What do we do with Maldonado?

[Bombers]

Martin Maldonado is a great story this year. If only J Luc had experience playing 1B we could insert him, Hart back to RF and Aoki to CF. It would be a solution for this year but probably not long term. What would you do with Gamel? Maldonado has outplayed the Gomez/Morgan platoon. The Brewers have an interesting situation looming with J-Luc coming back. What do you do with Kottaras? Trade? Even so, isn't it better for Maldonado to play every day? So then you send him down to play consistently, right?

 

Just a bad reward for a guy who seems to give it his all and is playing well.

[trwi7]

Keep Maldonado. DFA Izturis.

[logan82]

Send him back to AAA and worry about it in the offseason.

[chickinbrickin]

Keep Maldonado. DFA Izturis.

 

I know this was probably half serious, but you can't keep three catchers on the roster. Trade Kottaras and Wolf. Let Maldonado and Lucroy split time for a month or so to ease Luc back in.

[trwi7]

I know this was probably half serious, but you can't keep three catchers on the roster.

 

It was completely serious and yes you can.

[KCBrewerfan34]

Tough situation, I luv Maldonado, I hope he continues to get better. The Brew may have a trade chip.

[chickinbrickin]

I know this was probably half serious, but you can't keep three catchers on the roster.

 

It was completely serious and yes you can.

 

So Maldonado can catch once every two weeks? What sense would that make? I completely agree that CI needs to go, but I don't agree at all with rostering three catchers. Especially when one of the three is a young catcher who needs to play.

[trwi7]

Lucroy is coming back from a broken hand. He's not going to be catching 4 out of every 5 days, especially to start.

[brewmann04]

7 hits this series he is now the Backup to Luc, Hope Wolf will be ok with that cause we don't need 3 Catchers.

[LouisEly]

If your 2nd and 3rd catchers are your best bats off the bench, then yes you keep three C's. With Bianchi as your backup SS you DFA Izturis and then PH with either Maldonado or Kottaras and still have the other as a backup C.

[pacopete4]

Send him back? Crazy. He's earned the right to be in the MLB. If I were him and were sent back I'd never respect the organization again. I'd want out as fast as I could. You reward players when they play as Maldy has since coming up.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

He'll probably stay up and should, but even if he is sent down it would only be for a month. My guess is Bianchi goes back.

 

The guy looks really good, especially his defense. Makes me wonder if he could play 100 games behind the plate, with Lucroy catching 60 and playing another 100 at 1B or RF. Luc has gotten better at D, but Maldy looks a little better. Maldy's bat has been stellar, but I still think Luc is a way better hitter. Nice problem to have with 2 solid young cost controlled catchers.

[paul253]

I'd try to trade Kottaras for a bullpen arm.

[Bombers]

Send him back = more playing time.

Keep him on 25 man = good bench bat for Brewers.

 

I agree with SoCal ... Probably go back to AAA for 1 month. Be greatful for the opportunity and come back in Sept ready to contribute.

 

In the end, the offseason decisions of Lucroy, MM, Gamel, Hart and to a lessor extent Green / Kottaras will be an interesting one - that is for certain

[SRB]

Trade Kottaras, I'm sure there are teams that could use a solid catcher (the Mets come to mind, though maybe they want a more established regular).

 

Lucroy/Maldonado are our great young catching core for the foreseeable future.

[PrinceEatMeat]

Keep him. Play him 2/5 until Lucroy is 100%, and even after that he's a better backup than Kottaras and is still a good bench bat. Having both he and Lucroy is a great problem to have. Great defensively with both, and either is a pretty good option off the bench. Use Kottaras off the bench as strictly a pinch-hitter, or trade him. Preferably just trade him for something. It's not like Maldonado won't be Lucroy's backup next year anyway, so what sense does it make to send him down now? He's better than Kottaras, plain and simple. Keep the best players. Just DFA Izturis to create space for Lucroy.

[TooLiveBrew]

Send him back? Crazy. He's earned the right to be in the MLB. If I were him and were sent back I'd never respect the organization again. I'd want out as fast as I could. You reward players when they play as Maldy has since coming up.

And beyond the 'hurt feelings' angle, there's the development angle too. Maldonado has looked very good at the plate imo, and there's no reason to not continue to let him be challenged with MLB pitching and continue to refine his skills as a hitter.

