MNBrew

Knebel was indeed pretty decent in Sept. 2020, too. He was a calculated risk either way -- keep him or let him go in some way -- monetary or loss of a good bullpen arm. I don't like that we let him go, but I agree that the Brewers are pretty consistently decent at filling the BP with capable arms, and the ones that don't pan out don't stick around forever anyway. As others have said, the corner IF spots are a much more glaring need for the limited resources we have -- though I don't say "limited" to mean we have nothing to spend, just that the dollars available are not infinite (so much for Arenado!) and what we have to spend must to be used wisely. I doubt it would happen -- and if it could, I have no idea how -- but I wonder if somehow the PTBNL part of this could somehow expand into a bigger part 2 of this deal where we might land some stronger (possibly blocked) prospect capital from LA.

If the interest is low elsewhere and is sincere from MIL, I'd think the chance for regular playing time for Travis Shaw in MIL would hold some appeal. He & Gyorko are known quantities and would possibly make quite a nice fit here. Those two & Vogelbach -- assuming they're functioning & hitting mostly like their better selves -- could mean good production at a very reasonable cost. The Rule 5 idea is intriguing, too, but that always seems to be as much or more a matter of catching lightning in a bottle, which we already do enough at the MLB level. Based on Rollie Time's payroll analysis above, there should be at least some money available to pay something of consequence for outside help that could make a difference.

Isn't the 26-man roster a set thing going forward?

Signing Maile and resigning both Pina & Narvaez sure suggests either Nottingham or Freitas is on their way our the door. To me, it has to be only a matter of time before Freitas is gone because Maile most likely is AAA-bound since he has an option remaining.

I still think the Brewers can offer Knebel an incentive-laden contract with a $4.1M base/guarantee (20% max reduction rule) and that is quite possibly more than he'd see on the open market coming off of so-so year in his 2nd year after TJ surgery. I do think LaStella would be a solid add and while I don't love moving Hiura, those two trades have some good logic to them.

Being in Twins territory, do you have a feel of what the Twins would be willing to give up to get Hader? Trevor Larnarch is intriguing and he's close to MLB ready. Maybe a Larnarch and Balazovich/Jeffers? I really like Arraez because he's such an on-base machine so would love to somehow get him too. Honestly, I don't. But with the Twins putting Eddie Rosario on outright waivers today, I'd be all the more surprised to see one or both of their top OF prospects traded right now (granted, Kirilloff is also very much a 1B possibility, though the Twins also have Sano there). Last year's Twins 4 primary OF: Rosario, Buxton, Kepler, & Marwin Gonzalez.... Rosario seems to be on his way out the door for cost-control reasons, Buxton's track record with injuries makes Ryan Braun look like he's pretty consistently healthy, & Marwin Gonzalez is a free agent. Hmmm.....

Before budget factors come into play, I think it's pretty clear Narvaez, Pina, & Nottingham are all ahead of him. Freitas is a hitting savant in AAA but is nearly 32 and has never hit a lick in the majors, and since Maile has an option left, I see Freitas as the first guy who should be worried about his spot. I can't see them keeping 6 catchers on the 40-man into spring training. There's the obvious non-tender question looming with Narvaez & Pina, but it's possible they tender both of them and eventually entertain trade options for one of them or Nottingham if all 3 guys are healthy. And with the 26-man roster, they could keep all 3 catchers, especially since Pina has logged some time at 1B. That would buy time and/or enable the space for all 3 of them. And even if both Pina & Narvaez make the projected arby amounts for '21, under $5M for the C tandem isn't exactly breaking the bank even with a sub-$100M payroll. For whatever could be good about Nottingham, he still hits & strikes out at Keon Broxton-like rates. Of course they also say catchers take more time to develop. The only thing that's sure is this: Last year didn't put any C out in front of the others as a sure favorite entering this race, and nothing about Maile's track record suggests he deserves 26-man spot above any of the other guys.

I'm not crazy about seeking Hader trade ideas, and I think uncertainty at the back end of the bullpen can undo a team's confidence in a hurry, but this idea makes some sense to me. I'd guess that at least one of the prospects needs to be pretty consequential.

