Jopal78

But even #6 is kind of a goofy position to take. An intriguing prospect, absolutely. But still a child, and multiple seasons away from being a regular in the majors. Moreover, with only low level minors experience, but good numbers at that, anything can still happen to his trajectory at this point: boom or bust. With that being said, all of their key every day major leaguers are more valuable to the organization in the here and now, as well as the few premium prospects they have who are near major league ready.

I don’t want to hurt the author’s feelings, but if Tellez and Winker are the Brewers 9th and 10th most valuable assets they’re in big trouble. They might not even be the 9-10th most valuable assets on their 40 man roster.

He was up in 2019, ‘20, ‘21 and ‘22. He also played in the minors in ‘19, ‘21 and ‘22. Garlick broke camp with the Phillies in ‘20 but was optioned to the alternate site by the Phillies in ‘20. Who knows maybe he has 5 option years, or his minor league time in ‘22 was a rehab assignment. Either way he’s a journeyman, and the Brewers have better OF options ruling out any sort of trade. Nothing wrong with an NRI I suppose, but Garlick likely wouldn’t take one to Milwaukee as there likely isn’t a path to regular playing time.

He was up in 2019, ‘20, ‘21 and ‘22. He also played in the minors in ‘19, ‘21 and ‘22. Garlick broke camp with the Phillies in ‘20 but was optioned to the alternate site by the Phillies in ‘20. Who knows maybe he has 5 option years, or his minor league time in ‘22 was a rehab assignment. Either way he’s a journeyman, and the Brewers have better OF options ruling out any sort of trade. Nothing wrong with an NRI I suppose, but Garlick likely wouldn’t take one to Milwaukee as there likely isn’t a path to regular playing time.

He’s 30+, out of options, a platoon player and defensive liability. He should have his choice of NRI offers when the Twins release him. The Brewers probably have 5-6 OFers they like better.

He’s 30+, out of options, a platoon player and defensive liability. He should have his choice of NRI offers when the Twins release him. The Brewers probably have 5-6 OFers they like better.

I don't understand the point of this article, besides the obvious click bait. It ignores recent Brewers history; they are typically more of a player in free agency late in the off-season: Trevor Hoffman--January 8th Mike Cameron--January 11th Yasmani Grandal--January 14th Nori Aoki--January 17th Matt Garza--- January 28th Lorenzo Cain-- January 26th Kolten Wong--February 5th Mike Moustakas--February 19th Jackie Bradley Jr.--March 8th Kyle Lohse--March 25th (Plus, other veterans on year cheap deals: Jim Edmonds, Zach Duke, Wade Miley x2, McCutchen etc.). If anyone expected the Brewers to be players in November and December for the premium free agents, they were dreaming in the first place. Now certainly one could credibly argue as of January 9th, 2023 the free agent class is mostly picked over; however what the Brewers have spent on free agents so far and what that means, is mostly worthless given their track record over the last 10-15 years.

I threw Oliver in there because he played a long time in MLB and was the catcher on the ‘90 Reds World Series team. Brewers have not had many catchers in modern times with a ring (Damian Miller had one too, he could go here too but he went downhill with Milwaukee his first year).

Dave Nilsson should be #1. He was the best hitting catcher they’ve had. Even moving him around to keep him healthy he still caught 300 games for the Brewers. Surhoff would be #2. Debuted as a 22 year old less than two seasons after being drafted #1 overall and caught nearly 700 games and mostly before he was moved out from behind the plate to keep him fresh. Lucroy would be #3. You could argue he should be 1 or 2 but he was a chump on his way out of town, nixing the trade to Cleveland because he thought it would hurt his earnings then missing out on the World Series and never getting a multiyear contract anyways. #4 Raul Casanova because he had a fantastic name and hit pretty well for a catcher but was a Brewer only for a short period of time. #5 Joe Oliver. 13 year MLB veteran with a World Series ring, who somehow found himself in Milwaukee after the ‘94 strike. Went out put up a career year with the Brewers in ‘95 and re-signed with the Reds thereafter.

Still Topa is a pre-arbitration eligible major league relief pitcher. Frankly, I’ll be surprised if either Topa carves out a significant major league career or Hernandez makes the majors with the Brewers. like with Suter, it seems that Topa wasn’t in their plans and instead of simply cutting him loose to fend for himself, they orchestrated a departure where he goes right on to a 40 man roster and doesn’t lose any pay or benefits.

Renfroe cost $10 million more than Topa

You want to crucify the guy for not pouring his personal income into the operating budget of one of his many businesses, solely in the name of pride? Attanasio didn’t get rich being that stupid. The Brewers are in one of the worst and arguably the worst market in MLB. Nobody has ever really suggested they’re not doing everything they can do to win with the resources their market provides, rather it is that whatever they’re doing isn’t good enough.

6 yrs/75 million is the going rate for a player with two more years experience so probably somewhere nearer there than 40 million. Probably would be a bad bet to lock up a player until they actually see him play regularly for awhile.

In today's baseball game, the manager is well aware of players' stats, splits, metrics, etc. In fact, all the teams employ people to have that information at their disposal. Yet despite being aware of the stats and metrics with Hiura, they played other players most of the time. Thus there was a reason he didn't play more which trumped his OPS vs. RIH pitching, and it's too bad none of the journalists on the beat ever asked the reason.

In the real world, teams don't trade for a player hoping to "flip" him later and come out ahead. Somebody very well could want to take a shot on Hiura, given his draft status and homerun total, but since he'll likely be freely available talent before opening day, it's hard to see the Brewers getting anything but "cash considerations" or the PTNBL.

