Brewers sign Gyorko - MLB deal

[A Swing and A Drive]

Wednesday (via Haudricourt): I asked Stearns with the FA market picked over if it's more likely that a trade would be made to make further impact on roster: "I think that's a fair assessment."

 

Thursday: Brewers sign free agent Logan Morrison.

 

Friday: Brewers sign free agent Jedd Gyorko.

 

To Mr. Haudricourt's reporting...

 

[brewers888]

I would say that buying low on guys coming off injuries or bad seasons is a fine strategy as a way to supplement a roster but this is getting ridiculous. We are going to be counting on way too many questionable players next season. Sure some will work out but I doubt that nearly enough will and this just looks like a .500 or so team with a chance to be a 75 win team if a bunch of these guys coming off bad seasons don't bounce back.

[CheeseheadInQC]

This offseason feels like the A’s teams from a few years ago that seemed like they were platooning everyone.

[TJseven7]

2019 Brewers C

 

2020 Brewers C Options ('17-19 stats)

 

2019 Brewers 1B

 

2020 Brewers 1B Options ('17-19 stats)

 

2019 Brewers 2B

 

2020 Brewers 2B Options ('17-19 stats)

 

2019 Brewers 3B

 

2020 Brewers 3B Options ('17-19 stats)

 

2019 Brewers SS

 

2020 Brewers SS Options ('17-19 stats)

 

2019 Brewers LF

 

2020 Brewers LF Options ('17-19 stats)

 

2019 Brewers CF

 

2020 Brewers CF Options ('17-19 stats)

 

2019 Brewers RF

 

2020 Brewers RF Options ('17-19 stats)

 

Looks like offensively they have a chance to better at 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, and CF.

 

That said, defensively there is a lot to be desired...

 

Let me start off by saying. You sir, are the best. THE BEST!

 

Next... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

 

I pointed to this being a real possibility a week ago. I stated that 3b was a minor need and that the the Crew could create the same offensive production with a minor signing and I even pointed at Gyorko as the guy. I'm surprised more people haven't jumped off a cliff.

 

Really easy reason why.

Full season of Hiura > Full season of Moose

The Gyorko/Sogard platoon simply has to replace the Hiura half year mashed together with Shaw. They can absolutely do that.

 

As you stated. They lose about 30 OBP points at C. Garcia vs Braun is a slight tip to 2019 Braun. But

1b looks better. Hiura > Moose. SS should upgrade with Urias. Sogard's last 3 years vs RHP and Gyorko's career vs LHP platoons stronger than 1/2 Hiura and Shaw. Cain can rebound. Yelich is Yelich. Bench ABs from Saladino Perez and Spangs were about 400 AB of that even Arcia can replace by himself.

 

This offense is exactly where it was last year. The theory here by DS is brilliant. How it will turn out is anyone's guess. No one has a crystal ball but the theory and numbers check out.

 

NOW GO SPEND ON THE PEN!

[liveforoctober]

Its pretty clear by now that Stearns was told to drastically cut the payroll and he has done just that. Maybe things will work out but its pretty hard to get excited by what has transpired this offseason.

 

Nice, who is your source?

 

Look at what we have done this offseason. Nearly every move we have made has brought in cheaper talent. I am not saying that things can't work out and Stearns has done solid work every year he has been our GM but this team has a ton of question marks right now.

 

If you work hard enough you can spin any individual move that we have made as one with the potential to work out. If this guy plays like he did two or three years ago or this one does the same we are ok. With that said we are banking on a lot of questionable talent like Sogard and Gyorko while losing guys like Grandal and Moustakas who have been good players for a long time.

 

I think counting on a Sogard/Gyorko platoon is complete insanity. You have to be a complete optimist to spin this offseason as being positive for this team. Hopefully things will work out but I just can't get excited by moves like this which have pretty much dominated our offseason.

 

Ok, I just needed verify your source is your opinion. Your previous statement seemed factual. You are of the opinion Stearns is working under orders to cut payroll and have no inside knowledge. Copy!

[brewcrewdue80]

We haven’t improved at any position this offseason except for maybe SS and even that is a question. There’s no doubt in my mind we are a worse team on paper than last year’s team. Maybe that changes over the next couple months but I have my doubts.

