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

[michael1960]

2 hours ago, DR28 said:

My god I love our offense now!!!!

Yelich

Adames

Winker

Contreras

Tellez

Urias

Mitchell

Taylor

Turang

After watching the Crew's painfully anemic offense down the stretch, I'm so ready for some hitting this season.

[igor67]

9 pages and not a single even mild pushback on the trade. That has to be a record for any fan site. But from every Brewer angle this is just a no-brainer. Get better in the short term at both a position of need and from the side of the plate we needed. Trade a player with relatively little value to us even though he has value. We stay quite young. The prospect traded does have some question marks. So I can see why everyone likes, I just never thought I'd see a thread were it happened. And I forgot the throw-in pitching arms who really aren't throw-ins.

[Matt]

Law:

Quote

 

Milwaukee makes out extremely well by inserting themselves into this trade, nabbing catcher William Contreras, who’s about to turn 25 and just hit .278/.354/.506 in 97 games, by sending Piña and Ruiz to Oakland. Contreras isn’t the defensive catcher Murphy is, but he’s a better hitter, with just as much power, a better hit tool and a better eye. He strikes out more than Murphy does, although he’s three years younger and should bring his K rate (which was over 27 percent last year) down going forward. But I’m not entirely sure I’d rather have Murphy than Contreras in a vacuum, and I think it’s easier to argue for Contreras in reality given his youth and additional two years of control. Murphy gets about a win of extra value over Contreras from his framing, although we know framing can improve with coaching, and there’s always the chance that will go away if and when MLB goes to some sort of automated strike zone.

The Brewers also get right-hander Joel Payamps, an intriguing middle reliever due to his high-spin four-seamer and big-breaking slider, from Oakland; and sleeper relief prospect Justin Yeager, who is in the mid-90s with an above-average slider, from Atlanta. Yeager was a 33rd-round pick out of Southern Illinois in 2019, and reached Double A this year, with a few too many walks but a lot of swing-and-miss, as well as weak contact. Hitters whiffed just over a third of the time they swung at his slider, and just under a third of the time at the fastball, which can touch 100 mph and looks like it gets on hitters very quickly. It’s a bit odd to say the team that did the best in the three-team deal neither traded nor received the best individual guy, but I think the Brewers might just have done so.

 

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Matt

[MrTPlush]

 

[patrickgpe]

1 hour ago, Robocaller said:

What is astounding to me is that Matt Arnold had the balls to say, "You know, you guys need to sweeten the deal a little bit for me. Contreras isn't enough."

Best post 

[patrickgpe]

This does make the hader trade look better. Obviously Ruiz is Thought of higher by some GM’s (or atleast 1) than a lot of people here. 

[MrTPlush]

28 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

From the Braves  perspective ……..is 3 years of Sean Murphy really that much  more valuable then 5 years of Contreras?

 

I guess I just don’t see why they felt they needed to upgrade a position that was already strong.

As we all fall in love with his offense, his K-rate is pretty concerning. He has to get that down or his offense is not going to look like 2022. He never really had K issues in the minors…so hopefully it will correct itself.

Also, his defense is lacking. Omar Narváez had great offense when we acquired him, but teams weren’t exactly lining up to give up a ton of value for him. As we can see from this trade, teams (Braves) value defense a lot at the catching position. Of course, maybe we can help him improve like we did Omar…but the defense is a huge knock.

Lastly, Contreras has a pretty short track record. 350 good plate appearances isn’t a lot (Hi Hiura).

I still don’t really like this trade for the Braves (really don’t for the A’s) and don’t understand it. But there are reasons we didn’t need to package 3 top ten prospects to get him. We may have just acquired a Top 10 catcher in MLB for half a decade, time will tell. I am optimistic.

[markedman5]

Baseball America did a podcast……..add them to the list of people that can’t believe the Brewers were able to pull this off. 
 

Have not seen anyone yet that doesn’t love this from a Brewers perspective.

[markedman5]

 

[Jopal78]

40 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

From the Braves  perspective ……..is 3 years of Sean Murphy really that much  more valuable then 5 years of Contreras?

