Brewers sign Jakob Junis

[MVP2110]

33 minutes ago, ClosetBrewerFan said:

Yes, but for $2M more.  Not sure why they just didn't keep Houser.  Was it because too many fans couldn't spell his name correctly?

Well they were able to flip Houser for a pitching prospect they liked while replacing him with a similar quality pitcher

[wallus]

This is a good value signing. I am guessing this offer has been on the table for a while.

One thing to note is that SF's defense was bad so our hopefully good defense should help him more.

No issue with adding him to the #3-6 group.

[wallus]

38 minutes ago, ClosetBrewerFan said:

Was it because too many fans couldn't spell his name correctly?

They haven't traded Joey Wiemer and half of this site can't spell his name correctly so no.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, sveumrules said:

Right, but for all those extra starts, Houser only threw 16 additional IP.

Which is my point; Junis may have some real value as a multi-inning reliever swingman. As a 5th starter he’d likely be below average guy you hope makes it through 4-5 innings. With Gasser, Hall, Ashby, and the other younger arms they have, it seems in the long run they’d be better off seasoning those guys than having Junis soak up 4 innings every 5th day.

[kestrel79]

I like it. Good depth signing. Like others have said I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of guys starting this year for us, see what works and what doesn't. Limit their innings. It worked pretty good for us last year when Woody was out. 

[nate82]

Feels like a Chacin signing with the slider and sinker combo.  Though I think Chacin was slider and fastball but I could be remembering incorrectly about that.  

[Fear The Chorizo]

Junis is an ideal arm to plug into this staff at a very team-friendly cost - solid option for a long reliever but could easily fill a bottom of the rotation spot coupled with one of the lefties (Hall/Gasser/Ashby) as sort of a piggy back role to give hitters dramatically different looks between the 1st and 2nd time through the order.

[Thurston Fluff]

This fits with a team that may be planning on short starts a lot this season. We have a lot of pitchers who can bridge the 4th-7th inning gap and do it well.

[Playing Catch]

This was a good signing, in my opinion. He's been pretty consistently league-average. Pretty healthy. Can count on him for 80-120 IPs. No long-term risk. No prospect capital used.

I think I would still prefer a more studly option that could come back from a trade, but if those trades aren't out there, I'd rather do this than go multiple years on the better FAs.

[AJOHNSON104]

He did a nice job in the middle innings last year, but I wonder if they will also explore stretching Bryse Wilson back out into a starter role. Wilson, Ashby, and Junis appear to all be good fits for the multi-inning reliever job but could be starters. Maybe they find a way to rotate these guys through roles to limit innings.  

[liveforoctober]

The collection of starters we have leads me to believe it so, but are we assuming Pat Murphy is going to follow Counsell's MO of not letting starters face a lineup a 3rd time?

Seems like we have a bunch of arms that are 3-4 inning types. Seems like a lot of piggy-backing is on our horizon..

[wallus]

1 hour ago, liveforoctober said:

The collection of starters we have leads me to believe it so, but are we assuming Pat Murphy is going to follow Counsell's MO of not letting starters face a lineup a 3rd time?

Seems like we have a bunch of arms that are 3-4 inning types. Seems like a lot of piggy-backing is on our horizon..

I am assuming those kind of decisions are dictacted by the front office. 

[KeithStone53151]

For me, this seems like a fine move for a bigger market team to make. For years we've been able to pull guys off the scrap heap and get similar production to what Junis offers. We can't be paying $7 million for a guy to be our 4th or 5th best reliever. I know Junis used to start, you can maybe consider him a multi-inning guy, I just don't see much surplus value here. Seems like at best we are paying market rate and this team can't afford to pay market rate very often and be successful.

[Thurston Fluff]

19 minutes ago, KeithStone53151 said:

For me, this seems like a fine move for a bigger market team to make. For years we've been able to pull guys off the scrap heap and get similar production to what Junis offers. We can't be paying $7 million for a guy to be our 4th or 5th best reliever. I know Junis used to start, you can maybe consider him a multi-inning guy, I just don't see much surplus value here. Seems like at best we are paying market rate and this team can't afford to pay market rate very often and be successful.

Every free agent signing is by definition market rate.

[tmwiese55]

Yea he seems perfectly fine depth guy, and with our pitching programs it wouldn't surprise me if he has his best year.  I was also surprised he commanded 7 mil though.   But hey, if you got the same guy for 3 mil you're being cheap, now you're not which is what matters to some. 

[brewers888]

This team feels completely caught in the middle without a true direction. This is a one year deal so nothing too concerning but this starting staff feels like a bunch of 4s and 5s other than Peralta. Its great to have depth but you really need a few guys to pitch a lot of innings and I just don't see it. 

