How would you lay out your cards as Brewers' GM for Yelich?

[clancyphile]

Let's put this in a separate thread for some discussion.

 

How would you lay out your cards if you were the GM of the Brewers, and were acquiring Yelich?

 

Lay out your trade with the Marlins that involves Yelich coming to Milwaukee. It may include other players or just Yelich.

 

Then lay out any follow-on moves.

 

Bonus for s 25-man roster at the end.

 

Here's mine to lead it off.

 

Yelich Trade

Brewers get

OF Christian Yelich

SS/2B Starlin Castro

 

Marlins get

OF Lewis Brinson

RHP PHil Bickford

SS/2B Maurico Dubon

 

Follow-up trade

Arizona

Brewers get

RHP Zach Greinke

$38.5 million (D-Backs pay $9 million in 2018, $9.5 million in 2019, and $10 million in 2020-2021)

OF Marcus Wilson

1B Pavin Smith

RHP Sam McWilliams

 

Diamondbacks get

RHP Zach Davies

SS Orlando Arcia

 

Trade with San Francisco

Brewers get

LHP Marco Gonzalez

OF Alexander Caranio

 

Giants get

OF Keon Broxton

 

Brewers 25-man

2b: Villar

ss: Castro

rf: Santana

3b: Shaw

cf: Yelich

1b: Thames/Aguilar

lf: Braun

c: Pina

bench: Vogt, Phillips, Sogard, Perez, Aguilar/Thames

rotation: Greinke, Anderson, Chacin, Woodruff, Suter

bullpen: Knebel, Hader, Jeffress, T. Williams, Logan, Gallardo, Guerra

 

DL: Nelson

 

When Nelson returns, whichever of Suter/Woodruff is performing better stays in the rotation.

 

If Nelson bumps Woodruff, Woodruff optioned to AAA. If Nelson bumps Suter, Suter goes to the pen, and one of Gallardo/Guerra is sent down or DFA.

 

Dealing Arcia is a hard move to make, but Castro can handle short through 2020, by which time, Isan Diaz can take over.

 

In addition, while there is a bigger payroll, the Brewers have only lost one major prospect (Brinson), and have acquired five lottery tickets.

[PDCBalla]

Wouldn't trade Arcia at all. A middle infield of Villar and Castro is a nightmare.

[Thurston Fluff]

We get Yelich they get a bag of balls. Trading anything more than that seems silly to me.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

We get Yelich they get a bag of balls. Trading anything more than that seems silly to me.

 

Huh? Care to elaborate?

[clancyphile]

Wouldn't trade Arcia at all. A middle infield of Villar and Castro is a nightmare.

 

Arcia could develop into a very good shortstop and post an OPS like he did at Biloxi in 2015. Or he could remain good-field, no-hit, as he has been for his major-league career. I'm thinking about that .723 OPS at Colorado Springs... it was a red flag when Arcia was called up, and he hasn't dispelled it in 2017.

 

Greinke, though, is a TOR starter. He's liked it here in the past.

 

Greinke, Nelson, Anderson, Chacin, Suter/Woodruff in the rotation, PLUS the Knebel/Hader/Jeffress/T. Williams nasty boys bullpen, PLUS the improved offense from getting Yelich in center and Castro at short?

 

I think it equals the Brewers hauling up NL Central Division, National League, and World Series championship pennants in April 2019, maybe even repeating that process in 2020.

[mrn1ceguy]

I have a couple scenarios I've bounced around in my head (and posted elsewhere).

 

Option #1

Trade to Miami:

Brinson, Ortiz, Dubon, Supak for Yelich & Barraclough.