^^Just made this point in the off-season plans thread. Coming off a missed 2019 & a 2020 with a bad month of August (albeit with a good September -- and all of 2020 being small-sample-city!) could Knebel really expect to do better than 80% of his $5.125M salary on the open market if he's non-tendered? Isn't it kind of a known thing that many TJ guys struggle somewhat compared to their previous performance in their first full year back on the mound? This was a shortened year, but still... I think I want him around and it's worth negotiating a $4.1M-ish base with ample incentives for security at the back end of the bullpen.

BTW, as a Brewers fan up here in Twins Territory, Twins fans are salivating over Kirilloff. I doubt we'd get him -- let alone with good-contact-guy Arraez -- for Hader. I like the proposed deal a lot. I'm just very skeptical that it's realistic. Then again, Taylor Rogers proved mortal and Sergio Romo was set adrift, so it's possible the Twins might pay a good price for Hader.

Knebel missed 2019 and took a while to find his form in 2020, his first season back from TJ surgery. But he pitched decently in Sept. (noting, of course, that everything about 2020 can have "small sample size" called on it). Isn't it still true that you can offer players a pay cut of no more than 20% in arbitration? If so, then the Brewers could offer Knebel something in the $4.2M range -- either via arbitration or in pre-arb negotiations (the latter with some reasonable performance-based incentives) -- and it still probably represents more than any offer he'd see in a somewhat flooded market after the non-tender deadline, given baseball's COVID-depressed economy. If it's me calling the shots, if Knebel can come anywhere close to his usual good form, it's worth the security of having Hader, Williams, and a now-healthy Knebel at the back end of a strong bullpen. If Hader falters or things get a little too dicey, Knebel has the kind of meaningful closing experience we'd be hoping & praying to land for a song over the winter if we let Knebel go. And that would allow Williams to stay in a role where he's already successful.

The real deal! This is the first time since the new logo merch has been on the online team shop that that stuff isn't excluded from a sale.

I always start out thinking these things will be fun to read and in the end, the Brewers rank too low for my uniforms tastes and WAY too many teams that existed before 1960 (and are still in that city) are given credit for a classic look. I liked in this one that the usually most highly revered Yankees & Dodgers ranked lower. And at least he started right, with Miami down at #30 where they've belonged since they ditched the teal/black/silver (LOTS more like actual fish colors than than the last two "Miami-colored" uniforms). However, the Orioles' uniforms, and all the more with the currently way-too-oversized cursive, are always down in my bottom 10 if not bottom 5. To me, the Reds are either too boring or try to subtly (or not so subtly) use too much black, and it's never good. The Pirates that high? They don't usually screw up the home whites but they often screw up REALLY badly everything else. As the guy's list progressed, it became obvious that this guy values or at least fancies what lots of us saw as '70s-era uniform flaws (white front panels on caps, for one thing) that finally went away for great reasons. Many uniforms evolved nicely after that time, and going backwards toward some notions that went away for the better is just a bad idea. Thank goodness that buttonless pullovers, elastic-only waistbands, and pervasive powder blue road uni's have stayed away! The retro-type emphasis over the past decade has some merits, but I think on some level it gets way too much credit now like black as a main uniform color and sleeveless uniforms did in the mid-'90s going forward, and how red phased in in a big way in the early 2010s. I've warmed to the Brewers' new look (mostly -- still think the navy alternates are completely awful) but I also think that had they stuck with the prior uniform scheme, it had a chance of becoming just as much if not a better version of a modern classic as some of those old, super-boring ones (like the Yankees, Cubs, Dodgers, Boston, and - ugh - Detroit).

Just posted in a different thread: I wonder if any NRI pitchers have a chance. Devin Williams didn't have a good spring. Tyrone Taylor would seem inevitably AAA-bound once he's healthy. Eric Lauer was going to be out for a while. Urias was just coming back. Knebel could be out for a bit. Add all that up and maybe a couple guys -- Morrison, Miller? -- have a chance. Jace Peterson had good ST numbers (which of course are only ST numbers, but still didn't hurt his stock in the organization's eyes). Grimm & Morin seem more like depth guys on-call at AAA. Who knows? Stearns has also been prone to end-of-ST recent-release-FA signings.

