Brewers acquire Nick Mears

[markedman5]

 

[brewcrewdue80]

16 minutes ago, Matt said:

 

3 more seasons to have Brewers defense, pitching lab, and pitching in Milw versus Colorado stats. Gotta be hype reading that graphic.

[wallus]

Kinda odd because we will soon have a glut of relievers but we didn't give up much. Blalock is just a guy and the other dude is pretty far away and was bad before this year.

It seems like Arnold has been very busy.

[Lathund]

Some great underlying numbers for Mears. A better defense, and no Coors hangover anymore will let that ability play better. He gets strikeouts, and Statcast says he is elite at limiting hard contact/barrels. Might sound odd to some given the ERA, but he's not even really a "we can fix him" kind of guy; he's already performing really well. Like with most reliever projects/retreads the Brewers pick up, I'll usually perhaps see something they like, but not enough to make me truly understand why they made the move. I just tend to trust that they know what they're doing (and they usually are). This one is fairly easy to spot. No guarantees, but I feel confident that he'll do well. 

As for the return. I suspect Blalock is a victim of being on the 40-man but not someone they see themselves using in the near future. With so many players on the IL, you need to use the spots. So while it doesn't strictly free up a 40-man spot, it makes more efficient use of it. I suspect Blalock will be someone who will see a decent amount of time in the big leagues, but is highly unlikely to ever be better than a #5 type or a swingman. So nice to have, but also someone you don't mind too much using to get something in return, especially when he's already likely to be lost in a roster squeeze. 

Can't say I've seen enough about Herrera to truly judge. Doing well as a starter in A+ at a young age. Mostly on the back of preventing HRs. So I suppose a lot of it comes down to whether he truly is avoiding the kind of contact that gives up HRs, or if it's a small sample thing. Probably a large range of outcomes for him. 

[brewers888]

I don't understand this tradition of trading for relievers at the deadline every year especially when the bullpen is the strength of the team. 

[brewers888]

Blalock is meh but I wouldn't have traded Herrera straight up for a mediocre reliever.

[LouisEly]

I like the move.  I guess we should look at this as a replacement for Hudson for the time being.   At least it's not Hudson's arm.

I wasn't really high on Blalock.  Doesn't strike a lot of guys out, clock has already started on him, not a huge loss.

Williams replaces Junk early next week, Hall or Ross replaces Jay.  Maybe Hall or Ross piggybacks with Junis or Wilson as the 5th starter?  Then things get interesting for the other of Hall/Ross, Bukauskas, Paredes.  Methinks a reliever or two gets traded.

[wiguy94]

After seeing what the Phillies gave up for 2 months of Carlos Estevez, I much prefer trading for a guy like Mears.

[Matt]

2 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

After seeing what the Phillies gave up for 2 months of Carlos Estevez, I much prefer trading for a guy like Mears.

A shockingly bad trade by the Phillies. 

If that's the going rate for a guy who "closes" I'd be shopping Devin and Megill. 

[brewcrewdue80]

The more I look in to the trade the more sense and steal on the Brewers end.  Blalock is on the 40man being protected. Moved to AAand his numbers didn't show improvement. Definitely needs another full season down in the minors before maybe helping a team. Victim of lost 2020 season.

Herrera I think shows some potential. Not sure if as a SP. But is now 4years getting to Aball. So rule 5 is coming and I'd assume not wanting to add to 40man.  Amazingly Bref has his splits for season. One that stood out was older vs younger.  Quite the gap on older batting better vs the younger.  The timing is too far away.

[liveforoctober]

15 minutes ago, Matt said:

A shockingly bad trade by the Phillies. 

If that's the going rate for a guy who "closes" I'd be shopping Devin and Megill. 

I was just going to say this. I don't want to trade Megill but with Williams coming back if we can get that kind of haul for him I'd do it without much thought.

[BallFour]

Is Herrera rule 5 eligible this offseason? Genuinely curious because it would not have been ideal for the Brewers to put him on the 40 man next year.

[Redd Vencher]

3 minutes ago, BallFour said:

Is Herrera rule 5 eligible this offseason? Genuinely curious because it would not have been ideal for the Brewers to put him on the 40 man next year.

Herrera was signed in August 17, 2019, so he would have been Rule V eligible this offseason.

