Brewers trade RHP Badenhop to Boston for LHP Luis Ortega

[molitor fan]

That is a fair point And That.....I just am not happy with the direction of our minor leagues, and the fact that we have not signed a single minor league free agent out of 92 indicates a lack of gameplan that seems to be the primary issue I have with the orgin-I-zation

[And That]

Our minor league system sucks, but it has managed to produce a pretty steady flow of cheap and decent relief options, hence making Badenhop expendable. It makes no business sense for the team to pay him $2 million to do basically the same thing Wooten, Hand, and perhaps de la Torre and/or Shackelford can do.

 

And even if Badenhop is great, he's maybe a quarter of a win better than those guys, and the Brewers have no reason to pay a premium of $1.6 million per marginal quarter win.

 

Basically the only teams Badenhop is useful for are teams that have both a legitimate shot at contending, and a competent manager who knows when (and when not) to use him. The Brewers fail on both of those accounts, and I think many teams realize that Badenhop really isn't in a position to help them. That severely limits his trade market, and its why he's been dealt for Jake Jefferies, the lesser Raul Mondesi, and Luis Ortega in consecutive seasons. I'd argue the Brewers got the best deal out of any of those trades.

[MNBrew]

Our minor league system sucks, but it has managed to produce a pretty steady flow of cheap and decent relief options, hence making Badenhop expendable. It makes no business sense for the team to pay him $2 million to do basically the same thing Wooten, Hand, and perhaps de la Torre and/or Shackelford can do.

 

And even if Badenhop is great, he's maybe a quarter of a win better than those guys, and the Brewers have no reason to pay a premium of $1.6 million per marginal quarter win.

 

Basically the only teams Badenhop is useful for are teams that have both a legitimate shot at contending, and a competent manager who knows when (and when not) to use him. The Brewers fail on both of those accounts, and I think many teams realize that Badenhop really isn't in a position to help them. That severely limits his trade market, and its why he's been dealt for Jake Jefferies, the lesser Raul Mondesi, and Luis Ortega in consecutive seasons. I'd argue the Brewers got the best deal out of any of those trades.

Another angle is this: While Attanasio has shown a willingness to drop big coin on the "right" (to use the front office's typical terminology) player, it would seem that based on 2013, currently (on paper) the Brewers are more than just one "right" player from being an upper echelon team. Thus, the projected $1.6M the Brewers saved by trading Badenhop might be an amount by which they can boost an offer to attract/retain Corey Hart. . . . In other words, little bits of wiggle room here & there can be very precious for a team like the Brewers who seem to have limited payroll space for adding guys this winter.

 

Two other thoughts: 1) I liked the idea of Badenhop last winter, and at times he sure wasn't bad. But in all it just never seemed like he was quite as good as his numbers suggested he could/should be. I don't think it would've hurt to keep him, but I can't say I'm upset about the trade, either. 2) There's no guarantee Badenhop's on Boston's Opening Day roster. Because they gave up so little to get him, if they have better players they can add through other moves before the non-tender deadline, it still wouldn't surprised me at all if Badenhop's non-tendered by Boston -- or possibly traded again.