Ro Mueller

Keeping Janson Junk in the fold should clear up the one gray area which AAA Nashville appeared to have: starting pitching. SP (6): One of Gasser/Hall/Ashby, Junk, McKendry, CF Rodriguez, Myers, Patrick RP (8): One of Bukauskas/Vieira, Hudson, Clarke, Paredes, Koenig, Zastryzny, Meeker, Yeager C (3): Quero, One of Haase/Nola, Navarreto IF (7): Dunn, Miller, Capra, Clarke, Dorrian, One of Collins/Zamora, One of Arroyo/Hernandez OF (4): Perkins, One of Roller/Jones, Hicklen, Campbell We also typically stash up to 10 AAA players on various other lists to start the season - injured, development, temporarily inactive, ACL roster, etc. - e.g. (9) McGee, Crow, Shook, Middendorf, Thompson, Nola, Zamora, Hernandez, Jones.

Thanks for this. It's always interesting to see who makes significant progress year-over-year, like Andruw Monasterio, Wes Clarke, Isaac Collins and Patrick Dorrian last year. I also agree that guys like Areinamo and Cornielle are too talented and obvious to select. I really hope that you're correct on Alastre, Chirino and even the serviceability of Russell Smith. I'll throw out six more names - 3 straight-up candidates and 3 injury bounceback players: 1B/3B Zavier Warren - nice second half last year, switch-hitter, familiarity with Manager Joe Ayrault. He and Ernesto Martinez may take turns mashing at first base for AA Biloxi C Matt Wood - likely has more pop than he showed in 2023, which will hopefully come out with more time at High-A Wisconsin UT Noah Campbell - like Weston Wilson before him, Campbell never disappoints when given the chance to play. I hope he's fully healthy and produces solid offense and with his usual defensive versatility at AAA Nashville RHP Manuel Rodriguez - the organization appears to have pegged this 18-year old starting pitcher as someone special, which will hopefully show itself big time in ACL ball this year LHP Brandon Knarr - smart, crafty, capable starting pitcher with past success and a likely a chip on his shoulder after missing most of last season. Like Campbell, I hope he's healthy and delivers terrific results at AA Biloxi RHP Justin Yeager - this is perhaps too easy of a pick, but nobody seems to be talking about this now 26-year old, highly talented reliever who missed most of last season. After a solid showing in the Arizona Fall League (except for one game), I'm dreaming that Yeager will make the AAA Nashville bullpen and dominate there

If Keston can produce offensively like his ZIPS projection suggests, then there’s definitely a place for him in that lineup: - Hiura +4.3 Off - Carpenter +2.4 Off - Badoo +0.4 Off - Ibanez -3.1 Off - Vierling -4.4 Off - McKinstry -6.0 Off Wishing Hiura a terrific spring and season.

One advantage of the May 4 Arizona Complex League start date: Understanding that teams may release ~300 minor league players in late April / early May to accommodate the DSL->stateside promotions, this gives the released players a better chance to quickly join an independent league roster. The 12-team AAPB and 16-team Frontier League both start their seasons on May 9 this year and the 12-team Pioneer League (lower quality) gets going on May 21, although the 10-team Atlantic League (typically slightly older players) commences on April 25.

Might have to modify the title of this thread…

Ashby and Ortiz are missing too, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I wouldn’t want to be the staffer who omitted them though 🤦‍♂️

That would actually surprise me quite a bit, as we've historically preferred to wait until pitchers turn 20 before pushing them to full-season affiliate ball, with only Yujanyer Herrera, Juan Geraldo and Brailin Rodriguez reaching the Low-A level as 19-year olds in recent years. Of course, the new MILB roster limits will likely force a change in the Brewers' approach, but I'd expect that Josh Knoth, Bishop Letson, Bjorn Johnson, Hayden Robinson and Manuel Rodriguez are the sub 20-year old pitchers most likely to reach Low-A Carolina at some point this year.

Good luck fitting 19-year old RHP Joshua Quezada (acquired today from the Yankees for LHP Clayton Andrews) into that ACL roster picture! He had solid numbers for a first-year player in the DSL, averaged over 4 IP per outing and is about 5 months older than LHP Anthony Flores. Heck, he's older than RHP Josh Knoth, RHP Manuel Rodriguez, RHP Hayden Robinson, LHP Bjorn Johnson, RHP Bishop Letson, RHP Daniel Corniel and RHP Aneuris Rodriguez!

Yeah, the article says that’s one benefit of the shift, particularly for Arizona, where the average high temperature in Phoenix in August is 104 degrees.

Well, I was expecting the main system-wide cuts (making room for DSL->stateside promotions) to occur in the first week of June, but now it looks like it will be the first week of May instead. It also nearly shuts the draft classes out of same-season Arizona Complex League ball (Boeve debuted there on July 28, Wilken July 24; the ACL season now ends on July 25). I guess this is meant to keep ACL ball focused on younger players. But it's not a bad idea to shake things up. Promoted international signings will make their stateside debut earlier. Many drafted pitchers don't debut until the next season anyway, so this gives them a possible May ACL debut timeline, instead of waiting the extra month. It basically shortens Extended Spring Training from 2 months to 1 month. Per the article, they'll now organize some unofficial games for draftees and other ACL guys in August.