 

I guess I just don’t see why they felt they needed to upgrade a position that was already strong.

Murphy might be the best catcher outside of Realmuto; he can hit and play defense and the Braves won a pennant 14 months ago. 
 

While Contreras had a big year and they have d’Arnaud this move was adding a premier player and clearing the logjam they had at catcher 

[LouisEly]

34 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

 

He's devastated

[titletownking]

I’m over the moon with this trade. Looking at Narvaez’s defense before he came here and Contreras, they’re not much different and William’s bat is superior and controlled. Love it. Also really like the arms. A+

[wallus]

6 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

He's devastated

Earnest Spivey should have trademarked that.

[CheeseheadInQC]

Don’t get me wrong, I really like this trade, but I think the surprising nature of the trade is down to a couple of things:

1. Contreras didn’t have the value that you would expect given the stats and control. The Braves never really seemed sold on him as their catcher of the future.

2. Excepting Misiorowski, Ruiz probably would have the largest range in evaluation of any of the Brewers’ top prospects (or in his case former top prospects). I wouldn’t be surprised if the median was around where he is generally ranked, but there are aspects there, especially after last season, that a team could fall in love with.

[edfunderburk]

2 hours ago, wallus said:

RIP to me using Ruiz as a throw in for trade ideas. 

Almost makes me think there is something wrong with Contreras?

Even if he stinks, you can't get mad at this trade because it was too good to pass up on.

Surely hope we don’t have a Severino type surprise coming …

[BrewForLife]

3 hours ago, DR28 said:

My god I love our offense now!!!!

Yelich

Adames

Winker

Contreras

Tellez

Urias

Mitchell

Taylor

Turang

Yes that lineup in April, and this after Frelick's service time clears: Mitchell to RF, Sal to CF, and Taylor to 4th OF.

[umphrey]

I was excited to see what Ruiz could do but this trade was 100% necessary the moment it became available

[wallus]

Old Starting Catcher OPS (2022): .597

Old Starting DH OPS (2022): .700

New Starting Catcher OPS (2022): .860

New Starting DH OPS: .688

So far so good overall and we got a lot younger. I am looking forward to better defense from our rookies. Hopefully between Mitchell, Frelick, Weimer, Taylor and Turang we can get some production.

[adambr2]

It's no surprise he's heartbroken. He's spent his entire young career in Atlanta and it's a major life event for him to have his life and career suddenly upended. And yes, Milwaukee is widely seen as a less attractive destination than Atlanta. 

Like most players traded to Milwaukee, he'll get over it. 

[Austin Tatious]

I think Ruiz is a valuable piece because of his electric speed in a changing game.  Having said that, this looks like a great deal to pick up the younger Contreras at a position of need where there is a shortage of options.  

I think we benefitted from the three team nature of this.  That dynamic allowed us to pull this off.  I don’t think anyone here would have thought it realistic to pull off Ruiz for Contreras straight up, let alone acquire a couple of middling relievers.  Unless Ruiz becomes Lou Brock this looks great.  
 

[TURBO]

Looks like the Twins are getting Vazquez, 3 years - 30 million.

[LouisEly]

The J.J. Hardy trade tree grows another branch.  Yet another reason why you don't let assets expire.

[edfunderburk]

2 hours ago, owbc said:

Exactly. The A's are cheap. They are trying to have the lowest possible payroll while stockpiling prospects for the impending move to Vegas.

Why would the “cheap” A’s take on Pina’s $4M salary for 2023?

[liveforoctober]

37 minutes ago, BrewForLife said:

Yes that lineup in April, and this after Frelick's service time clears: Mitchell to RF, Sal to CF, and Taylor to 4th OF.

Except the lineup additions of Winker and Contreras really did nothing to our payroll so we should, assumably, still have a move or two ahead of us for our starting lineup before the season starts. I actually really like the current lineup as presented as well - but I think and hope another improvement awaits.

[Brewcrew82]

6 minutes ago, edfunderburk said:

Why would the “cheap” A’s take on Pina’s $4M salary for 2023?

Probably because they still want a veteran to backup/mentor Shea Langeliers, the headliner of the Matt Olson trade last year.