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

[yfinn6]

13 minutes ago, TURBO said:

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

Count my as very happy the Brewers didn't (or weren't 'forced') to go this route. 

On paper, this trade is everything you'd want: trade from an area of strength for an area of need and getting two arms on top of the headlining player. 

[edfunderburk]

I’m all for this trade - trusting Brewers coaches to help develop this young catcher

The arms are a nice bonus 

I’d love to see Justin Turner as the final offensive piece - to play 3B & 1B with occasional AB’s as a DH

If Winker is healthy & Frelick gets an opportunity - I like this team more & more

[ClosetBrewerFan]

One word, Wow.

This is a really surprising trade and the fact Arnold got two additional pitchers back all for Ruiz is crazy.  I think Payamps may have some limited value.  He has some extreme reverse splits the last couple of years.  But he gave up a lot of hits and had fairly low K rate, Yeager looks really intriguing but needs to get some control.  But hard to complain we got both of them and Contreras for Ruiz!

[Seth Stohs]

Contreras clearly excited to be traded. Nah, I'm sure he just sad to be leaving a good thing in Atlanta with teammates and where he's been in his whole career. But he's got a good opportunity with the Brewers. 

I'm still in awe of this trade from the Brewers perspective. 

[bulldogboy0733]

Great deal for the crew. Nothing to complain about here. Find a 3b and we should be in the mix.

[brewmann04]

yes get a legit bat for third and add an arm or two the pen and i be ok with the crew moving forward

[brewcrewdue80]

1 hour ago, edfunderburk said:

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

That one, I was waiting for Milwaukee to send cash to Oakland as the reason to offset Contreras value to Ruiz and thinking that would be why Oak sent back a Meh RP.  But it didn't happen.  Pina is pretty good defensively, has been top 10 pop times to 2b 2018-2021 seasons(not enough playing time in 2022)

 

[Eye Black]

2 hours ago, CheeseheadInQC said:

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.

I agree that Ruiz’s industry evaluations are probably a bit all over the place. I think it’s fair to assume the Brewers were another team that valued him more highly than the median when they acquired him back in July. I do think there are certain teams that place a high value on having a speedy centerfielder with good range.

Here is A’s GM David Forst discussing Esteury Ruiz’s future in centerfielder: "I think he has the ability to play there every day in the big leagues between the speed and the range -- I think he has a chance to be really good there."

He also confirmed that he expects Ruiz to start the season with the major league club. 

[UpandIn]

What the hell?

They turned Ruiz into Contreras and two pitchers, one with a 100 MPH fastball and the other...well, screw it, who cares about the other. How did they get the Braves to not only trade Contreras, but trade him for THAT package?

This feels like a trade in which something isn't being reported. Like a PTBNL or the 33rd pick in the draft....

How did the Brewers insert themselves into this trade and walk away with a 24 year old AS catcher who...by the way, had a 1.000 OPS vs lefties last year?

[patrickgpe]

1 hour ago, Seth Stohs said:

Contreras clearly excited to be traded. Nah, I'm sure he just sad to be leaving a good thing in Atlanta with teammates and where he's been in his whole career. But he's got a good opportunity with the Brewers. 

I'm still in awe of this trade from the Brewers perspective. 

It’s not uncommon for players to be upset when traded. He was more public than normal. Let him meet his new teammates and see the city and he may lighten up. Also he may be excited about being in the same division as his brother. 

[Axman59]

I like the headline from Keith Law's article in The Athletic:  "Law: Oakland trades Sean Murphy to Atlanta, and the winners are … the Brewers?"

Subscription required* but here's the article:

https://theathletic.com/3995819/2022/12/12/trade-grade-athletics-braves-brewers/

 

*My subscription to The Athletic was $1 per month.  ?   I don't normally like subscription services but for $1 a month I can make an exception.

[rickh150]

5 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

Come on, it’s not like they traded for Mickey Mantle. There’s not a team out there that wouldn’t have the other Contreras brother’s production, so it’s definitely adding a promising player to a position of need but not some franchise altering trade 

All Star catcher. Five years of control. Position of great need. Traded from area of great strength. And two young pitchers for more depth in pen ta boot.
I have been negative on this team for 5 months and for good reason, but this take is absolutely ridiculous. Hip hip hooray…

 

 

[LouisEly]

3 hours ago, wallus said:

Earnest Spivey should have trademarked that.

Apparently no one else around here remembers that

[rickh150]

Good article… Contreras a bit of a whiffer to be kind. Defense still suspect, but CBS still gives Brewers A (Braves- A and Oakland-F)

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/sean-murphy-trade-braves-land-catcher-from-as-in-three-team-deal-brewers-get-william-contreras/

[wibadgers23]

Awesome trade for the Brewers and that lineup for Atlanta is going to be ridiculously deep. Glad we’re not in their division!

[Jopal78]

2 hours ago, Axman59 said:

I like the headline from Keith Law's article in The Athletic:  "Law: Oakland trades Sean Murphy to Atlanta, and the winners are … the Brewers?"

Subscription required* but here's the article:

https://theathletic.com/3995819/2022/12/12/trade-grade-athletics-braves-brewers/

 

*My subscription to The Athletic was $1 per month.  ?   I don't normally like subscription services but for $1 a month I can make an exception.

Law not very high on Ruiz. He wrote, Ruiz can run and make contact but his hard contact is lacking and Ruiz has not been one of his 100 prospects (nor were any of the prospects in this three way trade).

[zurch1818]

2 hours ago, Axman59 said:

I like the headline from Keith Law's article in The Athletic:  "Law: Oakland trades Sean Murphy to Atlanta, and the winners are … the Brewers?"

