Brewers + Matt Garza; 4 yrs, $50MM + incentives, 5th year option

[PrinceFielderx1]

Garza got almost an identical deal to Ricky Nolasco. I would much rather have Garza. What are other people's thoughts?

 

What are my thought's? We are going to give the Cardinals a run for their money in the next few years, that's for sure. :>)

[502 to Right]

@AndrewGruman of FS Wisconsin tweet:

 

Doug Melvin says it was contractual details and reviewing the physical that held up the Garza deal.

 

 

Which, if true, means that it was in some way medically related.

[KCBrewerfan34]

When Garza is right his stuff is nasty, pitching in Texas last year probably didn't help his numbers. The guy is one competitive [expletive deleted] which I love in pitchers.

 

Can't wait for the season.

 

 

Go Brew

 

 

(Sorry for the language, my bad)

[brewcrewdue80]

That has to be a very great looking deal to any team. 12.5mil/yr guaranteed with 1mil in incentives each year which if he reaches that incentive you figure you got 20mil or workhorse stuff out of him for 13.5mil that year.

After last season, you lock up having a competitive 5 of Starters with 2 backups that should keep your team from tanking like May of last season. So if Gallardo struggles, Estrada/Garza can't make the year of 32starts, you have the depth to not skip a beat. Kudos to making this deal happen.

 

It's going to be an interesting season. I can see this team being streaky and win 10-14 in row or lose 7-9 in a row. But in no way will this team win only 6 times in a calendar month. I hope Garza becomes special in Milwaukee. Let's see how this experiment of being legit contenders works.

[brewmann04]

Does this mean Yo becomes trade bait if the brewers slip.

[PrinceEatMeat]

Does this mean Yo becomes trade bait if the brewers slip.

 

I think he would've been trade bait at the deadline even before Garza was signed. This doesn't really change that, other than the fact that Garza will help the Brewers win more games. Will it be enough to contend? That's the question. But given the fact that Yo was involved in rumors at last year's deadline, I don't see why he wouldn't be made available again if the Brewers end up in the same spot again.

[Eye Black]

That has to be a very great looking deal to any team.

I don't disagree with you that it appears to be a good deal, but ultimately I guess 29 other teams had the chance to top it including two teams that have had Garza on their roster in the last year. I would be interested to know if either the Cubs or Rangers even made an offer to Garza.

[brewmann04]

I was also curious does Loshe have 1 or 2 or years on his contract.

[PrinceFielderx1]

I was also curious does Loshe have 1 or 2 ore years on his contract.

 

2 He's a FA after 2015.

[brewmann04]

thanks so they will have Garza and Loshe for at least 2015 season.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

I'm surprised Garza didn't wait an extra week before agreeing with the Brewers. I would have though with many teams in the Tanaka bidding the teams other than the Yankees may have been more interested in Garza now.

[brewtank34]

The thing that I love most about this signing is that...in my mind....it moves YoGo to the #3 spot. Having Gallardo as your 3rd option makes this team above average to say the least. Allowing Peralta and Estrada to move down is stellar as well and can't be understated, however having Yovanni as our #3 is saaaawwwweeeet!!!

 

Nicely done Doug! Way to go Mark A! Go Crew!

[TigerUppercut]

The thing that I love most about this signing is that...in my mind....it moves YoGo to the #3 spot. Having Gallardo as your 3rd option makes this team above average to say the least. Allowing Peralta and Estrada to move down is stellar as well and can't be understated, however having Yovanni as our #3 is saaaawwwweeeet!!!

 

Nicely done Doug! Way to go Mark A! Go Crew!

 

This is assuming YoGo has committed to his profession, worked hard this off-season and kept himself out of the bars. From what I've witnessed first hand, a very big if. He seems to fit in a bit too well with Milwaukee's culture although he has a ton to lose if he continues down the path he's blazed.

[reillymcshane]

I have to be honest and say I'm skeptical about the Brewers being a playoff team, even with Garza. I see a .500ish club. However, if the team is going to go for the playoffs, this is a decent move. It's not a huge overpay, and Garza is only 30.

 

The team simply needs a lot of good luck - minimal injuries and a few young players need to emerge (not to mention veterans continuing to perform well).

 

We're a better team with Garza. Maybe not a great team (or even a good team). But we're better, and if the team is going to eschew rebuilding, at least it's an honest effort to improve our starting pitching to a respectable level.

[molitor fan]

I agree with Tiger Beat regarded Gallardo, but the pictures of him this past week indicate he has lost some serious weight....he looks like he is in pretty decent shape.

[brewtank34]

Plus, in regards to Yovani, as well as all our players,, we don't have the dang WBC to worry about this year. I truly think that our awful start had a lot to do with the amount of players we had in the WBC...especially our pitchers such as Yo having to go hard waaay too soon. Also, not having Maldy and Lucroy hurt our pitching staff drastically.

 

Here's to a fresh year without the injuries and WBC messing things up.

[fondybrewfan]

I think the deal ended up even better than what everyone thought. Only $50 Million guaranteed plus we could possibly have him for cheap in that 5th year.

