Should The Brewers Trade Willy Adames For Pitching?

[Brock Beauchamp]

Don't shoot the messenger. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic wrote today that the Brewers should consider trading Willy Adames for starting pitching help. While the mere mention of this is likely to bring back Josh Hader nightmares to many Brewers fans, what he argues makes some sense on a baseball level.

With the promotion and start of Carlos F Rodriguez the other night, the Brewers have used 12 starting pitchers and we're not particularly close to the midpoint of the 2024 season. Adames, a clubhouse and fan favorite, is set to become a free agent after the season and the Brewers have capable middle infielders already rostered in Joey Ortiz and Brice Turang.

Sure to be a controversial move, it would be dealing from a team strength to fill a team weakness. With Adames due a Qualifying Offer after the season and the relative strength of the Brewers farm system, I'd prefer to deal from the farm to acquire pitching but the idea of moving on from Adames isn't ridiculous, either.

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[Fear The Chorizo]

At this point, I think the best value the Brewers can get from Adames is to let him continue making his case for a longterm FA contract as a Brewer during the rest of his contract year this season, hope he stays healthy and performs well enough for him to turn down the QO made by the Brewers this offseason, and then recoup the comp pick when he signs elsewhere while handing the everyday SS reins over to Turang or Ortiz to open the 2025 season.

So, in short, no thanks to trading away the last 2-3 months of your starting shortstop for what would likely amount to a pitching prospect who isn't yet ready to pitch at the MLB level when your current division lead is over 5 games.

[Team Canada]

I think this would easily be more legitimately devastating to the clubhouse than Hader supposedly was (and probably wasn't). It would also lead to a casual fan revolt too. The only scenario it's palatable is a legit stud pitcher who helps right now.

[jay87shot]

26 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

At this point, I think the best value the Brewers can get from Adames is to let him continue making his case for a longterm FA contract as a Brewer during the rest of his contract year this season, hope he stays healthy and performs well enough for him to turn down the QO made by the Brewers this offseason, and then recoup the comp pick when he signs elsewhere while handing the everyday SS reins over to Turang or Ortiz to open the 2025 season.

So, in short, no thanks to trading away the last 2-3 months of your starting shortstop for what would likely amount to a pitching prospect who isn't yet ready to pitch at the MLB level when your current division lead is over 5 games.

I agree, I seriously doubt we could get a solid starter any way. Anyone who would want Willy would be contending and isn't giving up a quality starter. On top of that, then we would have a hole at 2B or 3B that would need to be filled. Keeping Willy is going to be the easiest and safest plan, especially since he will likely decline an option and make 50 million at this point.

We have more than enough minor league depth to add a pitcher or two and still have a solid minor league organization.

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 hour ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

At this point, I think the best value the Brewers can get from Adames is to let him continue making his case for a longterm FA contract as a Brewer during the rest of his contract year this season, hope he stays healthy and performs well enough for him to turn down the QO made by the Brewers this offseason, and then recoup the comp pick when he signs elsewhere while handing the everyday SS reins over to Turang or Ortiz to open the 2025 season.

So, in short, no thanks to trading away the last 2-3 months of your starting shortstop for what would likely amount to a pitching prospect who isn't yet ready to pitch at the MLB level when your current division lead is over 5 games.

This is my take as well. Any Adames trade has to take into account that the Brewers will receive a 35-ish pick next draft when he leaves.

It's hard to envision trading him becoming a good idea when the return has to compensate for losing that draft pick and the 2-2.5 months of Adames' performance this season.

[rickh150]

For one…no trade because of the Hader trade aftermath. So no.
For two, this wouldn’t be a move to help the team this season either. I think players and fans expect one or two good starting pitchers to be added in the next month and a half, not us dealing our starting SS for more prospects.

And for the third strike, we are loaded with prospects already and we should be feeling a Rule 5 and 40 man crush this offseason already.
 

[Matt]

They should trade him if they get a great offer. I just doubt a great offer exists. 

[shanedog19]

If he can be part of a package that brings us a legitimate SP, then I say yes.

[Scooterfletcher]

If we can get Bobby Miller in a deal with the dodgers (for next year) I’m tempted to deal Adames to lA

[Jim French Stepstool]

10 hours ago, jay87shot said:

I agree, I seriously doubt we could get a solid starter any way. Anyone who would want Willy would be contending and isn't giving up a quality starter. 