 

Trade to Cleveland:

Santana, Nottingham, Feliciano, Derby for Salazar & Meija

 

Trade to Anyone:

Villar for lottery prospect

Aguilar for lottery prospects (or maybe to Cleveland)

 

FA:

Walker (2yr/22M)

 

New Roster:

LF: Braun (50%), Yelich (50%)

CF: Yelich (50%), Phillips (25%), Broxton (25%)

RF: Phillips (75%), Broxton(25%)

1B: Thames (75%), Braun (25%)

2B: Walker

SS: Arcia

3B: Shaw

IF Bench: Sogard, Perez for periodic days off

C: Pina (70%), Vogt (30%)

 

SP: Anderson, Davis, Chacin, Salazar, Woodruff (& Nelson, Burnes, Wilkerson ready to contribute in May/June in case of injury or performance)

RP: Knebel, Barraclough, Hader, Logan, Oh, Barnes, Jeffress, Suter, Williams

 

Braun learns 1B and takes all (or almost all) lefty starts at 1B (~25%). In this secario, we improve the team and take a hit to the farm but still come away with a top prospect (Meija)

 

 

Option #2

Trade to Miami:

Brinson & Ray for Yelich & Chen.

 

Trade to Cleveland:

Santana for Kipnis & Meija

 

Trade to Anyone:

Villar for lottery prospect

Aguilar for lottery prospects (or maybe to Cleveland)

 

FA:

Oh (1yr/4M)

 

New Roster:

LF: Braun (50%), Yelich (50%)

CF: Yelich (50%), Phillips (25%), Broxton (25%)

RF: Phillips (75%), Broxton(25%)

1B: Thames (75%), Braun (25%)

2B: Kipnis

SS: Arcia

3B: Shaw

IF Bench: Sogard, Perez for periodic days off

C: Pina (70%), Vogt (30%)

 

SP: Anderson, Davis, Chacin, Chen, Woodruff (& Nelson, Burnes, Wilkerson, Ortiz ready to contribute in May/June in case of injury or performance)

RP: Knebel, Hader, Logan, Oh, Barnes, Jeffress, Suter, Williams

 

Braun learns 1B and takes all (or almost all) lefty starts at 1B (~25%). In this secario, we improve the team while probably either not hurtin or even improving our farm (Meija & lottery vs Brinson & Ray).

 

 

Anything too unrealistic?

[MadThinker88]

I have a couple scenarios I've bounced around in my head (and posted elsewhere).

 

Option #1

Trade to Miami:

Brinson, Ortiz, Dubon, Supak for Yelich & Barraclough.

 

Trade to Cleveland:

Santana, Nottingham, Feliciano, Derby for Salazar & Meija

 

Trade to Anyone:

Villar for lottery prospect

Aguilar for lottery prospects (or maybe to Cleveland)

....

 

Anything too unrealistic?

 

I will speak to your ideas for trades with Cleveland.

 

Forget Aguilar heading back to the Tribe. They have under contract for multiple years EE & Yonder Alanso. They also have a top 1B prospect in Bradley that will be in AAA this season. No space or need to bring back Aguilar.

 

You idea to acquire Mejia is flawed. Mejia is on par with Brinson. You would not give up Brinson for a grab bag of prospects where 1 was a pitcher & 2 more were CF. Hence Cleveland would not deal Mejia for a grab bag with 1 pitcher and 2 catchers. Cleveland already has a surplus at C & has 4 of them on the 40 man right now. Both guys in the majors have multiple years of contract control remaining. If there was concern about the catching area, Mejia would not be available in trade, he would be put to use in Cleveland.

[mrn1ceguy]

I have a couple scenarios I've bounced around in my head (and posted elsewhere).

 

Option #1

Trade to Miami:

Brinson, Ortiz, Dubon, Supak for Yelich & Barraclough.

 

Trade to Cleveland:

Santana, Nottingham, Feliciano, Derby for Salazar & Meija

 

Trade to Anyone:

Villar for lottery prospect

Aguilar for lottery prospects (or maybe to Cleveland)

....

 

Anything too unrealistic?

 

I will speak to your ideas for trades with Cleveland.

 

Forget Aguilar heading back to the Tribe. They have under contract for multiple years EE & Yonder Alanso. They also have a top 1B prospect in Bradley that will be in AAA this season. No space or need to bring back Aguilar.

 

You idea to acquire Mejia is flawed. Mejia is on par with Brinson. You would not give up Brinson for a grab bag of prospects where 1 was a pitcher & 2 more were CF. Hence Cleveland would not deal Mejia for a grab bag with 1 pitcher and 2 catchers. Cleveland already has a surplus at C & has 4 of them on the 40 man right now. Both guys in the majors have multiple years of contract control remaining. If there was concern about the catching area, Mejia would not be available in trade, he would be put to use in Cleveland.

