MNBrew

Healy IS on the 40-man roster, thus IS on a major-league deal. This seems to be the lower lever, modern/Stearns/data-driven version of Melvin's "nugget mining" that worked so well for a time. At best, I'm hopeful Stearns is onto something in his methods, but overall I'm skeptical about this move. What we're currently lacking in terms of bats, beyond the Garcia signing, is a "sure fire" caliber of acquisition. Of course Grandal, Moose, Yelich, & Cain all happened a few weeks later -- or more -- on the calendar than today's Jan. 11th date. It wouldn't surprise me if waiver claim Ronny Rodriguez loses his 40-man spot with the Gyorko signing.

If Donaldson ends up here (however unlikely), that would definitely be big. Otherwise I'm not sure what team has enough quality at 3B to create a viable opportunity for us to get starter who's worth what we'd have to give up to get. While I'd love to see a "big" move coming, I'll be a little surprised if any moves that come prove to be truly "big." The FA well is dry of big names save Donaldson (who likely will get a risky & hugely spendy contract), a guy who doesn't have any defensive position he plays terribly well, and an OF we wouldn't have room for, and then some pitchers who are solid at best and definitely wouldn't constitute a "big" move (though Kintzler's out there and I'd kinda like to see him back here). I'd think anything close to actually "big" would have to be a trade, and I'm not quite sure who the target(s) would be or what we'd have of enough value to give up in order to get someone who profiles as a big "get" without blowing a different hole in the roster.

Clancy, it's obvious the trade machine thing gives Lutz a pretty high value (you're proposing him in a zillion trades over the past month or whatever), but in his case it's gotta be purely speculative value compared to proven big leaguers. If Lutz were a top-100 prospect, it might be a different discussion, but the key to this Seattle trade from a Seattle-gets standpoint is Lutz -- definitely NOT Arcia -- and to me Lutz is sure not worth a proven major league starting 3B by himself even if his contract's potentially a bit bloated. I mean, yeah, it's Jerry DiPoto on the other end of the phone here, but I have serious doubts that even he would do this one.

Rosenthal mentioned this possibly shaping up into a multiplayer blockbuster. Multiplayer, of course. Blockbuster? Hardly, at least not now.

It's the definition of non-roster.... Since it's a minor league deal with a non-roster invite, he's in big-league camp with no promise of a 40-man spot let alone an Opening Day spot.... You can't burn an option when you're not on the 40-man roster.

Morrison had a great 2017 for Tampa in 2017. He started incredibly slowly with MN in 2018 and never got untracked (think: Travis Shaw levels of bad in 2019) then eventually got injured and never played for the rest of the year. That he signed anywhere last year after his 2018 amazed me. That anyone still thinks he might amount to something -- even Stearns -- is beyond me. In 2018, Morrison hit .186 for MN in 95 games (359 PAs) w/ 15 HRs, 39 RBIs, a .276 OBP, and a .644 OPS. His 2019 in the majors was no better, albeit in a puny sample size (38 PAs). Of course, Gabe Kapler's unbelievably good year in MIL came out of nowhere. A return to any sort of decent form by Morrison would be that level of unexpected results -- and I'd be one of many happy about it as a result. In the meantime, the way he started in MIN in 2018 and the fact that he's not played any better in the bigs since then has my expectations at about zero.

Wow. Jeff Passan of all people should know better.... unless the category is "trades that miraculously sent huge bad-contract money away from the previous team who foolishly and willingly had agreed to pay it."

I'd love Eduardo Escobar. If Stearns does pull some sort of "big" move (thinking in terms of a trade), I think he's the caliber of player we'd get back, though not necessarily Escobar himself. Cost wouldn't be small, but I don't see Hiura being the type of piece we'd give up to get him.

I agree with the bolded part especially. Even though they're not star-quality names, there's potentially plenty of good that could come from those guys. I see the potential of a big move coming, though I'm not convinced it would actually happen -- nor could I even hazard a guess as to what Stearns might have up his sleeve if something big were to happen. Trades have been much slower given much faster action on the FA market on all the mid-to-top tier names. I wouldn't be suprised if a potential trade logjam is loosed when Donaldson, Ozuna, and Castellanos sign.

I don't believe in jinxes, but your timing is unfortunately coincidental. I was hoping we'd bring him back, just as you stated.

I was devastated when the Brewers traded Kevin Seitzer in 1996. I cried. It turned out to be a good trade so I'm over it now. Same here. Loved that guy -- good hitter & class act. Incidentally, I'm using a Kevin Seitzer Brewers Upper Deck card (in a plastic bb-card sleeve) as a bookmark right now.

Maybe it's been said elsewhere in this thread, I do think it'd make things pretty interesting if news came out of the blue that Josh Donaldson signed with us. Wishful thinking, for sure -- and seemingly highly unlikely at that -- but just as the Grandal signing came out of nowhere, it wouldn't surprise me if Stearns pulled a rabbit out of his hat with at least some move over the next month or so.