Wasn't the deal that Eric Lauer & Tyrone Taylor weren't going to be ready for the start of the season? Of course "start of the season" is a mystery now, but I don't foresee Taylor retaining an active MLB roster spot. What I'm getting at is, I wonder if any of the NRI guys might still be in the mix -- Shelby Miller, Justin Grimm, maybe Mike Morin, Logan Morrison, Jace Peterson. I'd think there may still be a chance with Miller. One of those NRI position players making it would seem to require an injury to a regular roster guy since most everyone left is a regular MLB type -- and mostly just-signed FAs as far as the infield goes.

Late to the party here but I'm glad someone else remembers the same thing I did. Yount's catch was cool but fairly easy -- one of those sliding or diving catches that the slide or dive made look more spectacular or dramatic than it actually needed to be. He was also Robin Yount. It's the "easy grab" answer to the question but not necessarily ultimately the right answer. Jim Paciorek was pretty much known, at most, for being Tom Paciorek's little brother who lasted for part of a year in the majors. Mike Felder & Rick Manning (last year in the majors) were ahead of him as OF reserves. Jim Paciorek's catch, as I recall, was on a ball far, far closer to ruining Nieves' no-hitter. I remember he was charging straight in and it wasn't 'til the very last instant that you knew he had it. It was in the middle of the game and the fact that he was charging straight in didn't make for nearly as cool of a look because of the camera angle, so there weren't glitzy replays to watch that captured as well how impressive the catch was. Fewer cameras were used at the average game in those days. Now you'd have 4-5 different HD & slo-mo views of it, not to mention a couple similar shots of the batter's face in disbelief that the guy actually caught the ball. I'm not sure Paciorek had a better individual/team moment as a Brewer than that catch. .... I remember NOT seeing the Oglivie one live b/c we lived in FL and had to watch the other game, relying on "the studio in NY" for the occasional highlight. It was a good catch, but I think part of the mystique about it, besides the game in which it occurred, is because there's not a good view of him actually making the catch. Howard & Keith didn't have it much if any better than the viewers did. .... I remember that I saw the Brady Clark catch but I honestly don't remember what it looked like. His Brewer career was pretty ordinary but he made some better plays in the OF than you would expect. .... At least a few of the Cain, Broxton, and Gomez HR-robbing catches have to be near the top of the list. I like the Gomez one on Votto, esp. b/c it ended the game & Votto's disbelief, but there are others in those three guys' cadre of highlights that were more spectacular and/or unexpected. Broxton had a couple in that series a couple summers ago against the Twins that were unbelievable. Cain's certainly had his share of ones like that the past couple years, too.

Dealing away your bench depth before we're 4 games into ST leaves a lot of time where that move could backfire -- and that's before the season even starts, let alone over the season when that need for depth could make this move look bad. Taylor's injured, Ray's never seen the MLB regular season yet, so who's really proven like Gamel is behind where Gamel currently sits on the depth chart? I'm not opposed to this move eventually if the right opportunity comes along and with sufficient depth already on hand, but if you do this, there's still risk the Brewers are still looking for another Ben Gamel type to fill Ben Gamel's roster spot/role . . . . so I still wonder what the wisdom in trading Gamel away would be.

... or anything showing a jersey number? I'm not finding anything. The roster on the Brewers' website isn't updated yet.

Love the signing and as Monty points out, these signings, when looked at collectively, really make a ton of sense. This team to me is the epitome of a regular season champion, depth and versatility everywhere with a superstar (Yelich) and potential superstar (Hiura) sprinkled in. Come playoffs, who knows, but I think they have positioned themselves exceptionally well from an offensive depth standpoint. It doesn't hurt to have a former superstar who's still a very productive contributor (Braun) around, either.

Love the signing and as Monty points out, these signings, when looked at collectively, really make a ton of sense. This team to me is the epitome of a regular season champion, depth and versatility everywhere with a superstar (Yelich) and potential superstar (Hiura) sprinkled in. Come playoffs, who knows, but I think they have positioned themselves exceptionally well from an offensive depth standpoint. It doesn't hurt to have a former superstar who's still a very productive contributor (Braun) around, either.