 

Also, it's really, really hard for me to think of Kottaras as a catcher at this point. On this roster with Luc healthy, he's basically a 1B/PH-power-bat who can play C in an emergency. I don't want to see Maldonado go anywhere.

[AZBrewCrew]

I know alot of us have discussed to varying extents our dislikes for "personal catchers", but I think in this case, at least for the rest of this season, I would like to see Maldonado catching Fiers. I think the familiarity of having Maldy catching him has helped Fiers make the transition from AAA to the show. I for one have really enjoyed watching MM this year since he came up,his defense has been a bright spot in what has been a mostly lackluster season so far.

[igor67]

I concur that with the current talent the most effective collection looks like dropping Izturis and keeping Kottaras as a back-up 1st, 3rd catcher, pinch hitter. In some sense he's actually fairly well suited to that role as the last guy who sees little playing time, but can still hit when needed. It is also worth realizing that at this point in the season you'd be talking about carrying that configuration for only about a month until rosters expand again.

[JohnBriggs12]

I'm not sure Kottaras has much trade value, but you trade him for what you can get. He's not done enough offensively since April to justify keeping as an extra bat (.192/.387/.245, 0 HR, 3 RBI in 57 AB, 75 PA). At some point you bring back Green and DFA Izturis, and bring up Schafer and trade or DFA Morgan, but neither has anything to do with the catching situation. Maldonado has to play enough while he's hot to make other teams take notice and covet him as a starter. That makes him very, very valuable down the road.

[crossface21]

I'm not sure Kottaras has much trade value, but you trade him for what you can get. He's not done enough offensively since April to justify keeping as an extra bat. At some point you bring back Green and DFA Izturis, and bring up Schafer and trade or DFA Morgan, but neither has anything to do with the catching situation. Maldonado has to play enough while he's hot to make other teams take notice and covet him as a starter. That makes him very, very valuable down the road.

 

 

I completely agree. I just hope that when Lucroy comes back and Maldonado's playing time surely diminishes, he can still do well spelling Lucroy every 4-5 days and in a PH role. If he can keep up his production for the most part till the end of the season, the Brewers could get back something that really helps this team next year if they trade him. I don't think Kottaras is on this team next year, and I wouldn't be surprised if Maldonado isn't either.

[slappzilla]

I'd throw Kotteras out on the block and see if he would garnish anything worth a lick in return. If he doesn't, do the same with Maldonado and see what the Brewers could get for him.

 

Luc is around for the long haul. Having a good backup C is nice, but if you can fill another hole by trading a guy who plays once a week, then you have to do so.

[harrydalton]

Get you're best guys on the field. I would do as the guy above suggested-play Lucroy at 1B where there is less stress and danger to his hand. Almost any catcher CAN play 1B. Let him catch one or two games a week. Hart to RF; Aoki to CF.

 

Kottaras isn't a terribly important piece of the puzzle-so it's between him and a sixth IF. Wolf is a FA after 2012 and isn't a good enough pitcher to warrant a personal catcher.

[torts]

Wolf isn't a good enough pitcher to warrant a personal catcher.

 

NAILED IT

[monty57]

I'd look to trade Kottaras. He's going to be arby eligible this offseason, and with Lucroy and Maldonado, I could see us not offering him arby and losing him for nothing. Therefore, in order to get something out of him, it's probably best to trade him for something now. I don't expect much, but maybe we could get a relief pitcher (which we will need going forward), a bench bat, or a high-upside A-baller.

 

Someone mentioned the Mets, so just as an example, if we could trade him for someone like their backup OF Mike Baxter, we could have a decent backup corner OF for the next four seasons. That could allow us to trade Morgan and maybe Gomez (due to Schafer and Aoki's ability to play CF) and save quite a few millions of dollars without taking a step backwards. Or, we could get a young reliever which would mean Melvin wouldn't have to spend several million dollars finding a free agent for that roster spot.

 

But again, it comes down to how we view this season. If we're "going for it" this year, we can't get rid of our catching depth, so we'll probably send Maldonado to AAA in case Lucroy or Kottaras gets injured. Then we'll just dump Kottaras in the offseason.