Tears at the thought of playing for us? I'd guess it was tears at the thought of leaving a place he didn't want to leave, the only organization he's known, not to mention learning about it mid-game and having to process it while out on the field. Lots of players have talked about how difficult it was the first time they got traded -- first time experiencing personally/directly the "business" side of the game. These guys are human beings, after all. I'm not thrilled about the prospect of Flores (career BA of .268's not shabby, but the .310 OBP isn't exactly full of promise) but I'd take him if he proves the "net" best option we can actually get ("net" meaning quality of player combined w/ cost of acquisition). If Cabrera would've been closer to his Washington self than his Texas self, then it would've been worth the dough, but like Donaldson or any other FA, there's no guarantee he'd have chosen to come here.

The amount of cash they would likely get would likely make it not worth it and you'd be better off taking a chance at the lottery ticket. All that's why I said I'd prefer getting the player. Brewers got 3 lottery tickets from Seattle for Adam Lind and there were many very doubtful that they might turn into anything nearly as worthwhile as they collectively have -- definitely a good, quiet, long-term deal. Mariners got a bat that should've been useful right away. Win-win. I should've been clearer with my last sentence: I doubt the cash here would come anywhere close to getting you anything of consequence by itself. Rather, along with other money, it may help you get something else. So the cash wouldn't necessarily hurt, but a lottery ticket young guy could turn into something good all by himself.

PTBNL or cash.... Everything Haudricourt responds to suggests (however indirectly) they could well end up taking the cash option. It makes me wonder if the terms were along the lines of "we'll take the cash unless you offer a player we'd actually want." I'd prefer the player, but I'd doubt it's anyone of great impact -- low-level lottery at best. If that's the case, cash to use toward something else may not be the worst option.

I'm not sure it says anything about potential Hader trade ideas, but the thing that stands out to me most on this list is that only 1 of those 7 is a pitcher. To me, it seems like Stearns has done a nice job of getting good mileage out of the value these guys had as prospect capital at the time.

I believe the only way you can trade Brett Anderson is if 6 months have passed since he signed.

My goodness, that's unreal!!! One of my favorites doesn't fit the parameters of this discussion by about 1 month of regular season time -- an Escobar play vs. the DBacks on 9/13/09, video for which on the Brewers' website I can't get to come up on 2 different computers (the link is there but the video's not playing: https://www.mlb.com/video/escobars-excellent-play/c-6631109; https://www.mlb.com/gameday/brewers-vs-d-backs/2009/09/13/246330#game_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=246330).

If this was true, I have no idea why the Mets wouldn't have pulled the trigger. The Mets best ranked prospect is #80 on MLB pipeline, and Smith/Matz is hardly a haul. It's not homerism either, look at the responses to his tweet, echoing the same sentiments. Again, I'm gonna wait for confirmation from a legitimate twitter source (the Rosenthals of the world) before believing anything. I would be shocked if Stearns was locked into a trade like that. Because Betances just cost money and a one year deal? I think what the Mets turned down is more in line with what a Hader trade would look like. Read the wording carefully.... Nothing says which team turned it down. It well could be the Brewers who said that that offer wasn't enough and the Mets wouldn't up the offer. In the end, there wasn't closure on a deal and the Mets chose to go after Betances instead, either because they were more comfortable with Betances' price or because they wouldn't/couldn't meet the Brewers' price.

Except the Yankees have had more discussions with the Brewers for Hader than any other team. So Stearns must like the Yankees as a possible trade partner for Hader. No, if it's true, it only means the Yankees have called David Stearns the most -- and that's all. I think this whole Hader trade thing is incredibly overblown. How did it start? Ken Rosenthal tweeted that the Brewers are willing to listen on Hader. Based on what's been stated by Stearns this year in response to that AND what's been reported routinely in the past, as GMs have enough conversations, Stearns hears the names of pretty much everyone on the roster come up. In other words, what Rosenthal reported is NOTHING NEW -- even pretty normal Stearns procedure. BUT everyone picked up on it because of who put it out there. And I've heard it twisted into plenty more than the original Rosenthal nugget, over and over and over. Of course a potential Hader trade makes for a huge story, but geez... What this doesn't mean is that Stearns is close to trading Hader, as far as we know. What it means is that word's out that teams are calling. They're probably calling on Yelich, too, and Woodruff and Hiura and on and on and on. . . . .... All of this because of one Ken Rosenthal tweet. In everyone's thirst for a good potential trade scoop (my brain loves that, too -- it sure is fun!), it seems that simple connecting the basic dotes about this whole "Hader trade possibility" (and perhaps some degree of critical thinking about it) inadvertently got lost along the way because of the big-ness of the idea.

The talk here in Twins Territory is that if the Twins can actually sign Donaldson, Sano moves to 1B -- 1 lineup hole filled in a big way, 2 positions solved. He's a huge bat who rebounded last year. They're not just throwing him away. He's a big dude and some stats don't like him in the field, and granted he's no Gold Glove candidate, but he's hardly the butcher at 3B you'd think (loads of eye test time here) and, among other things, makes the charging bare-handed play really, really well. I've noted it in a prior thread, but Sano at 1B isn't a no-brainer. The year they moved him to 1B because they thought his glove would play better there overall was SUCH a mess to his whole game that they moved him right back to 3B the next year. I like Arraez a lot but he isn't going anywhere. He's slated to be their starting 2B and they're not giving him away any more than the Brewers would just let Hiura be pried away for a song.

