ewitkows

After the draft in June

4 vs STL 3-1 3 @ Cin 2-1 3 vs Chi 2-1 3 @ LAA 2-1 3 @ LAD 1-2 3 vs STL 2-1 4 vs LAD 3-1 3 @ STL 2-1 3 @ NYM 2-1 2 vs Col 1-1 20-11

The deal includes a $750K base salary along with unspecified incentives, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter).

Brewers 95 Cubs 92 Cards 90 Pirates 81 Reds 79

You always need pitching depth. Not really sure what they are going to get out of Anderson,Davies, Nelson.

He's no worse than Braun, I don't care if he's a punk as long as he helps us win a WS

Not really, Austin has options or could be part of the trade to the Marlins

Cubs?

That's a lot of monry for a DH

no trade clause. If he sucks, they are stuck with him

11 the first year and 11.5 the 2nd with a 2.5 mil buyout

MLB traderumors changed it again and now Pofar is indeed headed to the A's

Profar is going to the Rays. Profar is the only piece headed to the Rays, per Passan. The A’s will receive Oakland’s Competitive Balance pick, reliever Emilio Pagan (from Oakland) and minor league lefty Rollie Lacy (from Texas). The Rangers, meanwhile, will acquire minor leaguers Brock Burke, Eli White, Kyle Bird, Yoel Espinal and international bonus allotments.

One less spot for Lowrie to go

I pay for XM radio so I don't have to listen to this crap. I'm a big fan of the MLB station except for Russo

The defending World Series champion Red Sox are at least opening the door to some surprising sell-side moves, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter links). Though the club is obviously not going to divert from its attempt to repeat, it seems there’s a movement afoot to pare back some existing payroll. The true end goal here isn’t clear. Boston already splurged to re-sign Nathan Eovaldi, giving him a four-year deal at a $17MM rate of pay, and it doesn’t seem as if the club is interested in doing anything that would substantially harm its competitive position. The division, after all, promises to be quite competitive — to say nothing of the top-heavy American League. Still, the Sox are said to be “openly listening” to offers for veteran right-hander Rick Porcello, who’ll earn $21MM this year before reaching free agency. Yet more surprisingly, the club is said to be “willing to talk about” star shortstop Xander Bogaerts (projected $11.9MM arbitration salary in final season of eligibility) and quality center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. ($7.9MM, second-to-last season of eligibility). Parting with any of these players would clearly harm the team’s 2019 roster — unless, that is, there was a plan in place to add a different piece to fill the opening. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets that the idea would indeed be to repurpose any payroll savings, perhaps opening the door to some bullpen reinforcements. While that’s sensible from one perspective, it still feels like an incomplete picture. After all, it’s not as if the Boston organization has high-quality fill-in pieces knocking down the door. In Porcello’s case, at least, there’s an argument that the Red Sox have sufficient depth after bringing back Eovaldi, but it obviously wouldn’t be as good as the sturdy 29-year-old. Bogaerts is not remotely replaceable from within; presumably, the club would go onto the market for a different option at short. As for Bradley, it’s easy to imagine Andrew Benintendi taking over in center, but that’d still leave an outfield opening that would need to be addressed in some regard (perhaps in part through reliance upon Steve Pearce and other existing reserves). It’s fair to wonder just what the Sox could anticipate recouping in hypothetical trades. Porcello’s hefty salary limits his appeal, making him more of a candidate to be dealt for another spendy veteran or perhaps a limited prospect return. Bogaerts has plenty of rental value, though the Red Sox would be dealing with fellow contenders to find a fit and there’s limited demand at the shortstop position. Bradley is controllable for two years and could fit in plenty of places, though his offensive numbers have been down and he’s not the type of piece that most teams would go wild to acquire — particularly with some similar players potentially also available via trade. Generally speaking, boosting the farm would certainly be of interest, but it’d be quite tricky to do that and save money without significantly damaging the team’s immediate competitiveness. Sussing out how this potential strategy could make sense in the aggregate is frankly difficult to do without contemplating multiple successive transactions. It’s certainly a fascinating development for the Red Sox and the broader market, but it is tough to guess at this point how it might all play out.

Can he pitch?

The challenges in moving Cano are obvious. Though the eight-time All-Star remained productive when on the field in 2018, he turned 36 in October, missed 80 games this past season due to a PED suspension and is owed a hefty $120MM over the final five seasons of a 10-year, $240MM contract (signed under former Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik). Cano also has the ability to veto a trade to any team, which only further muddies an already unenviable situation for Dipoto & Co. Warts aside, Cano hit .303/.374/.471 with 10 homers and 22 doubles through 348 plate appearances when he wasn’t suspended in 2018 — including a .317/.363/.497 line upon returning from that 80-game ban. Both OPS+ and wRC+ pegged his overall offensive contribution at 36 percent better than that of a league-average hitter (after being weighted for league and his hitter-friendly home park). Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating each indicated that Cano was an above-average defender at second base in 561 innings there, and he even dabbled at the infield corners a bit in ’18. From MLBtraderumors.com If we wanted to go into win now mode and I think we could be ok with taking on 50 Mil/ 10mil per year, this could be an option. Who knows , he may get popped again and then we'd be off the hook.

On the radio they were talking Gray for Schoop

I don't want pitchers past their primes and paying them $30M to do it. Paying pitchers 35+ years or older is foolish for a team like the Brewers. I don't care how they compare against our staff's numbers in that instance. Find younger pitching that you can control. That is the key to our sustainable success. This move would allow our pitchers an extra year or 2 to develop into those TOR pitchers, instead of just throwing them out there for 180 innings and hoping for the best.

I don't know if there are a lot of large market teams looking for older pitching. I can't see the Dodgers/Yank/Red Sox or Cubs going for him. Maybe the Nats or the Phils if they miss out on Machado/Harper. Houston might be a possibility , I'm not sure where their payroll is.

The Diamondbacks are “aggressively shopping” righty Zack Greinke, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). With $95.5MM of salary still due over the next three years, he’s an expensive option. But the deal is at least cabined in length, and the Snakes have a good shot at getting out from under most of it. (Alternatively, the club might be able to pay down a larger portion and recoup some talent in a swap — or go in the other direction and include additional talent to make the whole contract go away.) It’s still largely unclear how things will shake out, but the fact that the Arizona organization is looking for a taker certainly makes a trade seem quite plausible. Say we pay half of this and throw in a lotto ticket, this might not be a bad avenue to go down. 3/48 for Greinke isn't that bad of a contract.

He's on MLBTR's list of non tender candidates. He'll have had an off season to work on the shoulder and get his strength back. Could be a great buy low bullpen arm on a minor league deal .

Honestly I think Hiura can hit as well as Whit right now. I don't see the point in giving anyone up for him.

It would be something like Woodruff or Burnes /Hura/Domingo and one other piece