If there’s a thread to belabor the point, I guess this is it.
My guess is the Brewers see Smith as a swingman (like Junis, whose signing we likely regret; and Bryse Wilson / Elvin Rodriguez, who are cheap and walk fewer batters), which they simply value less than starters and relievers.
If Smith ends up being a star (unlikely, I admit - baseball is tough!), we could look back on this as a mis-reading of positional value in a similar manner as Paul Molitor (just a DH) and Casey Hayward (just a slot corner).
With that framing, it would mean they placed Smith:
- behind 3+ pitch starters like CF-Rod and Patrick (regretting having believed in Ethan Small once);
- behind super-special relievers like Uribe and (expected) Yoho (regretting having protected Cam Robinson once);
- behind a less walk-prone swingman like Elvin Rodriguez.
My beef on this is simply that I think we were better off trading Smith like we did Justin Topa (even though his return was admittedly low) -> something in return being better than nothing.