Exactly. 

I swear, sometimes I think national types like Ken Rosenthal see how much fun it is to follow Adames, his antics, his enthusiasm & get all jump-out-of-their-pants excited about the idea of him playing in LA or in the AL East, then try to justify it to themselves.

[gregmag]

I was a huge fan of the Hader trade. If the players were really so devastated to lose a one-inning pitcher in the middle of the worst stretch of his career, then they lacked the mental steel to win anything. I suspect the “clubhouse devastation” narrative was wildly overstated by poorly informed fans and online loudmouths who missed or ignored both Hader’s cratering and all the other ways the Brewers blew that season.

But no way would I trade Willy now. He’s far more important to this team than Hader was to that one. He would leave a big hole in the lineup (though not at ss). He’s a leader whom everyone loves. The persistent overrating of closers and Willy’s expiring contract means the Brewers couldn’t make out like they did in the Hader trade.

This is just Rosenthal not knowing or caring about what’s good for the Brewers.

[Outlander]

Not for the type of pitching they would get for Adames at this point.

[Brian]

Just a reminder we will be getting a lot of players back around/after the All Star Break, July 16th. 

Joe Ross, Jacob Junis,, DL Hall, Devin Williams, Garrett Mitchell, JB Bukauskas, 

[Bulldogboy]

The question for me is who is going to offer something good for 2 months of him? Can't see it. Just let him finish up here and hope he plays great. It probably should have been done when Burnes was done.

[bigred]

On 6/12/2024 at 11:22 PM, Jim French Stepstool said:

Exactly. 

I swear, sometimes I think national types like Ken Rosenthal see how much fun it is to follow Adames, his antics, his enthusiasm & get all jump-out-of-their-pants excited about the idea of him playing in LA or in the AL East, then try to justify it to themselves.

You're intuition is most likely, spot on. 

[bigred]

On 6/13/2024 at 8:24 AM, Bulldogboy said:

The question for me is who is going to offer something good for 2 months of him? Can't see it. Just let him finish up here and hope he plays great. It probably should have been done when Burnes was done.

I would imagine teams would already have plans/hopes of signing him to an extension, before a trade was agreed to. 

[TURBO]

The time to do that was BEFORE the season started, not now or any other time this season.

Hang onto him, finish up the year and see what happens.

[wibadgers23]

Yep too late now particularly with the Brewers playing well and in 1st place in the division. They won’t risk another Hader backlash.

[Scooterfletcher]

Quite honestly, the comp pick is a good enough award along with the quality season and presence Adames brings to the team.   Take the pick after the season and be happy with what IS this season in Adames’ swan song as a brewer .

[TURBO]

As frustrating as he can be, I'm really going to miss him to be honest.  I don't think you can put a price on his leadership and positivity.  He's just the kind of guy you want in your clubhouse.

[HarryDoyle]

An emergency Dodgers-Brewers trade after Mookie Betts’ broken hand (msn.com)

[Jake McKibbin]

1 hour ago, HarryDoyle said:

An emergency Dodgers-Brewers trade after Mookie Betts’ broken hand (msn.com)

Well that doesn't look like a fair trade at all..

 

To save the clickbait links, it's Willy Adames and Mike Boeve for Dodgers no .12 prospect Landon Knack

[SF70]

1 hour ago, Jake McKibbin said:

Well that doesn't look like a fair trade at all..

 

To save the clickbait links, it's Willy Adames and Mike Boeve for Dodgers no .12 prospect Landon Knack

Total joke of a trade and infuriating article. Large-market media bias at its worst.

[Jake McKibbin]

1 hour ago, SF70 said:

Total joke of a trade and infuriating article. Large-market media bias at its worst.

Yeah I think so.

I'm aware a rental shortstop usually doesn't bring in a top 100 prospect, but if someone genuinely wants the Crew to trade him they'll have to be ready to overpay and to have their arm twisted. Willy means too much to this team for that not to be the case.

 

Also if you're looking at an October run, you need players who rise to the occasion and that is most certainly something Adames has shone at. If you want him, it ain't coming cheap.

[Scooterfletcher]

We would need two Knack-types or better to move Adames.  If Knack loosely equals Gasser, we would still need a Ruiz type to move Adames imho.