Fear The Chorizo

Taylor also hit 0.160 in the first half of 2023.

The 40 man roster spots mean more to the Brewers at this point than the $...neither Taylor or Houser had options left and were in their 3rd year of salary arbitration = they've got the least amount of 40 man roster flexibility and team control remaining and they're much more expensive than other younger and more talented players who need to be on the field or on the mound in Milwaukee. As others have pointed out, freeing up both a chunk of payroll budget and roster spaces seems to indicate something else is in the works to go along with this move, too.

The Rays currently have the player they signed longterm to be their franchise player in legal jeopardy, who may not see the field again, they traded Adames after a down year in the first place that led many to believe he's a much better player than he actually is for arms that are either out of the organization or once again injured, and their current MLB pitching staff has more elbow problems than the Dodgers does. The Rays wish they were the Brewers right about now...

I would rather have the potential upside of young OFs taking Taylor's ABs and playing time this year, and the exact same thing could be said of Gasser taking Houser's innings for way less than $6m with the potential for him to also pitch better while developing at the MLB level. Just because this pair of 30 yr old backups were 1 year shy of free agency doesn't make them coveted assets for a team looking to improve talent on their mlb roster.

I know...fresh off a division title and lost in the playoffs to the team who got to the WS from the NL...just in bad shape

HighHeat got hired here?

I think the flip side of this trade is how Mets fans have to be feeling about Stearns continuing to stockpile guys that had permanently occupied the bottom of the Milwaukee Brewers MLB roster in recent seasons.

So you can use those expendable MLB assets to bring in a flyer of a prospect who you can stash and potentially get 6+ years of MLB control on, rather than pay roughly $8M in 2024 for bench players/swing arms on your roster.

This is a trade a team makes to free up 40 man roster space in order to add elsewhere on the roster via free agency (or add another prospect or two to it...Gasser? Black?). If the Brewers don't have plans of trading any of their other young OFs and want Chourio in Milwaukee to start the season, Taylor has no spot on this roster. Houser's best role has been that of a long man in the bullpen, and at the MLB level he's just a guy - you don't pay "just a guy" almost $6M in arbitration.

I'm with you on the comp pick possibility being an afterthought with Adames - if he stays a Brewer in 2024 I'm pulling for him to have a career season that resembles what he did for most of 2021, so he would consider not signing a QO from the Brewers....but not expecting it. The Giants make quite a bit of sense as a trade partner and I think any whiff of desperation on their end needing a SS may prompt them to offer up more than they should for Adames via trade.

When Melvin decided to hold onto Fielder, he traded the farm for Marcum and Grienke (both with two years of team control) Losing Cain stung, although that loss was pretty easily offset by the addition of Gomez in a future trade, but besides Cain the only other thing they lost was a knucklehead known more for his 40-hands photo than anything he did at the MLB level on the field and a slick fielding SS who never hit enough to miss him. Odorizzi also made a nice career for himself as a mid to bottom of the rotation starter, but the upside that Greinke brought to a Brewers team desperate for a TOR starter but good enough to win it all offensively was well worth sending over a handful of prospects. I don't think there's an obvious "only way" to approach Burnes this year for the overall longterm helath of the franchise - it's not a cut and dry "trade him no matter what" or "roll with him 1 more season before he leaves". The Brewers have the budget flexibility to play "wait and see", afford whatever arbitration salary Burnes will earn if they retain him through arbitration, and see how things shake out with any trade offers between now and the deadline. Given the current state of the NL Central, I think the Brewers would have to get a massive trade offer to move Burnes now - if it seems just like a fair deal, why not hold onto him into the season and then see how the Brewers start? If they're scuffling, they could get a "fair deal" a month or two into the season as well, particularly if a team obviously geared up to try and win it all has some significant pitching injuries in their rotation. The Dodgers and Rangers are already in that spot with arms that either won't be ready to start the season (DeGrom/Scherzer) or starters with extensive injury histories that could easily struggle early (Buehler, Glasnow, Kershaw, ...basically the entire Dodger rotation at this point).

Burnes has chosen to gamble on himself staying healthy in order to reach that huge free agent payday next offseason - at this point anything related to injury risk and his state of mind goes almost exclusively on his shoulders....not sure the Brewers should be too worried about a guy's desire to pitch like an ace during his free agent year. I've long looked at pitchers from the lens of how a small market team needs to prioritize getting value out of them through their mid-late twenties pitching for you, then determine the best way to find an off-ramp to avoid being saddled with a cumbersome, overpriced contract for an arm too far on the wrong side of 30 - even if it means sacrificing a few late 20's prime years by either letting him walk in free agency and getting a comp pick or trading him at the deadline. After the next few key agent starters sign elsewhere, there will be a couple teams interested in trading for Burnes before the season starts, and the question becomes if the trade packages offered are worth the Brewers trading him away, or if one more season with him anchoring a still solid pitching staff is more valuable to a roster that at present is still the best team in the division with Burnes on it. Trading Burnes in the offseason does get more return for him, but it also essentially punts on trying to be a true contender this year - which might not be the right plan for the rest of the roster. I'm a proponent of rolling with Burnes as the Brewers' 2024 Opening Day starter unless they get an incredibly valuable trade return, then if the Brewers are in playoff position come the trade deadline they add more via trade, otherwise if things don't get off to a great start the Brewers can get aggressive and get Burnes on the trade market well before July to still get a quality return. Reality is, at this point there are zero problems with keeping Burnes on the Brewers' roster to start 2024. If the Brewers turn around and resign Santana to play 1st and splurge on Soler to be their DH via free agency, suddenly their lineup looks alot more balanced. It really will be interesting to see what direction the Brewers will take things with a roster that already will have a bunch of young and exciting talent on it.