Right!, No team is going to give the Brewers assets in exchange for Hiura, when the odds are pretty good he will be DFA'd by Milwaukee at some point. Hiura doesn't have a path to regular playing time, and is out of options which I'm sure he knows is not a good position to be in. Since arbitration salaries are not guaranteed until opening day there is no risk for Milwaukee bringing him to camp as depth. In defense of Hiura it's also worth noting that so far the 2017 MLB draft is shaping up to have been sort of thin on hitting talent, and especially from College. Hiura has the most at bats of any player in that draft class, followed closely by Pavin Smith. Hiura's career rWAR is 1.3 to Smith's 0.4. Hiura's rWAR is 7th to date of all players taken in 2017 regardless of position. Looking at the other college hitters taken in the first round: #4 overall pick-Brendan McKay (TB) drafted to pitch and hit, solely pitched in the majors, tore his UCL in his 13th game and was released (then ultimately resigned to a minor league deal). #6 overall pick-Austin Beck (Oak) is still spinning his wheels in the minors with a .252/.303/.384 #8 Adam Haseley (PHI) was traded to the White Sox in '22 for a minor league pitcher and former 14th round pick in 2019. #10 Jo Adell (LAA) similar to Hiura has nothing to prove in the minors, but has struggled even more to produce in major leagues (.215/.259/.356 in 557 PAs) #17 Evan White (SEA) won a gold glove at 1B his rookie year, but produced .165/.235/.308 so far at the plate in the majors before suffering a hip injury then missing half of 2021 and all of 2022, and seemingly losing his spot to Ty France in the process. #22 Logan Warmouth (TOR) is 27 and has produced .243/.335/.355 in 1700 minor league PAs. #23 Jeren Kendall (LAD) will be 27 in February and has yet to reach AAA with a minor league slash line of .209/.303/.390 #32 Jeter Downs (CIN) has been traded twice and was recently put on waivers by Boston. #33 Kevin Merrell (OAK) is 27, has yet to debut in the majors and is with his 3rd organization (MIN). #34 Brian Miller (MIA) will turn 28 next August and in 2200 minor league PAs has a slash line of .285/.341/.375. #34 Brent Rooker (MIN) has also been traded twice and was recently acquired by Oakland off waivers from Kansas City.

If Carlos Rodon is getting 6 years/162 million dollars, that is probably a comparable deal for Woodruff and Burnes would be selling himself a bit short at that price. Burnes and Woodruff are as good as gone, because I don't think the Brewers are ever going to have two players making 25+ million dollars per year. Maybe they can get Adames to take a little less, but the free agent signings this winter have pretty much doomed any realistic chance the Brewers had for extending any of those three players.

Ok, last post on this. You're proving my point: by the time the players you mentioned above debuted in the major leagues none of them were "prospects" anymore if they ever were (unless of course you are defining anyone who plays in the minors as a prospect). Further, Lutz was born in 1998 he's going to be 25 on his next birthday which occurs in summer. You're really arguing semantics. He finished 2022, and his second consecutive season, in AA with a sub .800 OPS that occurring with half his games played at DH. Lutz was drafted in 2017 and is going on 25.... sometimes if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it probably is.

Define it for me then. Seems like every player in the minor leagues is a "prospect" by your definition. If that is the case, and you think Lutz is still a "prospect" then I can't really help you either. Lutz was drafted out of high school over 5 1/2 years ago. He's going to be 25 during the '23 season yet he hasn't seen AAA. Sure, he had a nice year in AA as a 24 year old, but big time "prospects" like Jacob Reetz and Andruw Monasterio blew his numbers out of the water. Anyways, this is getting way off topic, I'll wait and see: maybe Arnold is a genius getting a couple of diamonds in the rough along with Contreras, or just maybe because they let go of 7 pitchers who pitched for them in the majors in '22, and at least another 5 from their AAA roster they simply needed to add some bodies (sorry "prospects") to the organization.

I really don't know what you did with your time, because two of the three you mentioned are less than a calendar year from being 6-year minor league free agents.... by that rationale Corey Ray is still a prospect, no? You haven't really disputed the hypothesis: teams really don't leave "prospects" un-protected. It's organization soldiers, players who can't stay healthy, and players that may have a tool or two, but also come with significant question marks (Yeager-nice strike out numbers but will never see the majors walking 5+ batters per 9 in the minors). Great trade, I'm happy about it. To me the pitchers are nothing more than bodies that the Brewers could have likely picked up this off season anyways.

Yes, case in point. Lutz and Castaneda are closer to six year minor league free agents than they are “prospects” regardless of what the lists may say. I don’t know anything about Valerio besides he came over with Bobby Wahl (remember him) for Keon Broxton. Besides being outside of the top 5 or 10 on those lists doesn’t mean much anyhow.

I guess, but in the same vein that Jandel Gustave is a useful bullpen arm (and the Brewers already dropped him). As for Yeager, he was available in the Rule 5 draft. Ask yourself who the last “prospect” was the Brewers left unprotected in the Rule 5 draft? Nothing wrong with adding two pitchers, I’m just not slapping the GM on the back for fleecing teams out of these two guys who most likely were/ soon were to be freely available to every team.

That maybe so, but there’s a reason he’s been with 5 organizations in the last two years.

The A’s just DFA’d two players today. Had the Brewers not taken Payamps, odds are he would’ve been DFA’d anyways. As for the “prospect,” Yeager was available in the Rule 5 draft, but apparently wasn’t worth the $50,000 fee as he went unselected. Nothing wrong with picking up a live arm for essentially for free, but not really a “prospect”.

I hope the Brewers stay far away from Cueto. He had a nice start to the '22 season but completely ran out of gas, and gave up 25 earned runs over his final 39+ innings. With the mileage on his arm, and that he will be 37 by opening day, Cueto is a real risk to be effective.