 

Good point on Aguilar, I forgot about Bradley. I just knew they needed some more RH hitting and figured he could be a could bench bat. That being said, Bradley also bats LH so Aguilar may still be useful (although not by a lot).

 

As to Meija. I'm definitely trying to shoe-horn in Meija into a Santana trade. If it's Santana for prospects (as I put in Option #2), I see it as do-able. However, in Santana for Salazar, Cleveland needs to add but Meija is clearly overkill. So what could we add on our side to make it work? Maybe Santana, Diaz, Pennington for Salazar & Meija? I'm obviously flawed starting with an end goal and trying to make it work but it would nice to find a way to make it work.

[MadThinker88]

if you really wanted Salazar & Mejia, Cleveland could add Nick Goody to that.

Unfortunately the Brewers would not be happy with their side of the trade.... D Santana & Knebel.

 

You have to recall that the Tribe lost Shaw (& Smith) already. Andrew Miller & Cody Allen are most likely gone as free agents after 2018.

[NievesNoNO]

Brinson, Phillips, Diaz, and somebody in the 20-30 range for Yelich

 

Trade Santana to Cleveland for Salazar

 

Sign Cain

 

It seems pretty far fetched to be able to accomplish all that, though if done in order those moves could stand on their own.

[Thurston Fluff]

We get Yelich they get a bag of balls. Trading anything more than that seems silly to me.

 

Huh? Care to elaborate?

 

It's nothing against Yelich. It's just not going to be a significant enough improvement over what we have that I don't see the upgrade as significant enough to give up good prospects for. Yelich can play center but reportedly not very well. So his offensive boost there would be offset by his downgrade on D. He isn't replacing Braun so that leaves Santana. I just don't see Santana as so much worse overall than Yelich to give up prime prospects for. So if they want to just get rid of him fine, give them the proverbial bag of balls. If not, there are better ways to marginally improve our roster than trading top 100 prospects and displacing Santana in the process.

[clancyphile]

We get Yelich they get a bag of balls. Trading anything more than that seems silly to me.

 

Huh? Care to elaborate?

 

It's nothing against Yelich. It's just not going to be a significant enough improvement over what we have that I don't see the upgrade as significant enough to give up good prospects for. Yelich can play center but reportedly not very well. So his offensive boost there would be offset by his downgrade on D. He isn't replacing Braun so that leaves Santana. I just don't see Santana as so much worse overall than Yelich to give up prime prospects for. So if they want to just get rid of him fine, give them the proverbial bag of balls. If not, there are better ways to marginally improve our roster than trading top 100 prospects and displacing Santana in the process.

 

I agree.

 

I think what I posted at the start of this was a good way to do that. The big risk is banking on Villar returning to his 2016 form. That said... the rotation and bullpen is very good.

[TURBO]

First thing I'd do is take away Harrison, Diaz and Burnes as trade chips for a guy like Yelich. He is not a WOW player I'd mortgage my blue chip guys for. We have a ton of OFers, that is where I'd focus, trading an OFer or 2. I do not think that we should be trading our best arms either, small market teams with $ issues shouldn't be trying to trade our best pitching prospects for position players, pitching is just too damn valuable, and hard to come by for a team like the Brewers to unload.

[RockCoCougars]

I'd make an offer with centerpiece of Brinson. I'd then take my top ten prospects remaining off the table and give them a list of ten guys where they can choose one, then let them take two other guys that are not on either list. Then I'd walk away, and tell them to think about it while being sure to remind them that the offer could get pulled at any time. No way would I enter a bidding war for this guy. He simply doesn't warrant trading multiple top prospects like say a bonafide #1 starter would, or even a rental like Machado that could put you over the top if you are contending in June or July.

[brewmann04]

First thing I'd do is take away Harrison, Diaz and Burnes as trade chips for a guy like Yelich. He is not a WOW player I'd mortgage my blue chip guys for. We have a ton of OFers, that is where I'd focus, trading an OFer or 2. I do not think that we should be trading our best arms either, small market teams with $ issues shouldn't be trying to trade our best pitching prospects for position players, pitching is just too damn valuable, and hard to come by for a team like the Brewers to unload.

