Dodgers looking to trade Kemp, Braun?

[Jaylyn]

I will be the one this year, MLBTR is reporting the Dodgers are looking to trade Kemp, who is in his final year of his contract that will pay him $21.5 million. Braun has two years remaining on his, $19.mil for 2019 and $17.mil for 2020. I was all for it last year, unsure this year. I kinda doubt LA would do a one for one trade, at least I wouldn't. Would you try to swing a deal or let Braun retire a Brewer?

[ebmackenzie]

Much like Joe Namath, he will go to LA later and hang around after he should have retired. With him getting all these ABs now, it will be too hard for him to just turn it off and call it quits when this contract ends.

[TURBO]

Nope. At this point, let him retire a Brewer, or just let him play his contract out. The only way I'd consider this move was if we planned to do a strict salary dump. Get Kemp, cut him the next day and save 15 million off the books. I don't want to have to find ways to get Kemp in the line-up, we are already doing that with Braun.

 

 

I still believe Braun has something to offer us, just don't think he should be playing every day at the expense of someone else...

[JosephC]

This would actually be a good deal for the Dodgers IMO. Braun's average fWAR/bWAR over the last three seasons is 2.2. Subtract 0.5 WAR each season for a player of his age and he's a 1.7 WAR player in 2019 and a 1.2 WAR player in 2020. Now the obvious argument against this is that Braun was very good in 2016 and the big falloff happened after that, so really Braun's 2017-2018 numbers should be used. But Steamer is projecting him at a 1.7 WAR player in 2019 which matches my number, so that is what I'm going with. That makes Braun's value about 26.5 million and he makes 38 million so his surplus value is -11.5 million

 

Kemp has been an average 0.5 WAR player over the last three years and then subtract the 0.5 WAR for his age and he is a replacement level player. Steamer put him at 0.2 WAR. He gets 21.5 million in 2019, I'd count all of it as negative value.

[SRB]

Ryan Braun is still a useful player. I can possibly see trying to move him in a pure salary dump, but why would we just swap bad contracts?

[MrTPlush]

Ryan Braun is still a useful player. I can possibly see trying to move him in a pure salary dump, but why would we just swap bad contracts?

 

Because Kemp only has one year left.

 

Question is why would the Dodgers do this? They want to get rid of an OFer. Not just swap and still have the same problem.

[OnTheBlack]

Ryan Braun is still a useful player. I can possibly see trying to move him in a pure salary dump, but why would we just swap bad contracts?

 

Because Kemp only has one year left.

 

Question is why would the Dodgers do this? They want to get rid of an OFer. Not just swap and still have the same problem.

 

 

Because Braun was much better than his numbers indicated last year. I never looked at the end of the year numbers, but at the start of Sept his exit velocity was right around his career high and his other peripherals like chase rate, etc...all were much better than his last few seasons and right around Yelich. His BABIP was also much lower(while Yelich was much higher). And despite all that, he did still have a .782 OPS for the year. Not hard to see him bouncing back next year and posting a OPS ~840 in 400 or so PA's.

 

 

So IF the Dodgers were to be interested in Braun, it'd likely be for that reason. But my guess is that would only come if they moved Puig in another deal and were looking for someone to be a 4th OF'er AND they didn't have to take on a lot of money.

[TURBO]

I would hate to have Puig in a Brewers uniform. Hard to root for that guy...

[OnTheBlack]

I would hate to have Puig in a Brewers uniform. Hard to root for that guy...

 

I agree. I did say if they moved Puig in another deal, opening up a spot in their lineup for a good 4th OF'er.

 

That said, his talent is pretty enticing. But I can't stand watching guys who can't run out a ground ball. It's one thing if it's your pitcher, or a good player who has a injury, but playing hard doesn't take talent.

[adambr2]

We have plenty of players who were guilty of that at times this season. Santana, Aguilar, Shaw...frankly, I'm probably missing others.

 

I'm in total agreement about guys who don't hustle and run out ground balls to 1st being beyond aggravating, but if that's a reason not to acquire Puig, we better look at our own house in that regard.