I like this signing! I like how Holt profiles offensively & defensively. This also complicates the roster picture in a good way: Current IFs (8): Braun, Smoak, Hiura, Urias, Arcia, Holt, Sogard, Gyorko Current OFs (5): Braun, Yelich, Cain, Garcia, Gamel That's 12 right there (noting that I listed Braun twice). +2 catchers = 14 hitters. Does that mean they're likely to carry 12 pitchers? I kind of doubt it.... Barring injuries, that has to mean at least one of those guys doesn't make the team. - I believe Gamel wasn't down long enough in '19 to burn his last option, so he could end up in AAA, but he's really your 4th OF if Braun's playing 1B. - None of the other OFs are going away anywhere. - Short of a horrid slump, Hiura's up for good. I have to think that unless Urias is injured or is so ineffective that he needs to go to AAA, Arcia's grip on spot is very tenuous -- very possibly trade bait or a candidate to be released. I also have to think this means that Healy, Morrison, Peterson, Broxton, Mathias, Rodriguez (farewell 40-man spot?) and anyone else is already rubber-stamped for AAA.

Crane's denial is shameful. What a difference it would've made if he'd just said something like this "What happened has happened and we've paid a high price. I'm sorry it happened and for how this has affected our fans, other teams, MLB, and the sport as a whole. The Astros organization has been highly embarrassed and I expect everyone in this organization to do everything possible to earn people's trust going forward, realizing fully that may take considerable time." Own it. Be contrite. Take the heat FOR your people rather than trot out the guys you hired to replace the guys you fired into the media's crosshairs. Expect better of your people and say it publicly. Then move on. Failure to do those simple, morally right things has only made matters worse. Minneapolis sports radio was going on about this the other day and, to their credit, compared it to Braun's situation . . . but, thanks to one of the hosts living near the courier in MIL at the time, went on to point how, once Braun finally was outed, served his time, and owned it, Braun has done nothing but the right things to make amends, including personally visiting the courier guy to apologize, taking him to dinner, and lots of other small things out of the media spotlight. . . . . The point was, the Astros can't undo what they did, but there are abundant examples of how to handle the situation better than they have. If Crane handles it well, he makes it easier on at least some level moving forward. He didn't, though, and the PR nightmare for the Astros will continue for so much longer than it might have had to.

All Manfred does is change things -- without any sense of reason or respect for the traditions of the game in his justifications. Worse, I don't believe a single one of his changes is remotely close to a good idea. Yet he's convinced about all of them, and there's no real way to get him to soften his stance unless the MLBPA digs their heels in -- how ridiculous! Counting mound visits & the possibility of a pitch clock? Three-batter minimum for relievers? WHY? Regarding any issues of game length, those are the sprinkles on top of the cupcake -- nowhere close to the issue! Batters whose pre-pitch rituals are endless? Start there. Commercial breaks that are longer so baseball can earn more money? There's close to 10 minutes right there. Teams calling every pitch from the dugout? . . . Yet here's a clown who would consider limiting shifts. Will he limit the number of breaking pitches a pitcher can throw to a batter? Is there no end to his nonsense or idiocy?

check again, as the current list is 19 players. while shelby miller is not listed on brewers.com, his deal was officially announced by the club. there are 20 non-roster invitees thus far. I swore I counted it correctly at the time, but obviously not. Shelby Miller's now there on the website.

That link lists EVERYONE not on the 40-man as an NRI, which is NOT correct. - Players signed to minor-league contracts with a non-roster invitation (NRI) to spring training are announced by the team as such in advance and are officially in big-league camp the entirety of spring training until they're cut, sent to minor league camp, or added to the 40-man roster. That's a whole different thing than.... - Players brought over from the minor-league camp by the handful are a day-at-a-time thing. Some guys get lots of little chances. Some guys (like one of my teaching colleagues) are grateful for the lucky 1-2 chances they get at an appearance in a big-league exhibition game. Some of the players listed as NRI on that link were officially that. Lots of those NRI guys on that link were minor leaguers brought over for the day. To the original point, I don't remember my list from last year well enough (it's since been recycled) to remember if Lutz was a regular NRI guy or a one-day-each-time guy.