The last time MLB teams saw them, Joey Wiemer couldn't hit and Garrett Mitchell wasn't healthy enough (or something) to be trusted on the postseason roster. Maybe after they've shown their stuff in a few Spring Training games, some other club(s) will give a strong trade offer.

I suspect that 90% of the story is the pileup which slow free agency has caused (e.g. 124 MLB/AAA-level free agents on Fangraphs). So we’ve got a number of players out there still hoping to clinch an MLB contract or split contract. And within that group of 124 players are also guys who would typically sign MILB deals with a flexible opt-out, but that’s where MLB teams may be trying to exercise increased negotiating power to deny them the opt-out. It’s going to be a crazy spring training, with lots of fringe players being signed, DFA’d, claimed, DFA’d again…all while they’re supposed to be in camp!

Thank you Mass Haas. I suspect the first point of difficulty will occur when we option 11-14 guys to AAA at the end of March. Yeah, it’s likely to be an extremely competitive spring training (heck - season, considering the June stateside promotions, then subsequent draft pick additions) across the entire baseball landscape.

LHP Victor Garcia is listed on the transaction page now, so that just leaves one remaining: RHP Dalvin Bodre

Jackson ChourioJeferson QueroDL HallJoey OrtizTyler BlackRobert GasserJacob MisiorowskiCarlos F RodriguezBrock WilkenBradley BlalockLogan HendersonLuis LaraDaniel GuilarteJosh KnothCooper PrattShane SmithEric Brown JrLuke AdamsJuan BaezDylan O'Rae

I speculated on this possible constraint earlier:

Thanks. I’m really just trying to figure out how we’ll beef up our starting pitching and opening day payroll. Was looking at well-paid RHPs who are contractually locked in for several years - e.g. Musgrove, Berrios, Taillon, Walker, Alcantara, Darvish, Javier, etc. With Ashby, Gasser and Hall (and Miley this year), I figure we’re in promising shape as far as lefty starters go.

It's February 5 and the Padres only have 36 players on their 40-man MLB roster. Could they be expecting to deal 1 MLB player for 3 MLB players? How about: They re-sign LHP Blake Snell - thus maximizing his contract value, with no team having to give up a draft pick To shed salary, they trade RHP Joe Musgrove (or RHP Yu Darvish) to the Brewers for multiple players - e.g. Tyler Black, Bryce Wilson, Blake Perkins I don't know. Somebody smarter than me can figure out what would constitute a fair trade.

Monasterio - 3B/2B. Yeah, it wouldn’t be a shock to wake up to a trade of any of these players. But isn’t Cabrera’s walk-rate terrifying?

Good deal for the Twins, I think.

24-year old RHP Max Castillo (DFA’d by Boston) may be a reasonable option to replace Janson Junk (if he’s headed to Japan). Decent ground ball rate and WHIP, though lacking top velocity.

I don't see much point in having 3 MLB-caliber defensive shortstops, so I assume one of Adames, Turang or Ortiz will head out the door in the near future - most likely Adames obviously. I just don't really know what we need in return, given that we might give each of Ashby, Hall, Ross and Gasser a clear shot to win a starting rotation spot this spring. Also, we're already viewed as a .500-level team (or worse) after this Burnes trade, so how do you trade Adames without making us even worse in 2024? I guess we could use a right-handed starting pitcher (having lost Burnes, Woodruff, Houser and Teheran) and another solid bat. If we're willing to take on sizeable salary from another club, maybe that would be the key to not further weakening the MLB roster in an Adames trade. Maybe we could take on an expensive SP from the Rangers, Blue Jays, Braves or Astros, assuming one of them signs Snell or Montgomery.

I can't help but think that reduced Minor League roster rules are impacting the signing of minor league free agents, particularly starting pitchers in the case of the Brewers. Last offseason, we signed Colin Rea, Thomas Pannone, Collin Wiles, Robert Stock, Pedro Fernandez and Tobias Myers - who'd all predominantly started in AAA, Japan, Korea or Mexico in 2022. Thus far this offseason, the only signee which fits this profile is Easton McGee, but I believe he's still recovering from surgery. The next-closest signee is Chad Patrick (21 games in AA, 6 games in AAA in 2023). Maybe we want to see our young minor leaguers at Spring Training in March before making some tough cut decisions at those levels, before then adding available AAA-level free agents. We'll see. Or maybe I'm just bored and anxious and the experienced AAA-level minor league level signings (some with early opt outs) will come over the next 6 weeks.

I've not seen any follow-on confirmation on Janson Junk, but I think that where there's smoke there's usually fire with these things. If I remember right (David Freitas a few years ago), the Brewers can collect a fee for releasing him, so that negotiation may even be the hold-up. If Junk somehow stays, I assume we'll keep him stretched out as starting depth in AAA (catastrophe insurance for the Brewers), even if his best chance in MLB may actually be as a reliever. He just doesn't register enough strikeouts as a starter, even though his velocity is decent. However, we were relatively quick to give up on Ethan Small as a starter, so who really knows.

How dare they!: Twins Sign Caleb Boushley To Minor League Deal You'd better treat him well over there in St. Paul!!