Smoak played 684 games for Toronto but only 496 games for Seattle. He was drafted by Oakland and made his major league debut with Texas. This is like suggesting Gary Sheffield was mostly a Brewer just because he played his first 300 games there. By this logic, Smoak is mostly a Ranger.

The longer this week has gone on.... - I'm amazed that Stearns keeps pulling off a move per day. That's an unheard of rate in Brewers land. - The more I still wonder how all the pieces of this puzzle fit together, although my hunch is that Broxton, Healy, and Ronny Rodriguez may not see much if any MLB roster time barring injuries (and that's not a bad thing!). - The more I wonder if whatever next moves -- big or small -- will be aimed at the pitching staff. The position-player roster had a ton of holes and now has enough bodies to sufficiently plug them (though certainty of quality's a viable concern in some cases, not to mention lacking a clear winner of the starting 3B position). However, beyond re-signing Claudio & inking B. Anderson & Lindblom, it still seems like there's more to be done w/ the pitching staff -- BP, rotation, whatever. To the last point, as much as a Donaldson acquisition would be impressive, large questions about the pitching staff would remain with seemingly little payroll room to do so. I kind of hope that if they've got one bombshell FA move left that it's on Ryu -- over Keuchel & ignoring Donaldson. If healthy (the key, of course!), he's a pretty dominant force. Without Donaldson we'd still have lots of strong bats. But we don't have any pitcher with the proven track record of Ryu.

Agreed, but people will still claim trading for Greinke & Marcum "gutted the farm" when in reality/hindsight it didn't: Escobar = (descriptor above) Jeffress = never very good elsewhere but mostly really good in MIL, last year's decline being more of the outlier over the whole of his Brewers career Cain = upper-end CF but wasn't displacing Cameron & still took a couple years post-trade to earn regular playing time & become that upper-end MLB player... and, of course, we still got him back for only money later Odorizzi = above-average but not close to elite career SP Brett Lawrie = loads of promise that was never fully realized in spite of some strong initial flashes in Toronto, then couldn't stay healthy and couldn't earn a minor-league spot with MIL last year ... never mind that 3-4 of those 5 were already seeing MLB playing time at the time of those trades. Didn't gut the farm at all -- if anything, just scooped the cream off the top and revealed the glaring lack of blue-chip prospects behind them. Anyway, BACK ON TOPIC.... I was more than a little surprised to see this Sogard signing today (or at all). I don't hate it, might grow to love it, and mainly just don't know totally what to think based on what I presume is still an incomplete picture of the 2020 Brewers infield. Admittedly, memory of his 2018 isn't gone from my mind and justifies at least something of an initial sideways glance at this move. I love what Sogard did last year and his general hitting profile IF he can continue to keep the BA respectable. Even if he's only in the Hernan role, it's not a bad move b/c he'll K much less and get on base appreciably better (most likely). I think his increased power last year is largely immaterial. Sogard's not here for any considerable pop in his bat. I think it's because of the low-ish K rate, decent bat, and decent glove that cumulatively would seem to bode well for the way he'd contribute to the Brewers. I'm not too worried if Sogard ends up getting some decent playing time at 3B. I'm inclined to be worried, though, if Ryon Healy is. Sogard was signed to play a clear role, whereas I think Healy was more of a wild card/depth move that might have a chance to pay a few dividends in MIL if he's called upon. While I agree that trading Arcia seems possible -- which could be interesting -- I think it's also worth noting that this Ronny Rodriguez guy is no sure thing to stick (remember he's a waiver claim, whereas all the other IF acquired this winter are FA signings or trade "gets"). He's a depth piece not unlike some of the other guys -- mainly pitchers -- Stearns has picked up the past couple winters and eventually outrighted or DFA'd shortly thereafter in hopes of getting them safely down to the AAA roster (Blake Parker, anyone?). This Mathias fella we got from Cleveland also seems to be a depth piece but for whatever reason I think he's got a better chance to stick. . . . And those two, along with Healy, are hopefully roster-fringe players at best. I'm not sure a big move is coming, but it still seems pretty clear (corroborated by a Haudricourt tweet: ) that Stearns still plans some roster maneuvering ahead given that there's currently only one open 40-man spot and several roster needs could stand more/better addressing.

I relate to both the angst about the lack of spending on the biggest FA fish on the market and, a bit more so, the commendable pragmatism about Stearns' approach & effectiveness. Whatever the date, the most important thing to me is this: So much emphasis & talk ends up focusing on "who won the winter." Stearns, though, has proven that he's good at building the Brewers into a winning team that has a good chance at the postseason. Too many teams who do a lot to win the winter fail significantly at winning sufficiently from April to October, and sometimes in colossal ways.