fleehaw

Miller, Morejon, & Musgrove for Frelick (PTBNL), Yoho, Hall, choice of 50-value prospect Brewers pick up Musgrove’s 2027 $20M salary in its entirety. Padres cover 2026.

Fischer’s K rate is a huge red flag for me.

I’d add the Rangers to that list as well. A package beginning with Jung and Brewers choice of Leiter or White is a nice start.

Aren’t the Blue Jays playing all of their home games in Buffalo? It could be one of the reasons for Tellez’s struggles this year. Regardless, I like the trade. Richards is just a guy (and so is Francis).

McCalvy answered a question from his ‘inbox’ which asked if he’d take the over or under on a $90m payroll. He said he’d take the under based on Stearns’ comments. Nothing close to definitive, but that benchmark isn’t pretty.

The unadjusted 26-man payroll in 2020 appears to be $102.5M (from Cots), so it doesn't look like I added payroll. That being said, I thought I read McCalvy mention he'd be surprised if payroll was more than $90M. That's depressing. I noticed that you haven't posted your plan in this thread; you just seem to poo poo the proposals that are made by others. I'd be sincerely interested in seeing what your plan would be for next year. Please post it.

Trades: 1. C Manny Pina & RHRP Corey Knebel to the Tigers for LHRP Daniel Norris. The Tigers get a mentor for Rogers and a closer on an expiring contract to flip. The Brewers hopefully get Drew Pomeranz Jr. and a bit of salary relief. 2. LHRP Josh Hader & UTIL Jed Gyorko to the Dodgers for C Keibert Ruiz, RHP Josiah Gray, LHP David Price, 3B/UTIL Zach McKinstry, and LHRP Victor Gonzalez The Red Sox are on the hook for about half of Price’s contract leaving 2yrs/$32M. The Dodgers get some salary relief, a huge bullet for their bullpen and a RH UTIL to offset Turner leaving (potentially) in free agency. The Brewers get a catcher of the near future, a pitching prospect a year or two away, an upgrade to the rotation, a potential answer at 3B, and a young bullpen arm. Free Agency: 3. Sign Jake Lamb 1yr/$2M with team option $5M-6M ($0.5-$1.0M Buyout). Lamb’s September with Oakland, albeit small sample size, is something that should get him a guaranteed contract. If he’s finally healthy, he could provide solid production against RHP. 4. I assume that Braun is coming back for a swan song. If he doesn’t, I’d be looking to add a guy like CJ Cron for around the same money sans buyout ($4-$5M). 26 Man Roster $99M Narvaez $ 3.1 Nottingham$ 0.6 Braun $ 8.0 includes $4M buyout Vogelbach $ 1.9 Hiura $ 0.6 Arcia $ 3.8 Urias $ 0.6 Lamb $ 2.0 Yelich $ 14.0 Cain $ 16.0 Garcia $ 10.5 Gamel $ 2.6 Taylor $ 0.6 Woodruff $ 4.5 Burnes $ 0.6 Price $ 16.0 Lindblom $ 3.5 Assumes 130 IP Lauer $ 0.6 Suter $ 1.5 Gonzalez $ 0.6 Norris $ 3.4 Peralta $ 1.0 Yardley $ 0.6 Topa $ 0.6 Houser $ 0.6 Williams $ 0.6 Sogard Buyout $ 0.5

I keep coming back to Lowrie. He fits the short term contract mold and the Brewers don't need him to play every day. And sliding Sogard into a utility role would be a great depth move. Brewers get: Lowrie & Giles Mets get: Arcia (to offset some salary if Urias' wrist is okay; bag of balls if not) Blue Jays get: Smith & Supak/Brown/… I couldn't find/think of any deals where a closer was dealt with 1 year of control left for comparison, but I figured Giles has between 5-10M of surplus value.

If the Twins sign Donaldson, I’d take Marwin Gonzalez for a bag of balls. Average bat and average glove @ 3B. Doesn’t have the upside of a Lowrie, but hasn’t been injury prone either.

You opine Hader (& Arcia) are worth more than Merrifield and Montgomery, that’s fair, but the Brewers actually save about 600K in 2020 in the deal based on arby estimates. Hader @ 4.6m, Montgomery @ 1.2m. Merrifield will make 5m and Arcia will make 2.2m.

You wouldn't make this trade for what the Yankees part with for Hader straight up. Yankees laugh this all off as they get what they wanted nowhere near touching what Stearns was asking for Hader. It really doesn’t matter what Stearns may or may not have asked for from the Yankees, it’s whether what the Brewers receive is deemed as appropriate value in the trade by the Brewers. The primary piece going to the Brewers is from the Royals. The Yankees pieces have value, but the Yankees and Brewers don’t match up well in a Hader deal IMO. The Yankees pieces fit in with the Royals a lot better. If the Brewers believe Merrifield can be their 3B, it’s a solid return.

Unless Stearns would flip Merrifield for a good 3B, no thanks. Where does Merrifield play? The Royals tried him at 3B a couple of years ago (2016/17) and it was a disaster. They quickly returned him to 2B. With Hiura at 2B he'd become the 4th or 5th OF and a backup 2B. The loss of Hader gives CC on of the worst pens in baseball and he still has a black hole at 3B. He played 6 games there. Not exactly enough to to make any determination on his ability there. Not playing much 3B might be telling though True story. 31 innings in the pros (14 chances) and about 160 innings in the minors. Moose was signed to play 2b without having any experience there. This idea is in that vein. The brewers would have to be confident Merrifield could handle it.

Some more fodder for the offseason. Brewers get Merrifield & Jordan Montgomery Yankees get Hader Royals get Andujar, Frazier, Ford, & Arcia Brewers get their name 3B? (and cost certainty) and another lefty for the staff. Royals go for quantity with tons of control and some mlb success. Yankees turn their depth into Hader.

By all indications Diaz is a well below avg. thirdbaseman. His arm is, at most, average and he has large negative numbers as a 3B. I doubt seriously that the Astros would part with Gurriel unless Stearns overwhelmed them, which he is very unlikely to do. Very creative thinking of Nunez. A lot of power and a decent thirdbaseman. I have no idea what it would take to get him, but it's the O's so who knows. FWIW, the BTV website has Nunez with a value of 1. On the Brewers side, for example, Supak has a value of 1.1. Nunez (5 years of control) could also be packaged with Givens (value of 8 - 2 years of control). Again, for example, Peralta has a value of 9.4 (5 years of control).

While I agree that the Yankees don't have a lot that interests me in a Hader deal (that they'd likely give up anyways), they do have some pieces that may interest a third team. Yankees get: Hader Yankees get their man while shedding a couple million in payroll Mariners get: Andujar & Happ Mariners save $18M in 2021 and add another talented young piece to add to their other talented young pieces. Maybe Happ can mentor Sheffield and Kikuchi. Brewers get: Seager, Gonzales, Garcia, Montgomery & Cash ($5-10M from the Yankees) Brewers get their 3B, an upgrade to the rotation, another LHP for the pen, a top 100 prospect, and add between $10-15M in payroll.