Is Washburn available?

[NYChez]

The M's are godawful and Washburn is really struggling. Would the M's trade him + cash to the Brewers for a bag of balls? He could be a guy who benefits from a change of scenery / new league. The M's wouldn't mind getting $7 mil off the books.

[kramnoj]

My guess is that the Mariners won't think about it until the trading deadline. Looking at his career, he basically had one very good ERA+ out of the last 5 years, and even that year his peripherals weren't exciting. It's interesting, I don't think the Brewers would actually be in a position to trade for somebody unless their pitching improves, and if their pitching improves, I don't know if they will be looking for a league average pitcher.

[recte44]

Is Washburn better than Parra? He certainly can get deeper into games, and maybe this would be something to look at around the deadline as a way to manage Parra's innings.

[Gopher74]

My guess is that the Mariners won't think about it until the trading deadline. Looking at his career, he basically had one very good ERA+ out of the last 5 yeas. I don't think the Brewers would actually be in a position to trade for somebody unless their pitching improves, and if their pitching improves, I don't know if they will be looking for a league average pitcher.

Well, Washburn's also only had one season in his entire career in which his ERA was over 4.67. Yea, he's not an ace, but he's got a career ERA of 4.16 in the AL.

 

He's a solid number 3 pitcher in the NL right now IMO.

 

I must say though, your logic doesn't make much sense to me. You don't think the Brewers are in a position to make a trade for someone unless their pitching improves and if their pitching improves I don't know if they will be looking for a league average pitcher? Well, they could make the trade in order to improve their pitching. The suggestion seems to be that the Brewers are out of it right now. They've played a brutal schedule so far, and they've struggled to hit the ball, but it's very early, and they're showing signs of getting some of their starters going a little bit. Namely Parra who's been better as of late, Bush was good tonight, and McClung was incredibly impressive.

 

I think the point is they could use this trade in order to put themselves in better shape to make a run. Your logic seems to leave the Brewers without any cause to make a trade ever. If they're winning, then that means they're pitching, so why make a trade. If they're losing, why make a trade because they're losing anyway.

 

[kramnoj]

Your logic seems to leave the Brewers without any cause to make a trade ever. If they're winning, then that means they're pitching, so why make a trade. If they're losing, why make a trade because they're losing anyway.

 

This misses a key point of what I wrote. You already repeated what I said, but missed what I wanted to convey. If the team is pitching well, but needs a bat, you trade for a bat. If a team that isn't getting good starting pitching improves their record by having their own pitchers perform better, how is trading for a league average pitcher going to improve them? They won't be winning enough games to get back in the race unless their own pitchers start performing like league average. If the Brewers pitching improves and the team is in the race and a pitcher gets injured, sure a trade for Washburn makes sense to keep them in the race. But if Parra and Bush get back to being the better pitchers they have been, the need for Washburn decreases. I guess it depends on what you're giving up to get him.