Eye Black

Was he, I thought they left him unprotected in the most recent Rule 5 draft? Maybe I'm misremembering, but I didn't think he was on their current 40-man roster. Back to your point about Neuse, yes he's definitely a 3B long term. He played some 2B this year out of necessity (since the A's have some Chapman guy already entrenched at third base), but in the minors the overwhelming majority of his experience was as a 3B.

The Dodgers just made a trade with the A's in which they acquired infielder Sheldon Neuse. The recently turned 26-year old Neuse is someone I've previously thought could make sense for the Brewers to target as a potential future 3B option. Interesting move for the Dodgers, Neuse was on the A's 40-man roster. The Dodgers freed a spot on their own 40-man by including LHRP Adam Kolarek in the deal. Full trade details according to Jeff Passan... Dodgers and A's have made a trade, sources tell ESPN. Oakland will receive LHR Adam Kolarek and OF Cody Thomas. Los Angeles gets IF Sheldon Neuse and RHP Gus Varland.

Article from Robert Murray, Brewers still chasing Justin Turner? The two main takeaways appear to be: 1) Brewers are still pursuing Turner. 2) One team executive cautioned that it’s “unlikely” Turner leaves Los Angeles.

Bill Plunkett of the OC Register wrote an article today on Turner from the Dodgers perspective, Dodgers’ Andrew Friedman won’t rule out re-signing Justin Turner Here are some of the more relevant quotes attributed to Andrew Friedman: During Bauer’s introductory news conference on Thursday afternoon, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was asked if that expenditure means they are out of the running to re-sign Turner. “The simple answer is no,” Friedman said. “We’re committed to doing everything we can to put together the best roster that we can. Obviously, it’s difficult for me to comment on a specific free agent. But I think it’s pretty well documented what we think of JT, what he’s meant to this organization. “As far as how that’s gonna play out, we will see.” Bauer’s contract takes the Dodgers’ payroll well past the Competitive Balance Tax threshold. As it stands, their 2021 payroll will lead the majors (for the first time since 2017) and come in around $238 million, costing them an additional $7 million in luxury tax. That will not preclude the Dodgers from re-signing Turner, Friedman said – or making another addition to satisfy his expressed desire for another right-handed hitter. “At every turn in the six-plus years I’ve been here, ownership has been incredibly supportive of doing everything we can to win and to reward the amazing fans that we have to bring a world championship back to L.A. which had been a long time coming,” Friedman said. “Now, their mindset is ‘Let’s do it again. And, let’s flip the switch and have the mindset of repeating.’ Obviously, the action of this speaks to that. “I think it’s difficult at any one moment in time to look at our payroll and to deduce too much from it. We’ve talked about this a lot. It is a three- to five-year kind of process that we look at – the ebbs and flows of that. But the thing that has been a constant throughout is winning. And so, that’s where our mindset still is, and we’ll see how that plays out.”

Marwin Gonzalez reportedly signing a free agent deal with the Red Sox (one-year, $3 million). Some other notable free agent names... Ken Giles signing a two-year agreement with the Mariners. Nomar Mazara close to signing with the Tigers Brad Miller discussing a potential contract with the Phillies.

Via Bob Nightengale: Andrew Friedman says that the signing of Trevor Bauer doesn't have an impact on bringing back third baseman Justin Turner, praising Turner for what he has meant to the organization, while stressing they still are hungry for another World Series title.

I do think Urias could be a very good defender at 3B. It's interesting to me that Clay Davenport's projections love Urias as a defensive third baseman. They have him as a 3.0 WAR player despite just a .738 OPS projection (.251/.334 /.404). Basically as you laid out it's on the strength of his expected defense. By comparison Davenport has Justin Turner as a 3.4 WAR third baseman even though his expected batting line is .275/.360 /.467. So for the purposes of the optimism thread, we could be witnessing some sweet RUN PREVENTION measures around the infield this year!

To be clear, I was attempting a joke. I'm as guilty as anyone of overthinking this Turner thing at every opportunity.

But then won't the Cubs need a third baseman... and Turner's wife's family grew up as Chicago sports fans...

Blue Jays signed David Phelps to a one-year, $1.75 million deal today. Phelps was with the Blue Jays back in 2019 when they traded him mid-season to the Cubs for RHP Thomas Hatch. Hatch had a solid debut season for the Blue Jays last year (2.73 ERA over 26.1 IP), but now ironically the Phelps signing may make it tougher for Hatch to break camp in the big league bullpen in 2021.

I do think the Dodgers are a good team to try to swing a deal with from the standpoint their roster crunch is certainly a real issue. The Rays have moved good mid-20s players like Jake Cronenworth, Nick Solak, and Nate Lowe due in some part to having similar roster and positional crowding. The Dodgers moved Kenta Maeda last February because they didn't have a clear rotation spot for him. I think being in conversations with a team that has a talented 40-man roster busting at the seams could lead to some benefit for the Brewers.

