overall pick three years ago, and has put up good minor league numbers, I don't think the A's wanted another starting caliber catcher. The Braves already had a log-jam with Pina, d'Arnaud and Contreras. 

Sometimes a team like the Brewers is in the right place at the right time, with a stack of MLB ready outfielders and a need at catcher. 

[trwi7]

3 minutes ago, TURBO said:

This thought just creeped into my head.  With Contreras signed for another 5 years (until after the 2027 season), where does Quero now fit into the plan.  I'm high on this kid, and if he is ready to go in 2024, 2025 at the latest, what do we do about it?

We trade one of them and hopefully get a buttload in return?