 

You think our starting rotation is worse now than what we ended with last year? Come on.

 

Hmmmm

 

We added a bunch of question marks, but nothing that we can say for certain is better than Chase Anderson, Davies, Gio, and Lyles. Chacin, yes, but he was an absolute train wreck and pretty easy to replace.

 

Lauer and Lindblom are at least pitchers that you dream on 170IP next season. Theres Houser or Peralta. Depth in Burnes or Brown having bounceback seasons that if so make the tail end of SP that much better.

 

How Im viewing this roster makeup is one who goes in to 2020 with a far higher floor than the 2019 group. Theres always the trade deadline to improve more. And youve got the likes of Burnes, Brown, Erceg, Turang, Lutz, etc who can gain a lot of trade value by that stage. The ceiling isnt as high as I would hope going in to the season. Depth wise now, I can see a lot of surprise put out by this team.

Think about Minnesota last season vs 2018. I mentioned 141 more HRsl. The Catcher with 24more on his own in similar ABs. Maybe Gyorko can be the teams Sano in 2020. Garcia be the team's Kepler? Narvaez the Catcher? Urias their Polanco at SS. Lauer, Lindblom,Peralts being their trio of Perez, Odorizzi, and Pineda? They managed 101 wins last year with those 160IP SPs and a batting lineup interchanged only of 3players to go from 9th to 2nd best in AL.

 

I didnt even know Gyorko was out there. I think this is a better signing than Sogard or Healy. Which means the team is better than 24hours ago.

[Jopal78]

Its pretty clear by now that Stearns was told to drastically cut the payroll and he has done just that. Maybe things will work out but its pretty hard to get excited by what has transpired this offseason.

 

Nice, who is your source?

 

Look at what we have done this offseason. Nearly every move we have made has brought in cheaper talent. I am not saying that things can't work out and Stearns has done solid work every year he has been our GM but this team has a ton of question marks right now.

 

If you work hard enough you can spin any individual move that we have made as one with the potential to work out. If this guy plays like he did two or three years ago or this one does the same we are ok. With that said we are banking on a lot of questionable talent like Sogard and Gyorko while losing guys like Grandal and Moustakas who have been good players for a long time.

 

I think counting on a Sogard/Gyorko platoon is complete insanity. You have to be a complete optimist to spin this offseason as being positive for this team. Hopefully things will work out but I just can't get excited by moves like this which have pretty much dominated our offseason.

 

Obviously, the team didn't think Grandal was worth a multi-year commitment for 18 million dollars per year, or they could have signed him to such a contract back in January of 2019 instead of the one year deal he received. In fact, Grandal didn't even get a raise in AAV from with the White Sox over what he made in 2019. In essence Stearns did not want to gamble that Grandal would remain productive as a catcher into his mid-30s. I can't argue with a pragmatic approach.

 

Moustakas is sort of similar to the way the team has added free agents this year. He was back with the Brewers in 2019 only because it was a value signing. He got an AAV of 17 million per year with Cincinnati. Depending on what the numbers for Gyorko turn out to be Stearns was able to sign: Garcia, Smoak, Sogard and possibly Gyorko for 17 million dollars, and there's no question the aggregate production of those players will far exceed what Moustakas can deliver at his best.

 

They could be okay in 2020 if their run prevention is better in 2020 than it was in 2019, even if their runs scored tails off a little.

[TJseven7]

From the 3b thread in transactions on Jan 2

 

I think we are going far beyond what is needed in these talks about 3b.

C is downgraded from Grandal to Narvaez. Offensively though the team loses 30 points of OBP. Otherwise they are very similar.

1b Thames 247/346/851 and Aguilar 225/320/694 vs Braun 285/343/849 and Smoak 202/347/783(RHP) isn't that a small upgrade?

2b Hiura is better than Moose

SS Urias has to be better than Arica if not its the same.

LF Yelich same

CF Cain hopefully better

RF Garcia 10 obp and 40 slugging points behind Braun but many are hoping the power picks up in MKE.