[Thurston Fluff]

10 minutes ago, brewers888 said:

This team feels completely caught in the middle without a true direction. This is a one year deal so nothing too concerning but this starting staff feels like a bunch of 4s and 5s other than Peralta. Its great to have depth but you really need a few guys to pitch a lot of innings and I just don't see it. 

Why?

[Brewcrew82]

14 minutes ago, brewers888 said:

This team feels completely caught in the middle without a true direction. This is a one year deal so nothing too concerning but this starting staff feels like a bunch of 4s and 5s other than Peralta. Its great to have depth but you really need a few guys to pitch a lot of innings and I just don't see it. 

Their direction was pretty clearly broadcast with the Burnes trade, and the signing of Chourio to a 10 year extension. They want to be competitive now, which is why they signed Hoskins, but they're most focused on opening up a World Series window with Chourio and co. 

[SF70]

7 minutes ago, brewers888 said:

This team feels completely caught in the middle without a true direction. This is a one year deal so nothing too concerning but this starting staff feels like a bunch of 4s and 5s other than Peralta. It’s great to have depth but you really need a few guys to pitch a lot of innings and I just don't see it. 

They definitely have a direction and it’s up. 
 

They have tremendous depth with so many options, imo, they can upgrade weaknesses internally on the fly up to the deadline and will have the financial-flexibility to add any payroll they want to, to improve the team further. This years team can win the Central, and this will very likely be their worst team maybe thru the rest of this decade.

Top 2 farm system, with a nice young core. Extra picks with ~$13M in pool money for this years draft, and if we QO Adames & Hoskins (and he opts out) 4 top 40 picks with ~$16M in pool money for the ‘25 draft. They have never had anything close to this type of ammo for Johnson & co., but yet they still have produced good to great drafts the last 4 years (reflected in the farm strength).

Hopefully a future Quero extension will give us ~10 years of Chourio-Quero with that nice core and monster farm for at least 2-3 years past 2025, if not longer with this teams prospect-procurement systems.

They have a direction and have had a direction since day 1 under this teams FO. Just sit back and continue to enjoy the ride.
 

 

 

[HarveysWBs]

1 hour ago, Thurston Fluff said:

Every free agent signing is by definition market rate.

Question: how do you define an above- or below-market free agent deal?

[Thurston Fluff]

7 minutes ago, HarveysWBs said:

Question: how do you define an above- or below-market free agent deal?

I don't. It's like asking is the price of strawberries is above or below the market for strawberries.

[HarveysWBs]

22 minutes ago, Thurston Fluff said:

I don't. It's like asking is the price of strawberries is above or below the market for strawberries.

I swear I’ve had this argument before (and it may have been with you, idk, I can’t find the old post and I feel like I’m in the twilight zone already), but your definition of “market” just hurts my brain. When I say or hear “market,” I don’t mean or think two parties deciding what it will take to get a deal done. That is a transaction.

A market involves multiple transactions, which indicates current trends, and thus allows for the possibility of overpaying or underpaying. For example, relievers A, B, C, and D are free agents, all with roughly comparable ages, experience levels, stats, and projections. A and B sign deals averaging $5 million per year. Richie Rich the GM decides to ink reliever C at $50 mil per. That is an overpay.

Now, on the one hand, if you want to be bleedingly literal about it, yes, that was the rate settled on for reliever C at that particular moment. But that description is of limited analytical utility and you have buried the lede. The important thing is that reliever C got the deal of a lifetime and that Richie Rich should be out of a job. Using your definition of “market rate” obscures that point. Outliers exist, and we should be able to account for them.

[nate82]

2 hours ago, Thurston Fluff said:

Every free agent signing is by definition market rate.

This is only true if you are looking at the market of a single player.  If you are looking at the market for a group of players then no this is not correct.  

[RobertCrawley]

2 hours ago, Thurston Fluff said:

Every free agent signing is by definition market rate.

Word.

(Do people say that anymore?)

 

“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

[ClosetBrewerFan]

10 hours ago, StearnsFTW said:

Actually $1M less for this year.   Which may or may not matter.

I was going off of COTs which has Houser at $5.05M.  7-5 = 2 last time I checked.  If you have better info, please provide source.

I also realize the Brewers got Crow in the trade (and gave up Taylor) but that always felt like a salary dump to me.  Hard to believe the brewers went out of their way to trade for a guy now that is projected to be injured for most of this year.  That's why i question this signing.  I have nothing against Junis, he'll be a fine #4/5.  But they could have just kept the cheaper Houser.