Jopal78

Then again temper your expectations of what you get in today’s game for a veteran player with one season of control. Look no further than Freddy Peralta (the most valuable commodity a starting pitcher). Time will tell on Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat, but the immediate impact from the players they got for Peralta has been next to nothing.

Players seemingly care more about the total guarantee and AAV. Thus, why not reverse those numbers and front load an extension? For example, 5 yrs/125 million. Then pay $30M in ‘27, $28 in ‘28, etc. diminishing each season. That way Contreras gets the big guarantee, resets the AAV as the top catcher in baseball, while Milwaukee retains flexibility if his performance falls off down the road especially as salaries continue to inflate.

There isn’t much comparable between Jose Quintana and May. Dustin is 8+ years younger, bigger, and throws his fastball in the upper 90s. You’re right, May has frequently been unavailable due to injury (arm injuries, esophagus tear) which is why he was playing on a one year deal to begin with. As for the rest, welcome to the scarcity of starting pitching in MLB where “Meh” gets $12M-$15M per annum without much hesitation from teams.

He made 12.5 million dollars in ‘26 coming off a season with LA and Boston where his era was 5.00. This season his era and WHIP were better and he threw more innings than in 2025. I get it, you don’t like the guy but do you truly think he’s going to take a pay cut? Further, if he and his agents suspected he was going to take a drastic pay cut, they were pretty foolish in declining their half of the $20 million dollar mutual option. The only thing he had to lose by exercising his chance is the opportunity to get more than a $20M guarantee should the Brewers have exercised their half (unlikely).

Sure seems like May prefers to sign with someone before the lockout. Thus he declined his mutual option at the first moment he was able to (the day after the World Series). Now the Brewers have exclusive negotiating rights for 5 days after the World Series (fwiw) then May can sign with anyone.

A little love to JoJo Romero. Very quietly was a bulldog in the playoffs. 8 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11K.

Nearly as big as the shock of the Brewers winning the World Series is seeing Willson Contreras in a Brewers jersey

That Matt Arnold, wily like a fox: trading for Dustin may knowing that having that guy pretty much guarantees you win the World Series as evidenced by May’s now fourth World Series ring this decade.

Arguably the Rays staff may be in better shape on the whole. Yes, Rasmussen on short rest, but Matz, Cleavinger and Sulser did not pitch last night. Kelly and Bryan Baker should be good to go as well. With Peralta probably able to give them an innings

Can’t it be both? All those years where the Brewers were knocked out by teams that were hot in the playoffs (Cardinals in ‘11, Nationals on ‘19, Braves in ‘21, Arizona in ‘23), like those teams the Brewers have played even better than in the regular season. I dogged Sal Frelick and he had a bad season but he’s been nails in the post season. Somebody had a front page article this season dogging Contreras for having a down year and he’s been a monster in the post season, Yelich too, and the list goes on and on. They’re a good squad to begin with and will get the monkey off their back because they’ve got hit at the right time and fonally caught a few lucky breaks along the way in the playoffs offs.

Perhaps you know Counsell and he’s spoken about it with you (seriously I’m not being a wise guy). But otherwise, there is very little loyalty in professional sports. When folks play (or manage/coach) games for money, they almost always go where the money is. (Counsell even left Milwaukee as a free agent after 2004 for a 2-year guarantee with Arizona). To do the same job for more pay in Chicago than Milwaukee while still being able to sleep in your own bed a couple nights a week during the season, is probably as far as it goes for Craig.

Stearns almost assuredly has zero regret leaving the Brewers to go to the Mets. He planned his exit from Milwaukee years in advance. In fact, Stern resigning as president of baseball operations with one year left on his contract was actually doing the Brewers a favor instead of leaving them in the lurch. Counsell clearly wanted the money more than anything else and most likely has zero regrets leaving the Brewers either.

It’s an interesting thought, but I can’t buy in to the fact they gave McManus a $5M guarantee then cut him, burn a draft pick in Smack while really Orzech has been the problem the whole time.

Haha. Maybe, but Smack has been terrific from 50 plus yards, so missing the easy ones probably isn’t due to the snap.