Stearns's First Season: 2016 MLB Transactions Review

[TooLiveBrew]

http://i.imgur.com/vEkdfs5.jpg

Sept. 21, 2015: David Stearns is announced as the new Brewers GM

(Photo: Scott Paulus/Milwaukee Brewers)

 

http://i.imgur.com/KkmtG9e.jpg

 

Reading through some other threads today really got me looking back at a lot of the moves Stearns has made in his first season as GM. With the regular season nearing its end, I thought it'd be good discussion to look back at his first season. For this post, I'll focus only on transactions directly related to the big-league club from the date David took the reins as GM (9/21/2015). But discuss other things, too (like demoting Peralta, promoting Arcia, etc.) -- as long as it's directly tied to the MLB roster.

 

I'm thrilled so far with Stearns's approach to team construction, as well as his front office staff's ability to evaluate talent. Read through the lists below, & weigh in with your take!

 

For reference, here is the Brewers.com transaction log beginning at September 2015: http://m.brewers.mlb.com/roster/transactions/2015/09

 

Trades

• 
   
  
• 11/18/15: Traded RHP Francisco Rodríguez to Detroit Tigers for IF Javier Betancourt; C Manny Piña sent to Brewers on 12/10/15 to complete trade
  
• 11/19/15: Traded RHP Cy Sneed to Houston Astros for IF Jonathan Villar
  
• 11/20/15: Traded IF Luis Sardiñas to Seattle Mariners for OF Ramón Flores
  
• 12/09/15: Traded IF Adam Lind to Seattle Mariners for RHP Carlos Herrera, RHP Daniel Missaki, & RHP Freddy Peralta
  
• 12/17/15: Traded IF Jason Rogers to Pittsburgh Pirates for OF Keon Broxton & RHP Trey Supak
  
• 01/30/16: Traded IF Jean Segura and RHP Tyler Wagner to Arizona Diamondbacks for RHP Chase Anderson, IF Aaron Hill, IF Isan Diaz, & cash
  
• 02/12/16: Traded OF Khris Davis to Oakland Athletics for RHP Bubba Derby & C Jacob Nottingham
  
• 04/04/16: Traded cash to Texas Rangers for LHP Sam Freeman
  
• 05/13/16: Traded cash to Tampa Bay Rays for RHP Jhan Mariñez
  
• 07/07/16: Traded IF Aaron Hill & cash to Boston Red Sox for IF Wendell Rijo and RHP Aaron Wilkerson
  
• 08/01/16: Traded LHP Will Smith to San Francisco Giants for C Andrew Susac and RHP Phil Bickford
  
• 08/01/16: Traded C Jonathan Lucroy and RHP Jeremy Jeffress to Texas Rangers for OF Lewis Brinson, RHP Luis Ortiz and PTBNL; OF Ryan Cordell sent to Brewers on 09/05/16 to complete trade

 

Free Agency

• 
   
  
• 11/02/15: RHP Kyle Lohse elected for free agency
  
• 12/02/15: IF Elián Herrera elected for free agency
  
• 12/11/15: Signed OF Alex Presley to a minor league contract with invite to spring training
  
• 12/11/15: Signed IF Jake Elmore to a minor league contract with invite to spring training
  
• 12/15/15: Signed IF Will Middlebrooks to a minor league contract with invite to spring training
  
• 01/06/16: Signed IF Chris Carter
  
• 01/25/16: Signed LHP Chris Capuano to a minor league contract with invite to spring training
  
• 02/12/16: Signed RHP Blaine Boyer to a minor league contract with invite to spring training
  
• 04/02/16: Signed RHP Carlos Torres

 

Waiver Claims

• 
   
  
• 10/17/15: Claimed RHP Junior Guerra off waivers from Chicago White Sox
  
• 12/10/15: Claimed IF Colin Walsh off waivers from Oakland Athletics --- [EDIT: actually a Rule 5 draft pick]
  
• 12/10/15: Claimed RHP Zack Jones off waivers from Minnesota Twins --- [EDIT: actually a Rule 5 draft pick]
  
• 12/23/15: Claimed OF Kirk Nieuwenhuis off waivers from New York Mets
  
• 05/31/16: Claimed RHP Neil Ramirez off waivers from Chicago Cubs
  
• 08/04/16: Claimed RHP Ben Rowen off waivers from Toronto Blue Jays

[1992casey]

Thanks for all the work on this, TooLive. Links and everything.