As far as Brewers developed third baseman, Brett Lawrie did have 15.6 WAR through age 26... just obviously not for the Brewers. He was also never nearly as incredible of a hitter as he looked in his brief debut season in the majors at 21-years old.

Per Jon Morosi: Source: Andrew Benintendi is close to being traded. #Royals are frontrunner to acquire him.

Clay Davenport's projections have 30 players in the National League Central finishing with > 2.0 WARP (Baseball Prospectus' version of WAR). The Brewers currently have 10 of those 30 players. [pre]# Player Team WARP 1 C. Yelich MIL 6.0 2 Nolan Arenado STL 4.8 3 Kris Bryant CHI 4.5 Jack Flaherty STL 4.5 5 Luis Castillo CIN 4.2 6 Josh Hader MIL 4.1 7 Javier Baez CHI 3.9 8 Kolten Wong MIL 3.8 Paul DeJong STL 3.8 10 B. Woodruff MIL 3.6 Eugenio Suarez CIN 3.6 Jesse Winker CIN 3.6 Ke'Bryan Hayes PIT 3.6 14 Luis Urias MIL 3.0 15 Corbin Burnes MIL 2.8 Mike Moustakas CIN 2.8 Sonny Gray CIN 2.8 Joc Pederson CHI 2.8 P. Goldschmidt STL 2.8 Bryan Reynolds PIT 2.8 21 G. Gallegos STL 2.7 22 W. Contreras CHI 2.6 Craig Kimbrel CHI 2.6 24 Kyle Hendricks CHI 2.5 Harrison Bader STL 2.5 26 Josh Lindblom MIL 2.4 Lorenzo Cain MIL 2.4 28 Freddy Peralta MIL 2.3 29 Kwang-Hyun Kim STL 2.2 30 Devin Williams MIL 2.1[/pre] Note: It's worth acknowledging Josh Hader won't actually finish with 4.1 WARP in his current role. His best seasons thus far have been 2.7 and 2.6 WARP.

Jed Lowrie signed a minor league free agent deal with the A's today. Lowrie finishes his time with the Mets getting paid $20 million for just 8 total plate appearances (he went 0-7 with a walk).

I wonder if their non-Turner plan could be something like this... vs RHP: Muncy at 1B; Rios at 3B vs LHP: Cooper at 1B; Muncy at 3B Muncy has reverse splits for his career, so better against LHP.

Agreed. The best chance the Brewers have for this type of signing is if Mark Attanasio is an admirer of Turner. Sort of reminds me a little bit of this Attanasio Q&A from 2013:

Per Ken Rosenthal: Mets interested in free-agent 3B Justin Turner, but parties not matching up on years/dollars, sources tell The Athletic. NYM also not sure what J.D. Davis might bring in a trade. Brewers owner Mark Attanasio intrigued by Turner as well. Dodgers (2-year deal?) remain best bet.

Yes, you're correct. It looks like IL moves can't be made until the start of the season. For some reason I was thinking the 60-day IL operated differently. So the Dodgers have to do something just to squeeze Bauer onto their roster, let alone make room for Turner. The blog Dodgers Nation speculates that OF/1B Luke Raley is the most likely potential DFA among the current 40-man roster. If that is the case the Brewers should be salivating to make a claim on Raley, a former Twins prospect sent to the Dodgers along with Brusdar Graterol in the Kenta Maeda trade last February, who would immediately become the best potential 1B prospect in the Brewers system (note: he hasn't actually played 1B the past couple of years). It makes sense for the Dodgers to ultimately workout a trade to free up 40-man space because seemingly everyone on their 40-man roster (that isn't tied into a bad contract) has some amount of trade value.

It's not often you see a team sign a guy to a minor league contract that has already made more than $140 million playing baseball.

Minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training. Per the Brewers Twitter account: Auburndale, Wisconsin resident RHP Jordan Zimmermann has been signed to a Minor League contract with an invitation to Major League camp.

The Braves continue to be mentioned. For the life of me I cannot figure out why they don't want to give Austin Riley the chance to run with the job. He's supposed to be the "next big thing" at the hot corner. The Braves Austin Riley and the Nationals Carter Kieboom are two players I get the sense their organizations aren't as high on as the overall baseball community.

Villar has signed with the Mets according to Jon Heyman.

I agree that it makes a ton of sense for Turner to want to return to the Dodgers to finish his career. I guess it is possible though the Dodgers really aren't overly motivated to bring him back and are only offering one year at a modest salary. From the Dodgers standpoint it does seem like they wouldn't be all that bad off if they moved on from Turner right now.

The Dodgers definitely seem to be to dragging their feet on making the necessary moves to their 40-man roster. With Bauer they are at 41 players for 40 spots. I've seen speculation that maybe they'll place someone on the 60-day IL, otherwise they have to be either working on a trade or DFA decision right now.