Subscription required* but here's the article:

https://theathletic.com/3995819/2022/12/12/trade-grade-athletics-braves-brewers/

 

*My subscription to The Athletic was $1 per month.  ?   I don't normally like subscription services but for $1 a month I can make an exception.

Or you can just use the Brave browser and block scripts (works on Android and Windows).  This also works remarkably well on the New York Times.

[Seth Stohs]

2 hours ago, patrickgpe said:

It’s not uncommon for players to be upset when traded. He was more public than normal. Let him meet his new teammates and see the city and he may lighten up. Also he may be excited about being in the same division as his brother. 

Yeah, I wouldn't take it negatively at all. 

[UpandIn]

6 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

Come on, it’s not like they traded for Mickey Mantle. There’s not a team out there that wouldn’t have the other Contreras brother’s production, so it’s definitely adding a promising player to a position of need but not some franchise altering trade 

???

"There's not a team out there that wouldn't have the other Contreras brother's production."

LOL...what does Wilson Contreras even have to do with this? It's like getting excited the Brewers got a young, 24 year old AS catcher and saying, "yeah, but that's not a team that wouldn't rather have Adley Rutschman." So what? 

Also, the "other Contreras" went for 5 years 87M and is 30 years old. The one we got...as part of the lesser of the two prospects in the Hader trade, he was...what's the word...uh...BETTER last year offensively.

https://stathead.com/baseball/player-comparison.cgi?player_id2=contrwi02&p1yrfrom=2022&type=b&player_id1=contrwi01&p2yrfrom=2022&sum=0&request=1

Oh, and he's also one of the top hitters vs LHPers in Baseball last year on a 100 Win team. 

So yeah, I think there are teams in baseball would rather have William Contreras production. I think every single one of them would rather have it than spending ~90M on a C who's 6 years older.

I'm also curious how you know it's not a franchise altering move? Don't we generally know AFTER the fact?

 

11 pages. Universal agreement...almost. But you kinda let the cat outta the bag a few weeks back when you basically said you're just a contrarian because it's entertaining. 

[Redd Vencher]

This is a pretty weird way to word the A's interest in Ruiz by Rosenthal. Were they just telling every club inquiring on Murphy they wanted Ruiz, or were the Brewers talking to the A's about a Murphy trade themselves?

[UpandIn]

1 hour ago, rickh150 said:

Good article… Contreras a bit of a whiffer to be kind. Defense still suspect, but CBS still gives Brewers A (Braves- A and Oakland-F)

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/sean-murphy-trade-braves-land-catcher-from-as-in-three-team-deal-brewers-get-william-contreras/

And Arnold talked about the money saved and retaining some flexibility. I like that we've added a lot of pitchers with big fastballs who COULD maybe develop into high leverage relievers, we added a Catcher who hits LHPing about as well as anyone. 

We've got lefties with speed who get on base in Frelick(yes, I'm counting him), Yelich, Mitchell...maybe...if he can cut the Ks way down.

Adames has historically walked at a higher rate. Lefties will benefit more from the shift rules. Tellez is a guy who specifically should(as well as Yelich). 

I don't want to keep kicking this dead horse, so I'll just say a Renfroe LIKE bat and a little good luck and this lineup could look exceptional. And all it could take next year is Wiemer having one of those giant rookie years similar to Hiura or maybe a Haniger signs to play RF if times goes on and he's still affordable. 

LPH
CF-Frelick
C-Contreras
LF-Yelich
RF-Haniger
DH-Winker
SS-Adames
1B-Tellez
3B-Brosseau
2B-Urias

RHP-
CF-Frelick
SS-Adames
LF-Yelich
DH-Winker
1B-Tellez
RF-Mitchell
C-Narvaez
2B-Turang
3B-Urias

It's a stretch, but MAYBE teams are skeptical of Haniger's health and he wants to try and rebuild his value for a year. I think it's possible he could spend a year trying to rebuild his value. And it's unlikely Narvaez comes back, but for a couple million, I'd roll the dice on Omar and if Haniger is on the market long enough to supress his value. Otherwise...I'd just try and find a stopgap RHed OFer. They're generally not that hard to come by.

If Winker can get back to his pre '22 form, Adames to his '21 production, the shift helps LHed hitters, particularly those with speed...this could be a very good offense. 

Still a little work to do, but that Contreras trade sure as hell changes the outlook. A big time bat vs lefties and for cheap...it likely puts other things on the table that otherwise weren't. Especially since we didn't have to go and spend for a guy like Vazquez. 

 

[Redd Vencher]

Haniger signed with the Giants for 3 years $43 M already @UpandIn.

[sveumrules]

29 minutes ago, Redd Vencher said:

This is a pretty weird way to word the A's interest in Ruiz by Rosenthal. Were they just telling every club inquiring on Murphy they wanted Ruiz, or were the Brewers talking to the A's about a Murphy trade themselves?

My best guess would be we didn’t have (or weren’t willing to part with) the kind of pitching OAK wanted back for Murphy, while ATL had the pitching but not Esteury, so the A’s probably said something like “figure out amongst yourselves how to put Ruiz together with the ATL pitchers & we’ll send Murphy to whoever does that.”

[Robocaller]

8 hours ago, patrickgpe said:

Best post 

Second Best Post!

[Robocaller]

2 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

Law not very high on Ruiz. He wrote, Ruiz can run and make contact but his hard contact is lacking and Ruiz has not been one of his 100 prospects (nor were any of the prospects in this three way trade).

If you're an idiot and don't consider context, like Law, and base your decisions on batted ball stats, you'll always undervalue Ruiz, whose batted ball stats are skewed because he bunts regularly.