Jody Gerut released

[danzig6767]

Its still a mystery how Gerut lost his bat after the 2008 season.

Ken Macha stole it from him. I'm not saying that he was a great player, but he was definitely a serviceable outfielder. Anyone would have a hard time putting up stats getting 5 at bats a week, like Gerut did most of last summer. Once all the injuries forced his hand, Macha played Gerut toward the end of last year, and he put up some pretty decent numbers.

I never understood why Doug even brought Gerut back

 

They had

Edmonds in the fold who also hit lefthanded and Counsell/Inglett both

hit lefthanded all as bench players. Baffling to enter a season with

only lefthanded bats on the bench. It was obvious to me that Gerut

would barely ever get starts because of Edmonds and Macha would use others first as pinch

hitters. Gerut was being paid 2 million dollars to be the 5th OF and

last pinch hitting option. Stupid. The 25th player on the roster of a small or mid-market team should almost always be making the minimum, not two million dollars.

[HiAndTight]

Its still a mystery how Gerut lost his bat after the 2008 season.

Simple. He never really had it after he came back from injury.

 

I don't know why he always escaped the small sample size caveat, but he started 71 games that year. He had a nice start to his career and was a promising OF'er, but between performing poorly after his rookie year, missing two full seasons and parts of others, we're really just talking about half a season worth of starts in which he was solid.

 

Seems like a likable guy though, hopefully he can catch on with a team like the Royals and get some regular AB's and prove some wrong....or right.

 

 

Still, it's not like we gave up anything of substance for him. TGJ isn't making anyone regret that move too much.

[kramnoj]

They had Edmonds in the fold who also hit lefthanded and Counsell/Inglett both hit lefthanded all as bench players.

 

Edmonds wasn't with the team when Gerut was offered arbitration. Counsell and Inglett don't play CF.

 

Gerut also had a chance of being the starter in CF, but didn't perform well and got hurt.

 

He was an expensive insurance policy that didn't pan out.

[logan82]

I would have preferred Gerut and another guy in CF to Gomez. Gerut was one of the reasons I didn't like the Hardy trade. I don't feel that Macha really liked Gerut and didn't really ever give him much of a chance.

[HiAndTight]

I would have preferred Gerut and another guy in CF to Gomez. Gerut was one of the reasons I didn't like the Hardy trade. I don't feel that Macha really liked Gerut and didn't really ever give him much of a chance.

At some point you have to force the team to give you PT. Gerut just hasn't really done anything outside of that '08 season in a little bit of playing time, to suggest he could be a big league starter, since '02.

 

Plus, Gomez was 24 and a guy who has superstar tools. I don't know what else Melvin was offered, but I can't really see having an issue getting the 24 year old Gomez because of the 32 year old, oft-injured Gerut.

[JohnBriggs12]

Gerut was an OK 4th OF option who was never going to be a starter with the Brewers. I wish people wouldn't hand wring so much over bench players. There's usually a reason they aren't getting 500 ABs a year.

 

Point well taken. My only problem is why offer a bench player like Gerut arbitration? He probably would have signed for half of what he got.

[Roscoe Chill]

Sure, he was never going to be a starter, and sure, there's no sense debating this type of player in the grand scheme of things. I just don't understand how, why, whatever he received $2M from a team like the Brewers to be that sucky, insignificant player. Terrible waste of a signing.

[Invader3K]

I agree with that. Kind of boggles the mind how inefficient Melvin has been with his available payroll overall. I suppose maybe he rationalized it because of Edmonds' age and the fact that he was making the minimum salary this year (IIRC).

[RockCoCougars]

Gerut got the $2 million because he played pretty well last year, when Macha was forced to play him. That said, yet again Macha and Melvin didn't have their heads together, because for whatever reason, he was not a Macha guy, and wasn't going to be used. He could have been a decent option off the bench and gotten a few starts a week, but instead, this turned out as a complete waste of $2 million.

[logan82]

Not to mention we had Edmonds in CF with Gerut in right on the same night several times. Yeah I have to agree that Macha and Melvin seem to be not only different pages but in completely different books most of the time.

[joepepsi]

At the time Gerut was offered arbitration it was unclear whether Hart would be an everyday player going forward or even on the team. $2 million was peanuts when the OF situation was so much up in the air.

 

Good luck Jody. Maybe some contender will pick you up, you'll get on a hot streak and win a World Series ring like Jerry Hairston did last year.