 

Should Zack Jones be included?

[TooLiveBrew]

Thanks for all the work on this, TooLive. Links and everything.

 

Should Zack Jones be included?

I'll add him. Figured I might miss someone.

[homer]

Thank for putting this together. It will be interesting to see the "transaction" tree as his tenure continues.

[Jose Cardenal1]

Good list for what they are trying to do (i.e. build for future not the present).

 

So many of these moves cannot be graded for many years. Plus there are some that cannot be viewed on their own. Example would be the Lind trade. On its own it will probably be a plus for the Brewers if any of the 3 young arms contribute in the Majors down the road. When you consider that the Carter signing was a result of trading away Lind that makes this trade already a clear winner for the Brewers and possibly a big winner if Carter either continues to produce the next couple years or gets flipped for some other piece and one or two of the young arms contribute later.

 

Biggest move is the Lucroy/Jeffress trade and that could end up being a big negative if neither Brinson, Ortiz or Cordell make any impact but that is unlikely.

 

Only other move that could be deemed a loser right now is the Khris Davis trade but again any contribution from Nottingham or Derby (neither showed well this year) down the road could offset or exceed Davis.

 

Add in the nice Draft and Stearns clearly made strides towards building a contender down the road. Another year with a good draft and trades (Braun, Garza, Peralta, Thornburg) and the "Tear Down" portion of the rebuild would be complete and what is left behind will be a considerable amount of young talent to sift through and build both in the minors and in the majors (Broxton, Villar, Santana, Davies, Perez, Arcia, Nelson, Knebel).

 

Starting in the '17-'18 offseason I could see Stearns start to make a couple win now moves (i.e. sign a more significant FA or trade a prospect or two to get a player in their prime or just entering it). Nothing overboard but just a move or two to indicate to the team and the fans that after lots of losing in '15, '16 & '17, the focus is now on winning games and stop worrying about selling pieces. They will still have a hard time getting to .500 in '18 but the emphasis will no longer be 3-4 years away it will be 1 or 2.

[Eddiehitsthefoulpole]

The overall talent level in the organization seems to have improved. He deserves credit as a result. We have a ways to go, but the first time in a few years I feel like we headed in the right direction as an organization. His legacy will be the next group of trades that fills our gaps.

[logan82]

I am a little disappointed about the return on the Lucroy trade but I like the rest of the moves. I love getting something for Khris Davis. He hit a lot of HR this year but not much else. I like moving him to make room for a younger guy to play.

[pacopete4]

I am a little disappointed about the return on the Lucroy trade but I like the rest of the moves. I love getting something for Khris Davis. He hit a lot of HR this year but not much else. I like moving him to make room for a younger guy to play.

 

 

Just out of curiosity why are you disappointed in the Lucroy trade?

[MrTPlush]

I am a little disappointed about the return on the Lucroy trade but I like the rest of the moves. I love getting something for Khris Davis. He hit a lot of HR this year but not much else. I like moving him to make room for a younger guy to play.

 

I love getting something for Davis too, but not when the return is looking not so hot and Davis arguably has more value now than he did

[TURBO]

This should be a sticky for sure.

[trwi7]

I am a little disappointed about the return on the Lucroy trade but I like the rest of the moves. I love getting something for Khris Davis. He hit a lot of HR this year but not much else. I like moving him to make room for a younger guy to play.

 

I love getting something for Davis too, but not when the return is looking not so hot and Davis arguably has more value now than he did

 

Obviously the return isn't great right now but Davis doesn't have more value than he did. Sub .300 OBP, to go with power and bad defense. We picked up Carter for $2.5 million to provide exactly the same thing Davis does except more OBP.

[Ennder]

I am a little disappointed about the return on the Lucroy trade but I like the rest of the moves. I love getting something for Khris Davis. He hit a lot of HR this year but not much else. I like moving him to make room for a younger guy to play.

 

I love getting something for Davis too, but not when the return is looking not so hot and Davis arguably has more value now than he did

 

Obviously the return isn't great right now but Davis doesn't have more value than he did. Sub .300 OBP, to go with power and bad defense. We picked up Carter for $2.5 million to provide exactly the same thing Davis does except more OBP.

