What if Woodruff Didn't Accept the QO?

[brewerfan82]

With the discussion about grading the offseason, I was thinking how this whole offseason may have been different if Woodruff hadn't accepted the QO. It could have been something like this:

• Hold onto Peralta to lead the staff and plan on getting compensation from him next year
• Without getting Jett Williams in the Peralta deal, does that keep our infield depth shallow enough where a Durbin trade doesn't happen?
• With $14M saved keeping Peralta at $8M instead of Woodruff at $22M, are we bigger players in free agency? Is there another trade we might have been in on that would have taken on money?

All that adds up to something like this difference between what happened and what may have happened:

• Woodruff -> Peralta
• Williams -> Durbin
• Sproat -> Woodruff compensatory pick
• Harrison -> Peralta compensatory pick
• Drohan -> Myers
• Hamilton -> Monasterio
• Rengifo, Sanchez -> Whatever we do with the extra ~$19M ($14M saved with Peralta over Woodruff + $3.5M from Rengifo + $1.75M from Sanchez)

If Woodruff not accepting the QO was their plan A, I think they did a good job pivoting this offseason. How do you think the offseason would have played out differently? Do you think we "accidentally" ended up in a better position with Woodruff accepting the QO?

Of course they may have still traded Peralta and also not spent any of that "extra" money too! Who knows!

Just thought it was interesting to think about!

[Frisbee Slider]

I think Milwaukee likes Woodruff and was probably not surprised by the QO being accepted. Interesting thought exercise, though.

[Sixtolezcano]

We would have a better 2026 MLB team without Woodruff.

[tmwiese55]

My guess is that Peralta trade was independent of this and not caused because of money being tight due to Woodruff. My guess is it was more about getting the value on him before FA and not risking injury.  So IMO, not offering Woodruff would've been them being cheap like everyone accuses them of, instead they paid up for him now 3 years in a row when they didn't have to. 

So then if we had 22 mill more to spend I really don't see a feasible move via FA to address OF/3B/SS. that makes a huge difference  Maybe instead of Renfigo they pay more for Urias (if that's why the chose him instead) or maybe a midlevel OF of some kind happens like an Austin Hayes, Adolis Garcia, Bader type.   I guess it gets Suarez involved in that money though, that could be the one "needle" moved if he happens to have a good year. However, I just don't think his type is on MKEs radar.  But overall, the team would be in a  worse spot imo. No Woodruff and only a slight upgrade at one position. 

[wallus]

What free agents would have you wanted with the Woodruff "savings"? 

I think all of this pitching depth is going to be huge for us this year.

I would not have been happy with the alternative offseaon or whatever you want to call it.