Spot on post totally agree

[Boomer5]

First thing I'd do is take away Harrison, Diaz and Burnes as trade chips for a guy like Yelich. He is not a WOW player I'd mortgage my blue chip guys for. We have a ton of OFers, that is where I'd focus, trading an OFer or 2. I do not think that we should be trading our best arms either, small market teams with $ issues shouldn't be trying to trade our best pitching prospects for position players, pitching is just too damn valuable, and hard to come by for a team like the Brewers to unload.

 

None of those guys especially Diaz is blue chip. Brinson is our blue chip player.

 

Those other guys have potential of course, but they aren't headliners in a trade for a 4-5 WAR player.

[adambr2]

First thing I'd do is take away Harrison, Diaz and Burnes as trade chips for a guy like Yelich. He is not a WOW player I'd mortgage my blue chip guys for. We have a ton of OFers, that is where I'd focus, trading an OFer or 2. I do not think that we should be trading our best arms either, small market teams with $ issues shouldn't be trying to trade our best pitching prospects for position players, pitching is just too damn valuable, and hard to come by for a team like the Brewers to unload.

Spot on post totally agree

 

You can't just take guys off the table from the get-go and expect to get these players. You say Harrison is off the table but yet you want to trade OFers. Why wouldn't Harrison fall into that category? His value is at a high point and he's years away from contributing at the MLB level. I would guess that if we used him to acquire a player like Yelich that we would also be years away from OF being a need.

 

Secondly if you don't consider Yelich to be a wow player, who falls into that category? Mike Trout? Clayton Kershaw? These guys generally don't ever become available, and if they do they cost an entire farm system. Yelich is at the upper echelon of players that you could reasonably expect to be able to even acquire via trade.

 

Finally, I understand your hesitancy to trade starting pitching prospects, but I think it also depends on the upside of the pitcher you're dealing with. Do you really see Corbin Burnes as a frontline starter? Most scouts see him as more of a middle of the rotation starter, and we have those guys -- Anderson, Davies, Chacin, etc. It sounds like Josh Hader isn't being made available, and aside from that I don't know that we currently have a TOR in our system.

[JosephC]

Brinson, Phillips, Diaz, and somebody in the 20-30 range for Yelich

 

Trade Santana to Cleveland for Salazar

 

Sign Cain

 

It seems pretty far fetched to be able to accomplish all that, though if done in order those moves could stand on their own.

 

This is the only offer for Yelich so far in this thread that's close. Eat Martin Prado's contract and that might be enough to get it done. If representing the Marlins I'd push hard that the last piece be Luis Ortiz or Freddy Peralta but would probably settle for Cody Ponce, who might be higher than #20 in updated rankings but likely won't be top 15.

[SRB]

He's overpaid but I would actually love to add Prado as a super utility guy.

[Kelbysdaddy]

I assume Brinson will be gone. Hiura, Burnes, Erceg, and Harrison are the guys I’d prefer to keep most. I wouldn’t expect a second mlb ready OF to also be in the trade so that would make Maverick safe. Since Castro wants out, take on him and include villar but wouldn’t add anything as far as prospects for him.

[brewmann04]

We still need to find a way to get another starter in here even if they add Yelich

[TURBO]

I assume Brinson will be gone. Hiura, Burnes, Erceg, and Harrison are the guys I’d prefer to keep most. I wouldn’t expect a second mlb ready OF to also be in the trade so that would make Maverick safe. Since Castro wants out, take on him and include villar but wouldn’t add anything as far as prospects for him.

 

and I'll add Diaz to that list...

[brewmann04]

We still need to find a way to get another starter in here even if they add Yelich

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

We still need to find a way to get another starter in here even if they add Yelich

 

If Santana isn't traded for one, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that they sign Lynn, Cobb or Arrieta.

[pacopete4]

We still need to find a way to get another starter in here even if they add Yelich

 

Dude. Just make your signature something about how we need another starter and post something else, my god. Or change your handle to repeat.