 

Let's not talk about the 392 AB from Perez Saladino and Spangs

 

So 3b has to basically replace Hiura's half year and Shaw.

Hiura hit .303 but add Shaw's numbers and its .240

OBP is roughly 330

Slugging about 440

OPS around 770

 

Offense is pretty close to last year if we can replace 240/330/770 at 3b. 1b better SS better Cain you'd hope is better. Upside from Garcia and not a ton of loss between Narvaez and Grandal with the bat. Fair?

 

Ok

 

Gyorko was bad in 2019. No doubt. (also I'm not advocating for Gyorko but using him to point out how easily this is accomplished)

Career 267/341/796 vs LHP

Sogard in 2017 and 2019 which we have to hope are the new norm.

Roughly 280/370/790 vs RHP

 

You could assume you can platoon that into 260/340/780 which is better than 240/330/770 that we got from Hiura and Shaw last year.

 

I get the urge to make the offense the best it possibly can be, but do you really think 3b is that massive of a need? Look at the numbers of the situation.

 

Hiura replaces Moose and then some.

3b replaces Hiura/Shaw pretty easy.

The offense loses OBP at C and gains it at 1b and hopefully CF. Garcia has his work cut out for him to match Braun but Urias at SS could take the edge off that.

 

And those pesky 392 AB from SpangPerezadino haven't even been mentioned.

 

I don't think we NEED a big addition at 3b. I think a lot of people are overstating that because they WANT a big addition at 3b.

[MrTPlush]

2016-2018 Gyorko is basically Mike Moustakas of recent years; 110-ish wRC+, average to above averge defense at 3B. For their careers they're the same hitters (99 wRC+ vs 100). So the only concern is a poor 100 PA sample which is largely BABIP-driven. 100 PA is about a month worth of PAs, nowhere near enough to write someone off completely. Yet losing Moose and replacing him with Gyorko (For probably a lot less than 4/$64m) is apparently the end of the world.

 

I also don't understand the idea proposed earlier in the thread by some that we're somehow much worse offensively than 2019. How? Grandal, Moose and Thames aren't the only players who are off the roster. The 2019 versions of Shaw, Aguilar, Saladino, Perez and Spangenberg won't get any PAs at all. Orlando Arcia and Ben Gamel look to play a lot less than they did. Those guys put up wRC+ of 87, 82, 62, 61, 60, 47 and 7. They were worth -1 fWAR combined (The 0.9 fWAR from Ben Gamel being the only positive; and that was thanks to defense and baserunning). Grandal, Thames, Moustakas were 121, 116 and 113 wRC+. It's not even out of the question that their direct replacements can match that (Narvaez has 122 and 119 wRC+ last two years, Sogard had 115 wRC+ in 2019, and Gyrko averaged 112 from 2016 to 2018, Garcia 112 wRC+, Smoak averaged ~115 wRC+ last three years). It's also possible that they won't of course, Sogard had a bad 2018, Gyrko a bad 2019, but I think that overall the offense was better than last year even before Gyorko signed. Then there's a full season of Hiura to add to that. There will be much, much fewer plate appearances taken by bad hitters, and then impact on the top/middle of the lineup is seriously overstated. This team is a better offensive team than in 2019, and to me it's not even close.

 

The problem with this logic is you get to take last years disappointments/underperformances and then compare that to all the 2020 players like we won't have guys be big disappointments. Reality is we will have big disappointments in 2020 once again. Hopefully not to that extent, but there will be. Using that kind of logic always paints the future a lot more pretty than it is.

 

I do think they trimmed off some worthless ABs and will have more average ABs...does that outweigh the above average ABs they are losing? Unknown.

[bill hAll Star]

2016-2018 Gyorko is basically Mike Moustakas of recent years; 110-ish wRC+, average to above averge defense at 3B. For their careers they're the same hitters (99 wRC+ vs 100). So the only concern is a poor 100 PA sample which is largely BABIP-driven. 100 PA is about a month worth of PAs, nowhere near enough to write someone off completely. Yet losing Moose and replacing him with Gyorko (For probably a lot less than 4/$64m) is apparently the end of the world.

