Jopal78

Sure he’s just 25, but he has a lot of MLB experience including the last three years in Milwaukee and parts of a couple seasons in San Diego. Admittedly, any player can work on their game and improve, but unless you mean he’s going to pack on 20 lbs of muscle he’s probably very close to his ceiling as a .330/.420 player.

Those clamoring for the free agent signings should review their Brewers history. Most of their recent free agent signings were at cut rate prices or were one year deals. Clearly with the money being thrown around right now players aren’t going to be signing for cut rate prices or looking for one year deals, give it 6-8 weeks.

Fall out from Contreras trade. Feliciano in last option year and not yet ready for prime time. Hiura’s seat is getting warmer unless all these infielders are going to play at AAA

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.

Like the last time he was a free agent, I don't think Turner has any real intention of playing anywhere else (He's 38, from LA, still lives in LA, and has played for LA for nearly a decade). My bet is he is waiting until Los Angeles makes their other moves then comes back to him with what they're willing to pay him.

I hope they still add some quality instead of quantity in the bullpen, as some of these guys have question marks. Payamps is out of options and has now been with 5 different organizations since over the last two years, and was probably a DFA candidate for Oakland anyways. Same deal with Yeager, he was left unprotected by the Braves in the Rule 5 draft last week and went unclaimed. Javy Guerra is also out of options and with his 3rd organization of 2022. Certainly, no harm done in trying to find lightning in a bottle, but I do hope they still add some pitchers with more proven track records.

I’m not in disagreement, it’s a good trade getting a starting caliber catcher by dealing from an area of depth. However, the original posters statement “paraphrased” was this trade was bigger than any thing Stearns did. They traded for a guy with less than 600 PAs in the major leagues. Maybe he’ll end up being a middle of the order slugger for the next 5 years, but first he has to go out in ‘23 and do it again. The biggest/best trade since 2015… a guy with 500+ PAs? Nah.

Law not very high on Ruiz. He wrote, Ruiz can run and make contact but his hard contact is lacking and Ruiz has not been one of his 100 prospects (nor were any of the prospects in this three way trade).

Murphy might be the best catcher outside of Realmuto; he can hit and play defense and the Braves won a pennant 14 months ago. While Contreras had a big year and they have d’Arnaud this move was adding a premier player and clearing the logjam they had at catcher

Come on, it’s not like they traded for Mickey Mantle. There’s not a team out there that wouldn’t have the other Contreras brother’s production, so it’s definitely adding a promising player to a position of need but not some franchise altering trade

Well, Langeliers was the #9 overall pick three years ago, and has put up good minor league numbers, I don't think the A's wanted another starting caliber catcher. The Braves already had a log-jam with Pina, d'Arnaud and Contreras. Sometimes a team like the Brewers is in the right place at the right time, with a stack of MLB ready outfielders and a need at catcher.

Maybe some front office folk in Atlanta do use it to "check their work". hahaha

Or...maybe because he has never pitched more than 75 innings in any season as a pro, and has had two Tommy John procedures, they're simply trying to protect the arm of a 26 year old front of the rotation starter whom they control for another four seasons....sheesh. Rasmussen was a 2.9 WAR pitcher last year in 28 starts,...Woodruff was a 2.7 WAR pitcher across 27 starts

If teams shifted against Tellez 80% of the time and it was an effective strategy against his bat, I assume they would just go with a two man outfield, put the shift on him with the outfielder and take their chances because he's not much of a runner should he hit one the other way.

The 2021 team which had Burnes, Woodruff, Peralta, Houser and Lauer won 95 games. The 2022 team had Peralta, Woodruff and Houser all miss time with injuries. In their place Jason Alexander, Chi Chi Gonzalez Ethan Small and Andy Ashby make 32 starts for the Brewers. Those four combined for a WHIP of 1.56, they allowed a total of 26 homers in 158 innings (1.48/9). Next, their bullpen just wasn't as good as it was in '21 and they had several relievers pitch a significant amount of innings and perform poorly: Taylor Rogers, Matt Bush, Trevor Kelley pitched a combined 69.2 innings allowing 61 hits, 30 walks (1.31 WHIP) and allowing an astronomical 21 homeruns (2.71/9). Thus I don't think Matt Arnold's task in putting together the 2023 roster is complicated. They intend to rely on the same starting pitching from '21 to win games for them in '23 and are banking on having better health. That they jettisoned Suter, (66 IP) Boxberger (64 IP), Gott (45.2 IP), Gustave (28 IP), Perdomo (23.2 IP) along with Rogers leaving as a FA means the Brewers are making nearly wholesale changes to their bullpen and hoping for improvement there. Certainly, the Renfroe trade appears to fit that narrative as Junk, Pegeuro and Seminaris could all be competing for bullpen spots in '23. I would also assume the Brewers will be shoppers for free agent relievers once the closers have signed and set the market. As someone else pointed out, they also appear to be moving away from the "all or nothing" type of hitters who rip 30 homeruns and struggle to reach an .800 OPS. Further, as would be expected of any team without a 200 million dollar payroll, their prospects and bonus babies who reached AAA (Mitchell, Frelick etc.) will be given a crack at making the major league team. I would also expect the Brewers to be bargain shopping for 3B, C and even 1B and are willing to wait out players like Drury, Justin Turner, Jorge Alfaro, Gary Sanchez, Brandon Belt, Evan Longoria, Wil Myers Edwin Rios etc.

The guy blasted 35 homers yet didn’t crack a .775 OPS, which tells me he hits homers and not much else…. and is most likely why he was available in the first place. We can agree to see things differently. In my view, Tellez is a Brewer because he’s still relatively cheap at a position where they have no other real options , but that does not change that he’s “just a guy;” which is exactly what the two players were whom they gave up to get him.

Tellez hasn’t made the team noticeably better (They we’re already way out in front when they added Tellez in ‘21 and they took a step backwards in ‘22 with him for a full year). How is that not a lateral move, regardless of whom they traded? That’s the point.

That series wasn’t close at all! Haha. Plus one of his “big homers” was in a loss…. Who cares.