Christian Yelich

[TURBO]

10 hours ago, nate82 said:

The Brewers have spent when it has made sense to spend.  They spent on Moustakas, Grandal, Cain and extended Yelich.  The Yelich extension plus the arbitration raises to Woodruff and Burnes being the main culprits in taking up most of the Brewers payroll.  The Brewers have stayed around 19th in the league in spending which is remarkable for the market that the Brewers are in. 

Ok, great.

So if they trade Yelich away to dump his contract, you are fine with the money they save in the process, doesn't go back into the team, but instead just goes in the bank?

[nate82]

4 hours ago, TURBO said:

Ok, great.

So if they trade Yelich away to dump his contract, you are fine with the money they save in the process, doesn't go back into the team, but instead just goes in the bank?

Depends are we talking the same year Yelich is traded?  Is this a pure salary dump where the Brewers don't pick up any other player with a high salary or take on any of Yelich's remaining contract?  If the Brewers are picking up someone like Castellanos, doesn't that mean the Brewers are putting money back into the team? 

If the money that was earmarked for Yelich in '27 and that just gets banked no I don't want them to do that and I don't believe the Brewers will do that.  You would have to go all the way back to 2016 where the Brewers actually had a significant decrease in payroll.  The 2015 payroll was $104mm and then in 2016 it dropped to $63mm for OD.  Then in 2018 the Brewers increased their OD payroll to $90mm.  The 2018 plan was not only to sign Cain but to also sign Darvish that year before they were outbid by the Cubs.  Their OD payroll would have been about $105mm that year if Darvish would have signed the contract the Brewers offered.

Will the Brewers drop their payroll after trading Yelich probably if they are not taking on another equally high contract.  But I don't think going down in payroll for a season or two is that big of a deal.  This team has shown they will spend when it is warranted. 

[brewcrewdue80]

Having non tendered Woodruff and Tellez, I don't see the need to trade Yelich at this time. Solid year last season. Still wondering how he's not being pushed towards 1b. Make room for Chourio along with Mitchell, Frelick, and Wiemer OF.  The FO has to be pursuing a trade of one of 3 not named Chourio keeping Yelich in the OF mix. The absolute need at 1b is real. 

[Playing Catch]

7 hours ago, brewcrewdue80 said:

Still wondering how he's not being pushed towards 1b.

I've long thought that this is how Yelich may end up. Case in point, Bryce Harper is now a 1Bman.

With this said, I wonder if the ol' "let's just stick the butcher at first," mentality has shifted in the minds of the analytically-inclined. That First Basemen have been found to have more defensive importance than historically considered. With shift limitations, this is theoretically true, and anecdotally true as well. When the trade deadline hit, I believe it was Arnold, himself, that said they wouldn't be acquiring anyone who was going to threaten their run prevention unit. Sure enough, that brought in Santana, who looked dynamic playing over there.

With the universal DH, I think the limited defensive First Basemen will slowly decline in number, and be solely the realm of the truly elite bats.

(Edit to add: This doesn't mean they won't TRY Yelich at first, to see how capable he may be)