 

I also don't understand the idea proposed earlier in the thread by some that we're somehow much worse offensively than 2019. How? Grandal, Moose and Thames aren't the only players who are off the roster. The 2019 versions of Shaw, Aguilar, Saladino, Perez and Spangenberg won't get any PAs at all. Orlando Arcia and Ben Gamel look to play a lot less than they did. Those guys put up wRC+ of 87, 82, 62, 61, 60, 47 and 7. They were worth -1 fWAR combined (The 0.9 fWAR from Ben Gamel being the only positive; and that was thanks to defense and baserunning). Grandal, Thames, Moustakas were 121, 116 and 113 wRC+. It's not even out of the question that their direct replacements can match that (Narvaez has 122 and 119 wRC+ last two years, Sogard had 115 wRC+ in 2019, and Gyrko averaged 112 from 2016 to 2018, Garcia 112 wRC+, Smoak averaged ~115 wRC+ last three years). It's also possible that they won't of course, Sogard had a bad 2018, Gyrko a bad 2019, but I think that overall the offense was better than last year even before Gyorko signed. Then there's a full season of Hiura to add to that. There will be much, much fewer plate appearances taken by bad hitters, and then impact on the top/middle of the lineup is seriously overstated. This team is a better offensive team than in 2019, and to me it's not even close.

 

The problem with this logic is you get to take last years disappointments/underperformances and then compare that to all the 2020 players like we won't have guys be big disappointments. Reality is we will have big disappointments in 2020 once again. Hopefully not to that extent, but there will be. Using that kind of logic always paints the future a lot more pretty than it is.

 

I do think they trimmed off some worthless ABs and will have more average ABs...does that outweigh the above average ABs they are losing? Unknown.

 

If you had told me that Hiura would hit well but only play half the season in the majors, Aguilar/Shaw/Cain would all be below replacement-level hitters, Arcia didn't improve, and Yelich missed a month of the season...I'd have thought told you that we'd be nowhere near the playoffs.

 

I do understand that Mous had a good year, Thames was good, Grandal was great...but I'd say that last year was more on the bad luck side of things.

[tmwiese55]

Let's see if I can phrase this well. Just because we are going to end up with less payroll doesn't automatically mean there was some clear 'slash payroll' mandate from ownership. As in, if there was the proper deal available to spend that money on then maybe they'd have done it and it would've been approved. For example, Moose was willing to come back for 2/30. Well, they'd have spent that 15 rather than signing Sogard for 4.5. But, they deemed it too much to go to 4 years on it. Same for a Donaldson type guy, Grandal, or some pitchers. Things of that nature.

 

I guess I'm just saying, with how much Attanasio has proven he's willing to 'go for it' over the years I really don't think he's the problem here. I think the problem ended up being 2-3 years of frugalness by other teams led to this year's market being well above what most anyone predicted, thus pricing people out of our range. Therefore here we are making small deals on the fringes trying to do our best. Such is life as a Brewers fan. Hey, it's better than 93-07ish life as a Brewer fan.

[Lathund]

2016-2018 Gyorko is basically Mike Moustakas of recent years; 110-ish wRC+, average to above averge defense at 3B. For their careers they're the same hitters (99 wRC+ vs 100). So the only concern is a poor 100 PA sample which is largely BABIP-driven. 100 PA is about a month worth of PAs, nowhere near enough to write someone off completely. Yet losing Moose and replacing him with Gyorko (For probably a lot less than 4/$64m) is apparently the end of the world.

 

I also don't understand the idea proposed earlier in the thread by some that we're somehow much worse offensively than 2019. How? Grandal, Moose and Thames aren't the only players who are off the roster. The 2019 versions of Shaw, Aguilar, Saladino, Perez and Spangenberg won't get any PAs at all. Orlando Arcia and Ben Gamel look to play a lot less than they did. Those guys put up wRC+ of 87, 82, 62, 61, 60, 47 and 7. They were worth -1 fWAR combined (The 0.9 fWAR from Ben Gamel being the only positive; and that was thanks to defense and baserunning). Grandal, Thames, Moustakas were 121, 116 and 113 wRC+. It's not even out of the question that their direct replacements can match that (Narvaez has 122 and 119 wRC+ last two years, Sogard had 115 wRC+ in 2019, and Gyrko averaged 112 from 2016 to 2018, Garcia 112 wRC+, Smoak averaged ~115 wRC+ last three years). It's also possible that they won't of course, Sogard had a bad 2018, Gyrko a bad 2019, but I think that overall the offense was better than last year even before Gyorko signed. Then there's a full season of Hiura to add to that. There will be much, much fewer plate appearances taken by bad hitters, and then impact on the top/middle of the lineup is seriously overstated. This team is a better offensive team than in 2019, and to me it's not even close.