I'd add that I thought MLF did a pretty good job of hiring his initial offensive staff - however after several key coordinators/coaches left for head coaching/promotional coordinating gigs, I think much of the promotion from within hasn't been as solid...but it's tough to tell. MLF hiring Barry after canning Pettine has been a failure with how many draft picks and free agent signings have been made for the defense every single offseason. I can see the pros-cons of waiting until the offseason to fire Barry, but then again the same thing could've been said after last season ended and nothing happened. The defense should have been the strength of this year's team given the roster and just how young the offense was after moving on from #12....instead, it's just more of the same, where if the defense had performed up to expectations this team may have given the Lions a run for the division despite a rocky start to the year.

Heading into this season, it was pretty apparent on paper that safety was the Packers' biggest roster weakness on the defensive side of the ball. Add in key cornerbacks missing most of the season due to injury (Jaire) or not being on the roster due to midseason trade (Douglas), and the regular slot corner position has largely been given to their kick returner for some insane reason. It's been well-demonstrated over the last few seasons that tight ends, RB's and receivers running routes into the middle of the field, and Barry has not done a single significant them schematically to take away what are the easier passes to complete in the NFL when compared to perimeter passes. So not only are the Packers' defensive secondary personnel in the middle of the field lacking in terms of coverage talent, the scheme seems to want to drive opposing offenses to work the middle of the field, which is insanely stupid. It's maddening and mindboggling that literally everyone sees it as a problem and flaw, yet they keep repeating the same thing over and over and over and over again. I'm still holding out hope that the Packers find a way to back into the postseason and play a game, if only to give Love and the offense the experience of a road playoff game against a superior opponent. I think that's more valuable than clawing a couple more spots in the teens up the draft board. Either outcome of the regular season shouldn't determine whether Barry keeps his job - if MLF opts to stick with him and they once again get off to a bad start defensively next season the whole coaching staff should be dismissed, MLF included. Continuity isn't valuable when the status quo sucks.

The Royals could pick names out of a phone book and it would look like they are trying to improve their team...in fact that is basically what they've done. These FA signings are like all done with the thought of flipping them at the trade deadline, not for the Royals to seriously consider winning anything this season. It's still three weeks until new years and the Brewers have already been plenty active adding pieces via trade and free agency, and via a unprecedented contract extension to a prospect that hasn't yet played a mlb game.

The Royals won 56 games last season in what was by far the worst division in baseball. Are we really going to slam the Brewers for not signing marginal veteran free agents to make their roster less talented from a team that won 92?

In that dumpster fire of a division, they may wind up being the favorite come Opening Day depending what Cleveland wants to do with Bieber

Now expecting a Yamamoto deal with LAD for about $400m over 8 years, but $392m deferred and he gets a spare key to Ohtani's place so Ohtani can claim him as a dependent for tax purposes.

He should have been available for hiring years ago when the chargers should have first fired him. What an overrated organization.

And I would relish them being the 2024 version of the 2023 Mets...but I can't have nice things so they'll probably win 125 games and then lose to Reds in the division series, lol.

Good lord....$135m for a starting pitcher who will be lucky to give them 135 innings in one of those 5 seasons

Not sure we are on the same page - that scouting report on Hader was from a game when he was in AA as a 20 yr old, not when he was drafted out of hs at 18. My larger point was Hader wasn't considered a prospect worth anything longterm until multiple years as a minor leaguer, while Jacob M. pitched in the futures game at a similar age and earlier development timeline than Hader. In the end its splitting hairs because they are vastly different pitchers.

Lol at the Dodgers adding more injury prone pitchers to pay while on the IL. I don't get this move for them at all. Fully expect them to now give Buehler a 10 year extension as he rehabs his 2nd TJ, too. The Rays are absolutely now an extension farm system for Dodger prospects who are blocked on their own 40 man.

how much does Ohtani value the contract at? The "present dollars" argument is for luxury tax accounting purposes only by the current MLB rules...it's not real $ - real money is Ohtani is getting paid $2M a year in actual "present dollars" during the playing terms of the contract, not the $46M a year which is based on accounting calculations. I could care less what the MLB luxury tax/competitive balance assessment of the contract is - and that shouldn't be how WAR/dollar is calculated because if it truly was a $460M contract, more than the Dodgers would've been offering that and then some. It's only the Dodgers who can afford paying out almost $70M in real money for 10 straight years to a guy who most likely will be retired even before the 10 year playing term expires in ~2034. The Giants apparently said they had a similar deal on the table, but they've reportedly been throwing huge sums of $$ towards FAs in recent years only to never land them.

It's a $700M deal - if it was actually a $460M deal, it would be reported as a $460M deal. Deferrals and other accounting gimmicks to skirt the luxury tax or not, dude is set to be paid $700M dollars after signing on the dotted line...I guess unless the owner or Friedman leave, or some other random occurrence that leads to an opt-out option squirreled deep into the contract legalese.