 

 

I have to disagree. I was iffy about the Davis trade but it is a clear failure at this point. He easily would get more today than he got when we traded him. I think he is overrated because what he gives is flashier than the value it gives in reality but teams still gladly trade for power. Khris Davis is worth more today than he was when we traded him and it isn't even close.

[adambr2]

I find it hard to second guess the Davis deal. At the time Nottingham was seen as a pretty good prospect and few of us were upset with the deal. Davis has a 1.6 WAR compared to 1.4 last season, making him marginally more valuable in 2016 than Kirk Nieuwenhuis has been.

 

I find it hard to believe that the marginal improvement this year from Davis combined with the less control he'd have going into this offseason makes his value anything more than very slightly more than what Nottingham and Derby were worth at the time.

 

If there's a GM out there willing to overpay to a big extent based solely on power and nothing else, we need to introduce him to Chris Carter at the winter meetings.

[logan82]

I find it hard to second guess the Davis deal. At the time Nottingham was seen as a pretty good prospect and few of us were upset with the deal. Davis has a 1.6 WAR compared to 1.4 last season, making him marginally more valuable in 2016 than Kirk Nieuwenhuis has been.

 

I find it hard to believe that the marginal improvement this year from Davis combined with the less control he'd have going into this offseason makes his value anything more than very slightly more than what Nottingham and Derby were worth at the time.

 

If there's a GM out there willing to overpay to a big extent based solely on power and nothing else, we need to introduce him to Chris Carter at the winter meetings.

He hit the same this year as last year with a lower walk rate. I wouldn't call that an improvement. The increase in WAR is because he had more PA.

[MrTPlush]

Most thought the Nottingham trade was acceptable because some scouts thought he had a chance to stick at catcher...however many scouts seriously questioned his future at catcher. We being fans of course took the positive outlook when first analyzing the trade hoping the later wasn't the case. Unfortunately a full season later it looks doubtful he will stick at catcher. Adding a brutal season offensively and things aren't looking so good for this move by Stearns(though he was young and has been rushed in his minor league career).

 

It's OK though Stearns is human and will make mistakes. Some small and others quite large. If Nottingham flops it won't be the end of the world. Overall Stearns still had a fantastic first year from the looks of it.

[brewerfan82]

It's OK though Stearns is human and will make mistakes. Some small and others quite large. If Nottingham flops it won't be the end of the world. Overall Stearns still had a fantastic first year from the looks of it.

Exactly, the point of acquiring as much controllable talent as possible is realizing that not all players pan out. When you acquire 36 players in one year, some of them are going to flop. Overall, he's done a great job.

 

That said, Nottingham was playing AA as a 21 year old last season, three years younger than the league average (of the 45 players to play for Biloxi, only Javier Betancourt and Luis Ortiz were younger). If we drafted him out of college he probably would have been splitting time in Rookie/A-ball this year. I wouldn't write him off just yet.

[JosephC]

Thanks TooLiveBrew for the work you put into the transaction list. Wonderful reference as a recap of Stearns' first year.

 

Minor note...Tyler Wagner was included in the Segura trade. Maybe should also include that Jed Bradley was sold to the Braves.

[JohnBriggs12]

I am a little disappointed about the return on the Lucroy trade but I like the rest of the moves. I love getting something for Khris Davis. He hit a lot of HR this year but not much else. I like moving him to make room for a younger guy to play.

 

I love getting something for Davis too, but not when the return is looking not so hot and Davis arguably has more value now than he did

 

Obviously the return isn't great right now but Davis doesn't have more value than he did. Sub .300 OBP, to go with power and bad defense. We picked up Carter for $2.5 million to provide exactly the same thing Davis does except more OBP.

 

Davis has a lot more value. Now he's a proven 40 HR, 100 RBI guy over a full season and yes you can say those are out of favor stats, but players who put those numbers up are in demand.

 

As for his defensive deficiencies, Davis is actually a good fielder with a very weak arm. But that doesn't matter to AL teams. Derby is a non prospect at this point. Nottingham has a chance but he's no sure thing either. There's a very good chance the Brewers traded a perennial contender for league HR crown and 100 RBI hitter who they controlled for 4 more years and got nothing back in return.

