Brewers acquire Jake Bauers from NYY

[Matt Breen]

This is such a 'Brewers' type move. 

And I don't necessarily mean that in a good way.

[MVP2110]

I do wonder if they are planning on Tyler Black playing 1b this year and Bauers either starts the year at 1b to save service time and/or just general depth to Black this year. I do agree this shows they were definitely low on Avina.

[nate82]

Not sure why people get so worked up about these trades. 

[JefferyLeonard]

Anything they can do to slash salary in some way, they will. Typical Mark A. Make a real trade for once, for a guy(s) making real money. I know, oh the horror! Can't do that, can we? 

Guys like this have NO business being on a major league roster of a real baseball team that actually spends some(any) money. 

[endaround]

Just now, nate82 said:

Not sure why people get so worked up about these trades. 

Because giving up value for free makes little sense? Bauers is 28 and likely would have been available for for a NRI at 40 man salary.

[Ro Mueller]

11 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Yeah, would be awesome if those 97 PAs with the Yankees AAA affiliate where he hit 359/485/897 (227 wRC+) with more walks than strikeouts was indicative of some kind of change in approach/swing/true talent level, but this seems like kind of a steep price to pay to try and find out,

I noted the intriguing 2023 AAA numbers as well, but just had a look. Shoot. That was at the start of the season, before the MLB time.

He ended 2023 with 100 MLB PAs in Aug/Sep: 8 BB / 41 Ks - .154 AVG / .220 OBP / .275 SLG. Oh man...

[trwi7]

2 minutes ago, nate82 said:

Not sure why people get so worked up about these trades. 

We gave up a decent prospect to pay a guy a few million to be below replacement level to save a couple million from our other replacement level player at the same position.  But yeah, why care about stupid, cheap things your team does?

[sveumrules]

1 minute ago, JefferyLeonard said:

Anything they can do to slash salary in some way, they will. Typical Mark A. Make a real trade for once, for a guy(s) making real money. I know, oh the horror! Can't do that, can we? 

They traded for Jesse Winker and his $8.25M salary last year. In 2022 they traded for Hunter Renfroe and his $7.65M salary.

The 2022 and 2023 year end payrolls were the highest in team history, literally impossible to accomplish while slashing salary.

[JefferyLeonard]

2 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

They traded for Jesse Winker and his $8.25M salary last year. In 2022 they traded for Hunter Renfroe and his $7.65M salary.

The 2022 and 2023 year end payrolls were the highest in team history, literally impossible to accomplish while slashing salary.

LMAO at you defending the club once again and actually thinking an $8.25 million and $7.65 million salaries are "large". 

[HarryDoyle]

World Series, here we come!

[Fear The Chorizo]

1 minute ago, sveumrules said:

They traded for Jesse Winker and his $8.25M salary last year. In 2022 they traded for Hunter Renfroe and his $7.65M salary.

The 2022 and 2023 year end payrolls were the highest in team history, literally impossible to accomplish while slashing salary.

I'd rather they do a trade like this for Bauer than a trade like they did for Winker again and handcuff options for adding a starting pitcher via free agency, or a legitimate DH.

Basically shuffle some deck chairs around at 1B and wind up with that position costing slightly less for now...although I assume this also means 37 yr old Santana isn't in the mix to resign, either.

Not a huge fan of the trade, because Avina is still plenty young enough to take a jump in his development and could become a more valuable prospect a season or two from now even if the Brewers viewed him as heavily blocked in the MLB outfield longterm...but then again this is a very similar trade to the ones happening all over baseball this week.  Once the dust settles on the tenders/nontenders and 40 man shuffling around MLB, then more significant trades and free agent signings start happening.

[sveumrules]

3 minutes ago, JefferyLeonard said:

LMAO at you defending the club once again and actually thinking an $8.25 million and $7.65 million salaries are "large". 

I'm not defending the club at all, I literally said we paid a steep price to acquire Bauers in an earlier post.

