Grade the Offseason

[wallus]

Now that pretty much every substantial free agent has signed, it is time to review how MA did. I think it is important to consider that he may be under a budget that is not under his control.

Recap of major moves/changes:

• Let Willy Adames go in free agency
• Traded Devin Williams for Cortes and Durbin

Letting Willy go was the correct decision. If I would have known that our payroll is going to be where it is, I would not have traded for Cortes. I think Nestor is a decent pitcher so it's nothing against him. 

I would have traded Devin for one of the million cost controlled starters on the Dodgers. I would have traded Payamps for a prospect(s). Finally I would have signed Ha-Seong Kim to the contract he got with the Rays. Payroll would be about the same as it is now but I would feel better about our infield. While the top of our lineup is pretty good, the bottom is pretty bad for a competing team.

*Note: I am sure a lot of posters are going to say we should have traded Hoskins. I think the prospect capital and/or the cash we would have to had to kick in would have not made it worth it.

Grade: C-

[wiguy94]

D.

Improving the rotation in the Williams trade was a nice move and the saving grace from an F offseason.

Infield depth is shockingly thin and nothing was done to fix it.

Rotation depth could be a bit better. As it stands you're really going to need one of Woodruff, Hall, Ashby to be a solid SP and I don't think any of those are safe options to do so.

Also lost two good coaches in Berry and McKinven as well.

[bigred]

D-. To be expected every offseason 

[SF70]

D.

Bizarre offseason imo. Something is going on financially with this club for the OD payroll to be this low. 

Don’t understand why they couldn’t spend $5-6M and add a veteran 3B to raise the IF floor and allow them to finally jettison Monestario from the big-league roster. Agree with wiguy that this team is unbearably thin in IF depth.

 

[MVP2110]

C.

Assuming things stay the same then the Brewers are really banking on Caleb Durbin and/or Oliver Dunn for that final IF spot. 

Outside of that though I don't think the Brewers needed to do much. They have 4 solid Starting pitchers and a slew of young guys who hopefully can step up when injuries occur(plus the Wildcard that is Woodruff)

They return most of what is a very good bullpen from last year

Their OF remains stacked with 2 really good players(Yelich, Chourio), another who has shown real potential(Mitchell), and 2 more who are more than capable of playing in the bigs(Frelick, Perkins)

And lastly in the IF Ortiz & Turang return, both of whom are young and had solid years last year. Hoskins returns who wasn't great last year but provides much needed power at least. We'll see if we get anything from Black. 

Long story short, the Brewers didn't do much, but also the only spot I question heading into Spring Training is that final IF spot

[Playing Catch]

D+

This is a difficult score considering the Brewers needs, and the lack of options that were out there. It seems like the Hoskins and Woodruff deals really hamstrung the team from making more significant moves.

I didn't have a prescription of things they needed to do. I'm on board with being flexible and opportunistic, and adding value where they can. I just don't see a lot of value added for 2025. I suppose adding six years and 3 options of Durbin for "free" (Williams and Cortes largely being a wash, presuming health) is great, but as a non-middle-of-the-order hitter, there's only so much value he will provide over the coming seasons.

I expected to add a couple of decent pitchers in the $2-$5M range, or trade for a hitter, which they didn't do, thus the low grade.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

C-, and that's probably being generous. It was a pretty boring offseason, even by Brewers standards.

But I have learned over the years to expect that this team will likely find 1-2 good starters out of the scrap heap signings, and I want to believe that they must see something in Oliver Dunn or Caleb Durbin in order to feel comfortable going into the season with those guys playing big roles. No reason not to believe that the pen won't continue to be a strength, especially considering they were pretty lights-out last season when Williams missed a large chunk of the year.

At this point, this front office has earned the benefit of the doubt if the goal is building a team that will contend for a division title. The real question is whether they have the horses to go beyond that.

[wibadgers23]

D+ because they didn’t do anything other than trade Williams. The infield is a major concern for me and they didn’t do anything to ease my concerns.

[sveumrules]

We knew it was almost certainly going to be a one transaction offseason, and it has turned out to be a one transaction offseason.

When expectation lines up with reality that’s a C for me.

[Outlander]

D - They got worse on paper. They seem to be able to outperform expectations but feel much better when I think the team got better from year to year.

[yoshii8]

D- or F. Losing Adames, Sanchez, Williams and gaining Cortes and Durbin is a very disappointing off-season for me. I understand we have financial restrictions but I expected them to at least add someone to replace the 2 all stars and Sanchez. Instead we got a lottery ticket type in Durbin and one year of a mid-rotation starter. Yippee 

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

29 minutes ago, yoshii8 said:

D- or F. Losing Adames, Sanchez, Williams and gaining Cortes and Durbin is a very disappointing off-season for me. I understand we have financial restrictions but I expected them to at least add someone to replace the 2 all stars and Sanchez. Instead we got a lottery ticket type in Durbin and one year of a mid-rotation starter. Yippee 

Well, they'll also get a premium pick in the 2025 draft as compensation for losing Adames I guess, but I totally get your point.

[SeaBass]

1 hour ago, yoshii8 said:

but I expected them to at least add someone to replace the 2 all stars

Cortes was an all star in '22. That doesn't count as all star for all star? I've always liked Cortes from afar, I think he can be a solid contributor.

Williams appeared in only 22 games last season and has made 2 career all star teams. They also have his replacement in house. Just like he replaced Hader.