[homer]

 

Davis has a lot more value. Now he's a proven 40 HR, 100 RBI guy over a full season and yes you can say those are out of favor stats, but players who put those numbers up are in demand.

 

As for his defensive deficiencies, Davis is actually a good fielder with a very weak arm. But that doesn't matter to AL teams. Derby is a non prospect at this point. Nottingham has a chance but he's no sure thing either. There's a very good chance the Brewers traded a perennial contender for league HR crown and 100 RBI hitter who they controlled for 4 more years and got nothing back in return.

 

 

There's an equal chance Davis never plays another full season in the field. He's been hurt quite a bit in his career.

[Greenleaf1]

When we got Derby, they basically said he's very likely to be a bullpen arm and not a starter, but they were going to try him at starter first.

 

Moving to the bullpen may not work for him, and will obviously limit his prospect value, but I wouldn't write him off just yet either. Let's see how his inevitable move to the bullpen goes.

[torts]

I think just the fact that our farm system went from 29th to 1st in what, 2 1/2 years is pretty dang impressive. I realize not ALL of that was him, but to go from 19 to #1 in just over a year? sold on David.

 

2016 midseason #1

2016 preseason #9

2015 preseason #19

2014 preseason #29

[MrTPlush]

I'm not really impressed that he got such an improvement in the farm system. He inherited great/controllable players to trade and high draft picks on top of much of that improvement already in place. I could have done that and anyone on this forum could have done it. What matters is if the guys he acquired actually end up good.

 

However moves like Villar/Guerra pat on the back. Those are Stearns defining moves. Not trading Lucroy/Jeffress/Smith for good players or drafting a good player #5

[pacopete4]

While I do agree with MrTPlush to some extent, I'm not sure that you could be anything but impressed with the job not only Stearns has done but also Doug Melvin. We always want to bang on Melvin for signing aging vets to attempt to keep our window open longer, we never really want to give him the credit he is due for the players we do/did have that will make this rebuild a quicker process than most teams that have to rebuild. Having Braun on his team friendly deal should allow us to move him, maybe, and if not, he's still bargain for what we get from him. Lucroy on the deal he had allowed us to get two high end players and another player that has some higher tools. And there is many more to list here that have helped this process out even more.

[Greenleaf1]

There's such a high degree of luck to whether or not players work out that it's hard to judge Stearns based on 1 year.

 

Guerra/Villar/Broxton all seem like acquisitions where Stearns was able to see something that others couldn't and get it for cheap. These moves are a good sign that Stearns knows what he's looking for in the young players he's acquiring.

 

Through half a season, our 2016 draft looks like we got a lot of solid picks. Ray and Erceg are the stars, but Corbin Burnes and Ronnie Gideon are interesting too.

 

Stearns has had the benefit of having an interesting team to start a rebuild with. This year he sort of lucked into a situation where all of our best trade pieces were performing at top levels despite the team's results doing so poorly, so he has had a LOT of premium talent to trade away for prospects.

 

However, his ability to get Boston to overpay for Aaron Hill, San Francisco to overpay for Will Smith, Pittsburgh to overpay for Jason Rogers shows that he knows what he's doing in that department as well.

 

I really don't see how Brewers fans could be anything but thrilled with Stearns so far. Apart from maybe signing a top international free agent, he's used just about every avenue within his means to improve our team at the major league level on down to rookie ball, and his emphasis on acquiring talent at all levels sets us up nicely to potentially compete for the long run, not just a 2-3 year window.

 

And still after all the dumping of the last 2 years, we've still got Braun, Thornburg, Guerra, Carter, Torres, and even Gennett to think about trading and enhance our system even more. Several of those are Stearns acquisitions, so he's helping himself by adding players that can either help the team now and into the future or be traded for more prospects.

 

Stearns gets a 10/10 from me for 2016. Hoping he can keep it up in 2017.

[LouisEly]

The best moves are the ones where you give up little and get value. If I were to rank them:

 

1) Claiming Guerra

2) Rogers for Broxton + Supak

3) Cash for Marinez

4) Signing Carter

5) Signing Torres

 

For those six players the only things he gave up were Rogers and cash. Trading for Villar and Susac/Bickford would be next, followed by the Segura deal, but he had to give up value to get value in those cases.

 

Edit: Agree with Brew4U, Melvin did a good job of putting Stearns in a position to have valuable chips to trade for prospects.