 

The problem with this logic is you get to take last years disappointments/underperformances and then compare that to all the 2020 players like we won't have guys be big disappointments. Reality is we will have big disappointments in 2020 once again. Hopefully not to that extent, but there will be. Using that kind of logic always paints the future a lot more pretty than it is.

 

I do think they trimmed off some worthless ABs and will have more average ABs...does that outweigh the above average ABs they are losing? Unknown.

 

Some of them will be disappointments, some players will also perform better than expected. But it also goes both ways; Grandal, Thames and Moose could have terrible 2020s too. Whether you look at just 2019, 3-year averages or projections, I still have a hard time seeing this team not be better than 2019. I don't believe this team will lose any above-average ABs at all, and will in fact gain a lot of them. Offense doesn't worry me at all. But defense is worse, and I still like to see pitching adressed.

[TJseven7]

The problem with this logic is you get to take last years disappointments/underperformances and then compare that to all the 2020 players like we won't have guys be big disappointments. Reality is we will have big disappointments in 2020 once again. Hopefully not to that extent, but there will be. Using that kind of logic always paints the future a lot more pretty than it is.

 

I do think they trimmed off some worthless ABs and will have more average ABs...does that outweigh the above average ABs they are losing? Unknown.

 

You can within reason though. Shaw was a huge surprise and Aguilar was a big regression. If MKE has another Shaw surprise they are absolutely looking to trade in a replacement but Spangs Perez and Saladino would have been more of a surprise if they actually contributed. They're all scrubs. Arcia's bat level scrubs. Even Arcia has more upside to him than they did.

 

I don't see guys who have an expectation of zero upside, a split that can't be used as a tool and zero offensive role on our roster right now. That's the difference. Sure anyone can fall off a cliff but 400 ABs last year came from guys who stepped off a curb. This year we have guys who'd have to fall off a roof to be that bad. The teams deeper and there is a better cushion for error to be absorbed.

[NievesNoNO]

I like it. If he's over his injury issues from last season, he can be a valuable piece for this roster. I agree with some others, I think this is about the extent of what we'll see this off-season. That's not really a surprise. Stearns has littered this roster with versatility; he really does try to extract value from every single roster spot. Agree with the moves or not, this is the way he's operated so I at least give him credit for being consistent in his methods.

 

At this point, Arcia really does seem like he's the peg that doesn't fit wit this bunch. If there's another move left, I could see him getting traded for a low level lotto ticket. Though, it's difficult to see any team that would think he's an improvement to their roster.

[Roderick]

Let's see if I can phrase this well. Just because we are going to end up with less payroll doesn't automatically mean there was some clear 'slash payroll' mandate from ownership. As in, if there was the proper deal available to spend that money on then maybe they'd have done it and it would've been approved. For example, Moose was willing to come back for 2/30. Well, they'd have spent that 15 rather than signing Sogard for 4.5. But, they deemed it too much to go to 4 years on it. Same for a Donaldson type guy, Grandal, or some pitchers. Things of that nature.

 

I guess I'm just saying, with how much Attanasio has proven he's willing to 'go for it' over the years I really don't think he's the problem here. I think the problem ended up being 2-3 years of frugalness by other teams led to this year's market being well above what most anyone predicted, thus pricing people out of our range. Therefore here we are making small deals on the fringes trying to do our best. Such is life as a Brewers fan. Hey, it's better than 93-07ish life as a Brewer fan.

 

I ditto this response. I don't think it was clear it was a budget decrease from day one. I even think they cleared room to make a free agent deal, but then those deals just became too long/rich for our blood.