[CheeseheadInQC]

5 minutes ago, BallFour said:

Is Herrera rule 5 eligible this offseason? Genuinely curious because it would not have been ideal for the Brewers to put him on the 40 man next year.

I believe this is going to be his second year of eligibility. He was part of the Quero class that had their first year wiped out. If I remember correctly he might have skipped the DSL as a result. Him being in year 5 already reduces the margin for error.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, brewers888 said:

I don't understand this tradition of trading for relievers at the deadline every year especially when the bullpen is the strength of the team. 

Simple, the more you have the more they stay fresh and not over worked 

[brewers888]

53 minutes ago, Matt said:

A shockingly bad trade by the Phillies. 

If that's the going rate for a guy who "closes" I'd be shopping Devin and Megill. 

I'd 100% trade Devin if someone wants to trade a ton to get him. 

[TURBO]

28 minutes ago, brewers888 said:

I'd 100% trade Devin if someone wants to trade a ton to get him. 

Exactly what I was going to say.  Since we seem to find relievers everywhere, trading Williams for a major haul would be cool with me.

[KeithStone53151]

Seems y'all are ahead of me on this, but hard not to love this trade. Literally everything about this guy's advanced metrics, batted ball profile, and overall stuff SCREAMS correction. He is not a 5.6 ERA pitcher. Couple all that with the Rockies being notoriously bad at pitcher development, moving to a team that's really good with relievers. Means might be closing games in a month.

[SRB]

3 hours ago, BallFour said:

I like the trade. Hope I am allowed to like it. A little leery of of the FIP and ERA difference. People said the same thing about Taylor Rogers and we saw how that turned out. 

 

Rogers has a 2.27 ERA this season over 39.2 IP, so it does seem that he/we just really got unlucky over a small sample size.

[BrewerFan]

2 hours ago, brewers888 said:

I don't understand this tradition of trading for relievers at the deadline every year especially when the bullpen is the strength of the team. 

2018.

Just remember that year, those power arms ripping through even the Dodgers. If not for a couple of splitters by Jeffress that get knocked out, the Brewers are playing in the WS on the strength of a dominant BP.

So...I ALWAYS understand just loading up on dominant BP arms. I want 9 guys who can throw in the upper 90s, get big Ks, get GBs.

 

I don't love giving up a talented young arm just because I think the only way to really develop a great staff is by taking as many good young arms as possible and hoping they stick. Reece Olson would be nice this year. But pretty unlikely we gave up a guy like Olson. 

I know we got a guy back who could VERY easily be not just a good, but an elite HL reliever based on his stuff, his GB% and going from Coors to Miller Park...

I've never looked at a Brewers team and thought...'eh, that's too many good pitchers. Don't need 'em.'

[BrewerFan]

34 minutes ago, SRB said:

Rogers has a 2.27 ERA this season over 39.2 IP, so it does seem that he/we just really got unlucky over a small sample size.

I'd forgotten he got 3/33.5 after a pretty poor year between SD and Milwaukee.

All the more reason to acquire a guy like Mears. They're just so expensive. That's totally cost-prohibitive for a team like the Brewers. Spending 33M over 3 years for a marginal reliever(he was coming off that season, and ended up with a 5+FIP for the Brewers. 

I didn't know Herrera had to be added to the 40. I suppose that makes it make more sense. I'll probably never like the players we trade away, but I like Mears and he seems like an obvious breakout candidate. 

[jay87shot]

Love this, Blalock seemed to be on the 40 man cut line since he has been iffy in AA. I like Herrera a bunch but again our depth really makes him a borderline top 30 prospect. I doubt anyone would have picked him in the rule 5 if that is the case but it makes him a lot easier to move.

Mears looks like a guy that can have a big improvement. His fastball has been worth 9 runs, and his breaking stuff has been -3. He has a beautiful 12-6 curve and his slider has a nice shape. Getting him out of Coors should make those pitches way better. The k rate over 11 means he can easily be a late inning guy.

[brewmann04]

Adding Relievers make no sense unless they are moving some of the excess relievers who might get a good return 

[brewmann04]

It took two players to add a reliever with a close to 6 ERA 

[Austin Tatious]

I like the move.  I don’t think this was a typical deadline move to fill a deadline need, but rather taking the opportunity to access a controllable live arm.