A lot of this is trusting the depth of young players they have in their system. And yes, payroll restriction exacerbated by the uncertainty of their once expected local tv broadcast deal first being taken away and then coming to a new agreement that is almost certainly for less compensation than the previous one.

The Brewers did less than I expected them to even so but I also understand why. Not thrilled with it but there were some less expected circumstances involved. Plus they took a gamble on Hoskins last season and it didn't pay off so well. Here's hoping he has an improved season this year since they're stuck with him.

I think a D is a fair grade, I would probably stretch it to D+/C-. But I also still think the team can be as competitive as they have been recently with what they currently have. Big key is staying as healthy as possible as there seems to be less margin for error than usual.

[Jopal78]

B-. They reallocated talent from their bullpen (Williams ) to the rotation (Cortes). Besides some concern over the flexor tendon injury last year Cortes is an above average SP. Trading surplus from a strength to improve a different area of the club is always a winning move. 
 

I would bet the Brewers are counting on improved production from Turang, Ortiz. Frelick, Mitchell as additional contributions over what they got last year from Woodruff, Yelich and Hoskins;, and those increases in production will more than make up for the loss of Wily Adames.

It would’ve been great for them to have added more talent and laid waste to the opponents in the NL Central, but they’re still a 93 win team that reached that point on the backs of young improving talent and a cadre of ace relief pitchers. 

[Kozlowski Klub]

I think a C would be a fair grade. 

Yes, losing Willy and Devin sucks but was to be expected. I never would have given Willy that contract and I think the Giants will regret it, and the value for Devin I think was decent. Was probably hoping for a little more but getting Cortes back considering the cost of starting pitching right now shouldn't be overlooked. 

Everyone is upset they haven't made any significant moves, but I also think they avoided some potentially bad deals that other teams have signed this offseason. I would like to see a higher floor, cheap option to help cover 3B or SS still (which I think could still happen) but overpaying someone to replace Adames was never the right answer. 

Trust your system and make strategic moves when needed. It is the way we have to operate and has worked for multiple seasons in a row now. 

[CheeseheadInQC]

C-

I like that they felt confident enough to trade Williams for MLB pieces. I wish they would have done something to increase the floor of the infield. I would probably be at a D if the options weren’t limited. If Kim didn’t fit in the budget, they ranged from meh to yikes. And more the latter than the former when it comes to the Bauers spot.

[wallus]

One thing I should have added to my post but I think they should have been more aggressive turning one of the outfielders (Frelick or Black) into someone that could play SS or 3B. I realize there is a lot of injury risk in our outfield but relying on the AFL stars of Dunn or Durbin to be a starter seems unwise.

[brewmann04]

D-

[Brewcrew82]

I've got them at a C-. Getting Cortes for Devin makes this a better rotation than last year, and arguably doesn't downgrade the bullpen much if at all considering how little Devin pitched for us last year. 

But they really needed to add someone in the infield or to add a power bat somewhere else to account for the loss of Adames. 

As it stands right now, I think we're at roughly even odds to win the division. Which isn't great considering we won it by 10 games last year. 

[Frisbee Slider]

Maybe it’s better to acquire talent mid season when teams get ready to sell?

There aren’t many free agent deals where I wish Milwaukee signed them instead.

The offseason should be judged based on the regular season results. The Brewers should have a nice regular season and our offseasons rarely are splashy.

[Underachiever]

11 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

 

There aren’t many free agent deals where I wish Milwaukee signed them instead.

This is the point for me. I will pass on a grade because I have no idea. The conundrum for me is this: I think that the Hoskins deal is limiting their options, and if he had worked out, we wouldn’t feel as if the Brewers needed to make a move. But because he didn’t play very well, we want them to make another Hoskins-sized splash, which they can’t because Hoskins belly flopped instead.

i hate that I see a lot riding on Rhys Hoskins. I will also bet on Woodruff not contributing much. More than a third of the payroll on those two players. 

[bigred]

5 hours ago, Ron Robinsons Beard said:

C-, and that's probably being generous. It was a pretty boring offseason, even by Brewers standards.

But I have learned over the years to expect that this team will likely find 1-2 good starters out of the scrap heap signings, and I want to believe that they must see something in Oliver Dunn or Caleb Durbin in order to feel comfortable going into the season with those guys playing big roles. No reason not to believe that the pen won't continue to be a strength, especially considering they were pretty lights-out last season when Williams missed a large chunk of the year.

At this point, this front office has earned the benefit of the doubt if the goal is building a team that will contend for a division title. The real question is whether they have the horses to go beyond that.

It's already blatantly obvious we won't go beyond that. How many times do they need to get bounced in the 1st rd of the playoffs, before people stop denying reality to themselves? Also, for all of the people that lambaste me about opinion on trades/signings, there a LOT of very low grades here that point to those people actually agreeing with me, but just choose to lambaste me because I have the courage to speak the blunt truth, and it offends them. Well, I'm offended, that they were offended by the blunt truth. Lol

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

9 minutes ago, bigred said:

It's already blatantly obvious we won't go beyond that. How many times do they need to get bounced in the 1st rd of the playoffs, before people stop denying reality to themselves? 

[sveumrules]

What grades did the Tobias Myers, Bryan Hudson, and Jared Koenig transactions get?

They ended up chipping in something like seven or eight wins last year.

[bigred]

4 minutes ago, Ron Robinsons Beard said:

That's what you call someone who simply doesn't deny our reality? Really? Ok, no skin off my back. Lol