[TURBO]

 

I even think they cleared room to make a free agent deal, but then those deals just became too long/rich for our blood.

 

I feel like that is letting them off the hook with a convenient excuse. "hey, we tried."

 

I don't think they went in intending to "slash" payroll, but I do think they intended to spend less than most want them to spend.

[TJseven7]

Let's see if I can phrase this well. Just because we are going to end up with less payroll doesn't automatically mean there was some clear 'slash payroll' mandate from ownership. As in, if there was the proper deal available to spend that money on then maybe they'd have done it and it would've been approved. For example, Moose was willing to come back for 2/30. Well, they'd have spent that 15 rather than signing Sogard for 4.5. But, they deemed it too much to go to 4 years on it. Same for a Donaldson type guy, Grandal, or some pitchers. Things of that nature.

 

I guess I'm just saying, with how much Attanasio has proven he's willing to 'go for it' over the years I really don't think he's the problem here. I think the problem ended up being 2-3 years of frugalness by other teams led to this year's market being well above what most anyone predicted, thus pricing people out of our range. Therefore here we are making small deals on the fringes trying to do our best. Such is life as a Brewers fan. Hey, it's better than 93-07ish life as a Brewer fan.

 

I'll shorten it up for ya.

 

Bad GMs not spending = cheap

Great GMs not spending = flexibility

 

I like leaving options open especially when the need for the position, in theory, has been solved without denting our flexibility at all. MKE rolls into the trade deadline with cap space, they can absorb cash dump expirings for PTBNL/Cash.

[tmwiese55]

Also roll into next offseason with a fairly clear payroll situation as well. And hopefully an easier market to deal with how much some big spenders spent this offseason.

 

Think of this way, anyone think if Cole said he'd sign for 3/100 that we wouldn't have done it because then our payroll would be above 125 mil (or whatever this cheap owners limit is). Or Rendon on something similar.

[owbc]

Let's see if I can phrase this well. Just because we are going to end up with less payroll doesn't automatically mean there was some clear 'slash payroll' mandate from ownership. As in, if there was the proper deal available to spend that money on then maybe they'd have done it and it would've been approved. For example, Moose was willing to come back for 2/30. Well, they'd have spent that 15 rather than signing Sogard for 4.5. But, they deemed it too much to go to 4 years on it. Same for a Donaldson type guy, Grandal, or some pitchers. Things of that nature.

 

I guess I'm just saying, with how much Attanasio has proven he's willing to 'go for it' over the years I really don't think he's the problem here. I think the problem ended up being 2-3 years of frugalness by other teams led to this year's market being well above what most anyone predicted, thus pricing people out of our range. Therefore here we are making small deals on the fringes trying to do our best. Such is life as a Brewers fan. Hey, it's better than 93-07ish life as a Brewer fan.

 

I ditto this response. I don't think it was clear it was a budget decrease from day one. I even think they cleared room to make a free agent deal, but then those deals just became too long/rich for our blood.

 

Agree as well. And I'll add that this organization is putting way more weight into years 3-4 than most other organizations, especially those in a period of success. Not signing Grandal in particular was mostly about his perceived value in 2022-2023. And yes, the tradeoff is that they made winning in 2020 more difficult for themselves and frustrated a sizable chunk of the fanbase. I do think Attanasio is eager to avoid another Suppan or Garza which also factors in.

[Brewcrewin07]

Let's see if I can phrase this well. Just because we are going to end up with less payroll doesn't automatically mean there was some clear 'slash payroll' mandate from ownership. As in, if there was the proper deal available to spend that money on then maybe they'd have done it and it would've been approved. For example, Moose was willing to come back for 2/30. Well, they'd have spent that 15 rather than signing Sogard for 4.5. But, they deemed it too much to go to 4 years on it. Same for a Donaldson type guy, Grandal, or some pitchers. Things of that nature.

 

I guess I'm just saying, with how much Attanasio has proven he's willing to 'go for it' over the years I really don't think he's the problem here. I think the problem ended up being 2-3 years of frugalness by other teams led to this year's market being well above what most anyone predicted, thus pricing people out of our range. Therefore here we are making small deals on the fringes trying to do our best. Such is life as a Brewers fan. Hey, it's better than 93-07ish life as a Brewer fan.

