Brewers acquire Jake Bauers from NYY

[AZ Brewer]

4 hours ago, wallus said:

Looking at their other estimates, they are quite a bit below what other websites are predicting.

Correct. The Athletic article on FA predicts he will get 4 years, at between $90M and $100M. 

[tmwiese55]

3 hours ago, MrTPlush said:

How many teams need a first baseman? How many want to spend tens of millions on one with virtually zero track record? A lot of ways to spend money and teams usually have lots of holes to fill. 

A quick glance and I see few poor offensive teams that need 1B filled, some teams have albatross contracts at 1B, and a team like Cleveland is too cheap.

If no teams buys into him being a Top 5 1B, the money just ain’t going to be big.

I'd been thinking similarly here.  Many teams are well stocked at this position, especially the good teams.  I really doubt many are going to want to plan on much OF for him, especially beyond next year.  There might be a tighter market than people think on the surface.  But, every year in baseball we see that it only takes one team. 

[KCBrewerfan34]

AZ, Mets, Twins and Brewers would seem good landing spots, if somebody goes 4/90-100 the Brew will politely bow out for his services. 

[sveumrules]

36 minutes ago, AZ Brewer said:

Correct. The Athletic article on FA predicts he will get 4 years, at between $90M and $100M. 

Time will tell where the market plays out, but the Athletic estimates are by KLaw who I generally tend to take with a large grain of salt.

I know I wouldn’t be too excited if my favorite team gave 4/$90M to a 31 year old 1B with poor defensive metrics and one good year at the plate.

MLBTR isn’t out yet, but Bowden at 4/$56M for Bauers a lot closer to the FG estimates than the KLaw figures.

If Bauers gets and accepts a QO that’s a pretty good sign his agent didn’t think that kind of contract would be out there for him on the open market.

[torts]

I love Rake but I want my man to GET PAID.  He got his ring, now get your bank if he's willing to take less bank to stay I love it but I expect he's going to take max bank somewhere else (hopefully not in Chicago)

[Matt]

Bauers gets the QO. A little interesting. 

[markedman5]

 

[KCBrewerfan34]

11 minutes ago, Matt said:

Bauers gets the QO. A little interesting. 

I thought it would be a no brainer. If he accepts they probably let Vaughn go and look for a cheap platoon, Bauers can hit lefties. 

[long ball]

I hope he accepts the QO. I’m not all that interested in signing him to a 3 year deal or longer and he will be tough to replace internally. 
 

im not sure we have a platoon partner internally for Vaughn (Burke and Fischer probably are not opening day options and Adams is right handed). If Bauers returns, Vaughn is probably trade fodder. 
 

ty France could be a FA replacement option and he wouldn’t really need to be platooned. He’s also a better defender at first, but he’s not going to fake it in the outfield like Bauers can. 

[cragi]

if he signs, i would expect Vaughn to have some solid trade value. Unfortunately, Burke and Fischer are also both lefties, so not exactly a platoon possibility, especially with Yelich also being lefty.

[LouisEly]

7 hours ago, MrTPlush said:

How many teams need a first baseman? How many want to spend tens of millions on one with virtually zero track record?

Looking at B-R.com's positional rankings:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/team_compare.cgi?lg=MLB&year=2026

The Brewers were 6th in wins above average at 1B.  Plenty of teams can upgrade there.

And, for as bad as Yelich was, the Brewers were 22nd at DH.  Padres, Angels, Blue Jays, and Mets were worse.  Quite a few teams can improve on DH if they already have a 1B.  And he can play OF in a pinch.

Bauers had a .863 OPS vs RHP this past season, and a .901 OPS vs LHP.  It's really hard to find that balance; part of his value is that you don't have to platoon or PH for him.

I think 3/$50M is a good number, maybe up to 3/$60M because of his ability to play multiple positions and not need to platoon or PH.

 

[DonBarclay]

1 hour ago, long ball said:

I hope he accepts the QO. I’m not all that interested in signing him to a 3 year deal or longer and he will be tough to replace internally. 
 

im not sure we have a platoon partner internally for Vaughn (Burke and Fischer probably are not opening day options and Adams is right handed). If Bauers returns, Vaughn is probably trade fodder. 
 

ty France could be a FA replacement option and he wouldn’t really need to be platooned. He’s also a better defender at first, but he’s not going to fake it in the outfield like Bauers can. 

Stay with me here, but how about this for a wild (and unlikely) scenario. Bauers walks, bring back Vaughn, and Hamilton becomes his platoon partner with a Jesus Made extension and taking over 3B. Hamilton and Ortiz become the backup infielders with Made, Pratt, Turang, and Vaughn as the primary starters. 

[rickh150]

Just a way to get another draft pick…if Bauers accepts (I feel it is 50/50 ), Vaughn is gone. They will need a righty to spell him.

[DonBarclay]

11 minutes ago, rickh150 said:

Just a way to get another draft pick…if Bauers accepts (I feel it is 50/50 ), Vaughn is gone. They will need a righty to spell him.

I think Luke Adams is the righty backup if Bauers comes back. Primarily backup 1B, can play 3B in late game situations if needed due to pinch hitting. Not a high enough prospect where you feel like you need to get him consistent ABs. 

[Frisbee Slider]

Bauers told his agent last off-season he is only interested in playing for Milwaukee. I realize he has tens of millions of reasons to reconsider this off-season.

it is rare to possibly expect a player to accept less money, but Jake might fit that profile. He would be set for life no matter what choice he makes. It would be pretty difficult to leave additional $30 million on the table, though

 

[long ball]

2 hours ago, DonBarclay said:

Stay with me here, but how about this for a wild (and unlikely) scenario. Bauers walks, bring back Vaughn, and Hamilton becomes his platoon partner with a Jesus Made extension and taking over 3B. Hamilton and Ortiz become the backup infielders with Made, Pratt, Turang, and Vaughn as the primary starters. 

I was first going to scoff at Hamilton being too short for first base… but he’s the same height as Vaughn lol (not that Vaughn is a strong defender there)

I don’t think Hamilton is a good enough hitter to be any part of the succession plan at first base. 
 

creative thinking, but not reasonable. 

[DonBarclay]

10 hours ago, long ball said:

I was first going to scoff at Hamilton being too short for first base… but he’s the same height as Vaughn lol (not that Vaughn is a strong defender there)

I don’t think Hamilton is a good enough hitter to be any part of the succession plan at first base. 
 

creative thinking, but not reasonable. 

I thought the same thing, and looked it up before I posted it. 5’10” is pretty short for a first baseman. 

Agreed, it’s outlandish. But, not a long term suggestion. Really only works if Vaughn is actually an every day player and hits righties, with Hamilton being a once very two weeks guy to give him a day off. Based on his career low 700s OPS vs Righties; I doubt that Vaughn will suddenly be an 150 game starter. 

[TURBO]

20 hours ago, DonBarclay said:

Stay with me here, but how about this for a wild (and unlikely) scenario. Bauers walks, bring back Vaughn, and Hamilton becomes his platoon partner with a Jesus Made extension and taking over 3B. Hamilton and Ortiz become the backup infielders with Made, Pratt, Turang, and Vaughn as the primary starters. 

Not that wild at all...  Can Bunty play 1B though?

[DonBarclay]

27 minutes ago, TURBO said:

Not that wild at all...  Can Bunty play 1B though?

You’d have to assume he’d be at bare minimum and equal defender there than Vaughn/Bauers, and probably better just given his range.