Brock Beauchamp

Interesting they wanted the option year. I don't find Rea coming back surprising but the option makes me wonder if the Brewers see something there they might be able to maximize with more time.* *I'm not saying Rea will suddenly become a #2 starter, only that the Brewers see value there

I know the Brewers are desperate for a third baseman but COME ON.

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic! The first base market doesn't look good this offseason - most of the free agents aren't particularly compelling, really. Which is why I'm okay bringing back Santana for another year.

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic!

Ah yes, I forgot Canha's option, thank you!

I'm working on getting this year's payroll tool working - PLEASE DON'T USE IT YET - but would appreciate some feedback on some stuff. https://brewerfanatic.com/payroll-blueprint If you see a blank spot that could be filled or a player that should be moved, please say so Does anyone know a place that has published free agent contract estimates yet? I'm pretty lost on the pitcher side of FAs. Peruse the internal options and let me know if there's a player that belongs in that section. Thanks, everybody!

Great write-up, particularly on the names that kinda got lost in the shuffle over a long season. I hadn't really checked in on a bunch of those guys in months. 2024 is going to be a critical season for Areinamo, as I assume he'll be heading to Appleton to start the season.

The guaranteed length scares me here. If Woodruff was coming back from TJS, sure, let's do that. But I'm scared about a shoulder. If Woodruff comes back throwing 92mph, more than one guaranteed year will really hurt.

To be clear, I think expansion shuffles the postseason around quite a bit. I'm all in favor of re-thinking the entire postseason and only examined what slight tweaks might look like in a 30-team format.

A traditional five game series in the WC round is the best solution, I think. But it won’t happen because it basically forces MLB to shorten the regular season. My ideal solution would be to shorten the regular season to 156-158 and extend the WC round to five games with the DS series moving to seven games.

Yeah, my thoughts as well, though Counsell would have to be crazy to accept San Diego, given that Preller goes through managers like he's the ghost of George Steinbrenner.

I also suspect he's only willing to go 2024-2025. But the Brewers may as well try to get an option year in 2026, even though it's unlikely to happen. For the record, I think a 2024-2025 contract for $20m-ish is a good gamble.

Oh, his 2024 contract will be minimal, probably like $2-3m and then more guaranteed money in 2025. If the Brewers can negotiate it, an option for 2026 would be ideal. I’m basically ignoring 2024 because it’s a rehab year. You lock him up so he has facilities to rehabilitate, not any expectation of performance. The Twins have done this a few times, as have other teams. I think it’s a good strategy.

And the Brewers have granted permission to interview Counsell. AFAIK there is no interview date yet.

I split this into its own topic because I came here wanting to talk about the interview and didn't see anything about it. This is kind of a no-brainer for both sides. Woody needs a place to rehab, he likes it here, and the Brewers absolutely want a pitcher of his caliber. To me, the only real question is "do you sign him for 2025 or try to go 2025-2026?"

Love your use of WAR for starters and WPA for relievers here. I often do the same.

One year of peak Burnes is way more valuable than two years of Williams, IMO. The problem is that we haven’t consistently seen peak Burnes in awhile now.

There's a ton of chatter about the MLB postseason format and while I think it's blowing current issues out of proportion - we have all of two years of data from which to draw - I believe there is some merit to the criticisms. There's a relatively easy fix, though, and it can actually reduce the length of the postseason by a day should MLB wish to take that route. First, there are complaints about the number of teams in the postseason. I rather strongly disagree with this take; as a fan of multiple teams and a person who runs sites for several fanbases, it's simply more fun watching fans engage with their team until the end of September instead of losing interest in mid-August or earlier. The more engaged fanbases there are in the sport, the better the health of the sport overall. Plus, the postseason makes MLB buckets of money. Whether you like it or not, 12 postseason teams is going to be the standard moving forward. There is plenty of room to prioritize the regular season within this format. Here was the 2023 format: Oct 1: Game 162 Oct 2: Off Day Oct 3-5: Wild Card Games 1-3 Oct 6: Off Day Oct 7: Division Round Begins Most of the complaints of the current format revolve around two issues: prioritization of the best regular season teams and prolonged off-days for bye teams. As a response, I suggest removing off-days and stacking the Wild Card round even more in favor of the third division winner and the best wild card team (seed #4). Instead of a three game series, extend it to a five-game series with the home team receiving a "free win" going into the round. A similar format is used in the KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) and I think it's a good example to follow. This means the three and four seeds in the Wild Card - those two teams who host the round - have to win two games to win the "five game" series while the road team has to win three games to advance. This stacks the deck considerably against the lower-seeded teams, which is what most people seem in favor of doing. As a bonus, MLB might get more postseason games out of fourth Wild Card games. Secondly, get rid of the off-days, which impacts everyone in the Wild Card round. No longer do they have much hope in setting up their pitching and bullpen for the Division Series, they might back into that series having played as many as 7-8 games consecutively without a day off. If you add a potential game four and remove two off-days, this actually reduces the time off for the first and second-seeded bye teams by a day, reducing potential complaints about "rust" and "too much rest". Additionally, removing that first off-day after game 162 favors the Wild Card host teams, who are more likely to have sewn up a postseason spot days earlier, allowing them to enter the Wild Card round with their pitching set up for the postseason. My new format would have looked like this in 2023: Oct 1: Game 162 Oct 2-5: Wild Card Games 1-4 Oct 6: Division Round Begins Thoughts? What are your issues with the current postseason format and is this solution a good one?

Oh for sure, it's a less than great position to be in. Generally, I'm in favor of the "take a bunch of decent shots" over "take one or two great shots" but the Woodruff injury is really devastating to this team given the pending free agency of important players. Instead of letting them walk. I'd move a couple of them, patch together a decent team in 2024 and hope things break right for 88 wins, then really knuckle down and compete in 2025 and beyond.

The Woodruff injury really flipped my opinion on this. My goal would be to trade Burnes and Williams while extending Woodruff to a one-year deal in 2025, then retool as much as possible for that year. Also, extend William Contreras, please.

I'm coming to the opinion that the Brewers should move both Burnes and Williams this offseason. Make a patchwork attempt to compete, probably for a Wild Card, in 2024 and look more toward 2025 as the next wave of competitive baseball.

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I absolutely 100% do this. Chourio is soooo young that you can give him ten years and he still hits free agency at 30.

This comes out of left field but makes a lot of sense upon further examination. Terry Francona, long time Guardians manager, has retired and Cleveland is looking for a capable replacement, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic.. Francona has long been regarded as one of the best managers in the game, an attribute now shared by Counsell. Initially, what surprised me most about this is that the Guardians are notoriously cheap... what I didn't realize is that the one place they haven't been cheap is manager. Counsell is one of the more highly-paid managers in the sport and the departing Francona actually made more money. It's still unclear whether Counsell is actually interested in leaving Milwaukee - his childhood home town - or if he's trying to leverage other teams into a better paycheck from the Brewers. View full rumor