 

I'll shorten it up for ya.

 

Bad GMs not spending = cheap

Great GMs not spending = flexibility

 

I like leaving options open especially when the need for the position, in theory, has been solved without denting our flexibility at all. MKE rolls into the trade deadline with cap space, they can absorb cash dump expirings for PTBNL/Cash.

 

Here's the major problem with the thought that they now have flexibility to acquire guys at the deadline. Sure, you can sit on some extra money with the intentions being of doing just that, however, don't you have to be in contention to even have that happen?? Right now, I don't think this team will be. To me, it would be much smarter to strengthen your team right away going into the season with the thought process being that sure, we don't have any flexibility at the deadline now, but our team is strong enough we shouldn't even need to add anyone of note anyway.

 

Everyone they have signed so far are excellent depth pieces, but that's all they are...they really shouldn't be starters or get significant AB's for a team that legitimately says they want to contend, (I mean no one else was interested in signing them it seems) Too many things will have to go EXACTLY as they hope/think in order for this to work this year...that's asking a lot and almost impossible.

[liveforoctober]

This will be an interesting one to watch as the season rolls along between Gyorko and Shaw. Both similar type of offensive producers coming off of disaster campaigns. Once the money is announced on this deal and assuming Jedd makes the roster - very similar situations and will be interesting to see if we got the better of the two reconciliation projects.

[bigredrobbo]

The various comments similar to "there are too many questions going into 2020". Compared to what? Guarantees?

 

This isn't a toaster, there ARE no guarantees. 30 teams are going into 2020 with questions all over their roster. Who made the sexiest trade going into 2019? Arguably the Phillies with Harper. How'd that work out for them last year?

 

I'm not saying that buying better players doesn't give you more tickets to the lottery, but to a degree, it IS a lottery. We ABSOLUTELY are not getting any of Arenado, Bryant or Donaldson (and probably not a Seager,) so absolve yourselves of that fantasy, if sexy signings are what you're after.

 

We've signed players in the past who've ended up being a "safety net" in case of not getting a bigger name. Maybe that'll happen before Spring Training, maybe not. I still don't think Stearns is done yet, but if so, I think DS has done pretty well given the cards that were dealt this off-season. Let's go Crew!

[TJseven7]

 

I even think they cleared room to make a free agent deal, but then those deals just became too long/rich for our blood.

 

I feel like that is letting them off the hook with a convenient excuse. "hey, we tried."

 

I don't think they went in intending to "slash" payroll, but I do think they intended to spend less than most want them to spend.

 

Convenient or rational?

 

Every single outlet that projected where players would end up price wise looked at 2018 and 2019 and expected a small bump up on more of the same. 2020 has been a noticeably hotter market. Other than Asdrubal there were no sweetheart deals MKE was missing out on. Even the guy we didn't get who I wanted badly, Cishek, went for a touch more than expected. I'm a big believer in FOs zigging when the rest of the market is zagging. I think Stearns has done a great job of that and hasn't over-extended out of haste.

 

It's real tempting to pay for options that seem more secure. It's real tempting to chase little upgrades. It's almost always wasteful. Safe is expensive. Little upgrades don't accomplish much. Through every major sports there are teams who prospect on the guys who fall through the cracks and while the high level success rate isn't great, the failure rate or negative impact rate is right on the tip of zero. If you can't buy the stud, find the cheapest option who can accomplish the goal. That's really what Gyorko is.

 

I mean I know you can do this for a number of players but if this guys coming off his 2015-2018 season's into this market, we aren't talking anything close to the same contract.

[bork]

Maybe they stretched the payroll in 2019. The payroll now is pretty close to where it was in 2018.

[patrickgpe]

Maybe they stretched the payroll in 2019. The payroll now is pretty close to where it was in 2018.

 

I hate to be "that guy", but the value of the franchise is significantly more than it was in 2018. According to Forbes the brewers franchise was worth 1B in 2018 and 1.2B in 2019. Avg salaries have increased too in the last 2 years. I think, fans should be able to expect, atleast a minor increase in payroll.