 

The key is still Gallardo. If he shows improvement over last year the rotation should be pretty strong. I am confident that Lohse and Estrada will be their normal selves and that Peralta will take a step forward. We really have 5 #2/#3 starters. No dominant aces but also no major holes. Plus we have guys like Thornburg, Nelson, Jungmann, etc who can step in and perform reasonably well if needed.

[Roderick]

Interest rates are low so it should be less of an issue.

 

Exactly with interest rates at almost zero, it barely figures into the calculation but that's true on both ends so it's ridiculous for it to cause a hangup. Plus all teams are getting an extra $26 million from new tv contract so they should have cash available to handle it.

 

First of all, the team isn't using general interest rates to calculate time value of money. They probably have debt or better uses of money that MA can put in the market to get a much higher return - which is the rate the Brewers are using for their time value of money calculation for deferring large contracts.

 

You also need to consider the rate of baseball inflation, which is probably 2-3 times as high as the general inflation rate (and probably much more the last two years) and how the contract will look a couple of years down the road.

[homer]

I worry about his health. Guys with elbow and shoulder issues don't typically find the fountain of youth after age 30....especially power pitchers with hard sliders like Garza. I'll be happy if he can average 140IP over the course of the deal. I'm glad the Brewers have some SP depth because I think Matt will end up on the DL at least once in 2013.

[monty57]

On paper, in a vaccuum, this seems like a good deal relative to the contracts big money teams are paying to starting pitchers.

 

But in our situation, it seems a bit odd. Sure it should make us better, but we just signed a guy in what is supposed to be our farm's biggest area of strength, blocking several MLB ready guys, while we're trotting out Francisco/Overbay/Reynolds at 1B and Weeks/Gennett at 2B. Segura looked like a MVP candidate for a few months and then fell off a big cliff, and his only back-up is Bianchi, with the closest help on the farm playing in the low minors. Our 3B is old and missed half of last season to injury. Maybe there wasn't a viable upgrade available at any other position, but it seems we had areas of greater need.

 

I'm glad that we look to be going with Segura, Davis, Gennett, and Peralta as starters as we need to trust young players, but then we block Thornburg and Nelson, who are around the same talent level of these guys, with Garza. This really makes me believe that at least one of Thornburg/Nelson is going to be moved for a first baseman, because on a relative basis, the drop off from a good 1B to what we have is far greater then the dropoff from Garza to Thornburg/Nelson.

 

So the signing is a "good deal" relative only to the deals which are out of our league (the ones teams like the Dodgers and Yankees sign). We did outbid everyone else for him, so I guess that means it was a "normal free agent deal." It doesn't break our budget, and Garza is 30, which should be safer then the 34-year-olds Melvin has signed the past two offseasons. I don't think this move vaults us past anyone else in the division, although it does help with the team's number one priority, which is exciting the fan base so they buy tickets.

 

I like Garza, and the move should make the Brewers better this year. From a "fan in the seats" standpoint, I guess that's good. I'll have to reserve full judgement until I see the follow-up move, because I would be surprised if we don't trade some "MLB ready" starting pitching prospects for a first baseman. My guess right now for a real "all in" move would be Thornburg+ for Butler.

[DR28]

I still think it's Ike Davis that Doug wants for 1B... Guess we'll see if he re-opens talks with the Mets.

[TURBO]

I really do not want to trade Thornburg or Nelson, but I too fear that one will be gone (probably Thornburg) in a deal for a 1B.

 

I just can't get on board with trading either when our minor leagues have no depth at the position. Trading one of those 2 just puts us in another "need" situation in the coming years. It seems we will always be needing to trade for SP...

[BarneyStinston]

The Brewers don't have the best track records with free agent longer contracts. To even consider Garza staying for 5 years seems impossible. Even guys like Marcum and Wolf only lasted 2-3 max. Not many starters can keep up their stuff here for years outside of Sheets and Gallardo. I guess Dave Bush and Chris Capuano made it 4 years, although they were younger. Given Garza's age, this has a real potential of approaching a Suppanesque situation by the end of his contract.

[TURBO]

I hope you are wrong, Garza is a far better pitcher than Suppan ever was. Outside of his world series with the Cardinals, Suppan was never that good to begin with. We overpaid for a guy with one good series under his belt. Garza has a successful track record, the injuries are what I'm concerned with mostly.

 

This could go bad for a lot of reasons, but if he is injured for 1/2 to 3/4 of this contract, it could be a killer.

[torts]

The Brewers don't have the best track records with free agent longer contracts. To even consider Garza staying for 5 years seems impossible. Even guys like Marcum and Wolf only lasted 2-3 max. Not many starters can keep up their stuff here for years outside of Sheets and Gallardo. I guess Dave Bush and Chris Capuano made it 4 years, although they were younger. Given Garza's age, this has a real potential of approaching a Suppanesque situation by the end of his contract.

 

shaun marcum wasnt a free agent signing, he was traded

dave bush wasnt a free agent signing, he was traded

chris capuano wasnt a free agent signing, he was traded