I'm simply pointing out that is objectively impossible to run club record payrolls two years in a row while doing anything they can to slash salary and that they have traded for players making real money.

Who are some players with a sufficiently large salary that you would like to see them trade for?

[markedman5]

19 minutes ago, nate82 said:

Not sure why people get so worked up about these trades. 

If history is any guide……the more BF hates it……the better the trade will be! 😉

[CheeseheadInQC]

4 minutes ago, JefferyLeonard said:

LMAO at you defending the club once again and actually thinking an $8.25 million and $7.65 million salaries are "large". 

I don’t like this trade, but griping about payroll with every minor move doesn’t make sense. We have no idea about what the resource allocation is going to be at this point in the offseason.

[wallus]

I don't really get this one but there will be LOTS more small moves like this so no reason to freak out over every little move.

[brewers888]

Why does this team seem obsessed with filling first base with scrub after scrub.

[bigred]

50 minutes ago, TURBO said:

God, so we just have to have another guy like Rowdy on the roster, but we can't afford Rowdy, so we go out and get another Rowdy for cheaper?  Talk about setting the bar low, REALLY low.

They must really think Avina is pretty much worthless and is never going to amount to anything.......ever.

Bauers is probably as shocked as anyone.

Again, gross.

Or maybe the Yankees think highly of Avina, or 1 their hitting coaches/scouts see something with him they really like? 🤷‍♂️

[brewcrewdue80]

2 lotto tickets for a super 2nd chance drawing.  Terrible trade.

[Rock hard Brouhard]

Makes me wonder if they have a trade for Tyrone Taylor they are looking at. Not that I care for this move but seems odd that they traded for a backup OF/1B. 

[trwi7]

44 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

They traded for Jesse Winker and his $8.25M salary last year. In 2022 they traded for Hunter Renfroe and his $7.65M salary.

The 2022 and 2023 year end payrolls were the highest in team history, literally impossible to accomplish while slashing salary.

Winker and Toro's salaries offset the salary they traded.  We traded Renfroe a year later and didn't replace him when he got more expensive.

 

[sveumrules]

Just now, trwi7 said:

Winker and Toro's salaries offset the salary they traded.  We traded Renfroe a year later and didn't replace him when he got more expensive.

Right, but they still traded for players making real money. They could have traded Wong for a package with no MLB salary commitments in return.

Spotrac had the Brewers 2023 year end total salary higher than 2022. They didn't replace Renfroe directly (because they had a bunch of cheap rookie OF to try out), but they did end up reallocating his money elsewhere over the course of the season.

[MVP2110]

What's funny about the Wong/Winker trade too is that if Jared Carrabis(however you spell it) is to be believed Boston was interested in Wong but was only offering prospects and Mark A insisted on getting a win now piece back

[Brewcrew82]

56 minutes ago, JefferyLeonard said:

LMAO at you defending the club once again and actually thinking an $8.25 million and $7.65 million salaries are "large". 

I mean we are literally the smallest market in baseball and we consistently spend way above that level. Not sure what else you expect. 

[Brewcrew82]

32 minutes ago, trwi7 said:

Winker and Toro's salaries offset the salary they traded.  We traded Renfroe a year later and didn't replace him when he got more expensive.

 

Huh? They traded Renfroe because they had a cheaper option in Tyrone Taylor and the youngsters who ended up providing greater value. Didn't need to "replace him". It was just the prudent baseball move.

[JefferyLeonard]

49 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

I'm not defending the club at all, I literally said we paid a steep price to acquire Bauers in an earlier post.

I'm simply pointing out that is objectively impossible to run club record payrolls two years in a row while doing anything they can to slash salary and that they have traded for players making real money.

Who are some players with a sufficiently large salary that you would like to see them trade for?

You do realize just because they have "team record payrolls", doesn't give them a pass. In other words, a team record payroll still doesn't make it "large". It can be still be bigger.