Knebel Traded to the Dodgers for PTBNL [LHP Leo Crawford]

[dlk9s]

If it's Cash involved you know that what the brewers will take.

 

Peruse this list and tell me how many times Stearns has taken only cash in a trade while with the Brewers:

 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/03/gm-trade-history-brewers-david-stearns.html

[Jopal78]

Talent costs money. Obviously the Dodgers, who have proven they are amongst the Top organizations in the game in terms of talent evaluation, feel Knebel is worth the 5 million dollars in pay.

 

I get the fact the Brewers have depth with Topa and Rasmussen, etc and didn’t seem Knebel an essential roster piece.. However, it doesn’t bode well for the rest of their potential offseason moves if the Brewers are trading away All-Star level talent to their competitors because of cost.

[PeaveyFury]

Talent costs money. Obviously the Dodgers, who have proven they are amongst the Top organizations in the game in terms of talent evaluation, feel Knebel is worth the 5 million dollars in pay.

 

Or, they wanted the opportunity to evaluate him at a closer level right now, gave up little to do so, and can cut him in the spring and only pay a few hundred K of his salary if they don't like what they see....

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Talent costs money. Obviously the Dodgers, who have proven they are amongst the Top organizations in the game in terms of talent evaluation, feel Knebel is worth the 5 million dollars in pay.

 

Or, they wanted the opportunity to evaluate him at a closer level right now, gave up little to do so, and can cut him in the spring and only pay a few hundred K of his salary if they don't like what they see....

 

I think this is much more likely the situation. It's nearly identical to what happened with Jimmy Nelson last year ... the only difference in this case is that the Brewers were able to recoup "something" in return other than salary relief. Dodgers played a similar game last year with Blake Treinen, and that ended up working out very well for them. In this case, though, if Knebel works out, they also have him under control in 2022 I believe.

[djoctagone]

Talent costs money. Obviously the Dodgers, who have proven they are amongst the Top organizations in the game in terms of talent evaluation, feel Knebel is worth the 5 million dollars in pay.

Or, they wanted the opportunity to evaluate him at a closer level right now, gave up little to do so, and can cut him in the spring and only pay a few hundred K of his salary if they don't like what they see....

one-sixth of $5mm is $833,333. that's a bit more than a few hundred thousand (but probably not to the dodgers . . .)

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I don't know how anyone can get on the Brewers for this. It's a position of strength on the team and we all realize the financials of the league and team are under scrutiny. It's either pay a guy that might be done at a position where you aren't exactly bad, or lose him for zero. This is the kind of thing they had to do.

[monty57]

I don't know how anyone can get on the Brewers for this. It's a position of strength on the team and we all realize the financials of the league and team are under scrutiny. It's either pay a guy that might be done at a position where you aren't exactly bad, or lose him for zero. This is the kind of thing they had to do.

 

Yeah, it stinks to lose Knebel right when he may be getting back to full strength, but it's a risk the Brewers can't take this offseason. I hope they're able to get a young player with some upside back, but I'm not really expecting too much.

 

I also hope that the money saved is used to fill a hole elsewhere.

[MrTPlush]

Paying $5mil gambling on a 7th inning reliever is probably not something the Brewers would want to do even if there wasn't a financial crunch with the payroll.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I dunno, if this were the Knebel coming off the 2018 season it would be pretty nice to have three relievers like that for an extra $5 million especially how the Brewers use them. But that isn't the situation.

[JohnBriggs12]

In theory the Brewers save $5 million on Knebel and a couple million on Claudio. Reality is both will have to be replaced. I assume the Brewers will look in the under $2 million bin for each spot. So net it's probably a savings of more like half the $7 million.

[brewcrewdue80]

It's estimated Kneble would have a 5.125M price tag. He's in Arbitration so they can offer to pay say 4.1Mil to him. Now Kneble would have to juggle a price point that he values himself that an Arbitrator would agree is his true value and not overvaluing himself. I think this is going to be the basis on what kind of return the Brewers get back.

[ThisIsMyCrew]

Topa, Rasmussen, Williams, yardley being all league minimum guys, Suter making 1.5, Peralta making 1.2 all makes for a pretty cheap pen. Hader obviously makes it almost double. But overall that’s a solid upside, relatively cheap pen.

[Thurston Fluff]

The Brewers signed several players for less than they made last season and/or under projected salaries for next season. That leads me to believe the players know this is going to be a depressed market. Which in turn makes me wonder why the Dodgers are willing to go to arby with him on top of paying something to get him in the first place.

[Pugger]

I don't know how anyone can get on the Brewers for this. It's a position of strength on the team and we all realize the financials of the league and team are under scrutiny. It's either pay a guy that might be done at a position where you aren't exactly bad, or lose him for zero. This is the kind of thing they had to do.

 

this

[Brewers Numbers]

From Alden Gonzaelz:

The Dodgers saw a big improvement in Corey Knebel when he returned from a hamstring injury in early September. They also noticed some adjustments they can work with him on to increase his upside. ...

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30440479

[TURBO]

From Alden Gonzaelz:

The Dodgers saw a big improvement in Corey Knebel when he returned from a hamstring injury in early September. They also noticed some adjustments they can work with him on to increase his upside. ...

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30440479

 

So the Dodgers notice adjustments that can be made, but Milwaukee didn't notice any adjustments?

 

These kind of statements always bother me. This team can see things that they can do to improve a certain player, but the previous team wasn't able to see the same things...

[Jopal78]

Talent costs money. Obviously the Dodgers, who have proven they are amongst the Top organizations in the game in terms of talent evaluation, feel Knebel is worth the 5 million dollars in pay.

 

Or, they wanted the opportunity to evaluate him at a closer level right now, gave up little to do so, and can cut him in the spring and only pay a few hundred K of his salary if they don't like what they see....

 

Exactly, but the Brewers could have done the same thing: rendered him a a contract and see how spring training went and then cut him if they didn’t like what they see.

 

My point is: by any metric Knebel was a fantastic pitcher for the Brewers, and they swapped him off to the competition in a cost cutting move. If that is a harbinger of things to come, there maybe a lot of aging bandaids in the daily lineup again come 2021

[MrTPlush]

From Alden Gonzaelz:

The Dodgers saw a big improvement in Corey Knebel when he returned from a hamstring injury in early September. They also noticed some adjustments they can work with him on to increase his upside. ...

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30440479

 

So the Dodgers notice adjustments that can be made, but Milwaukee didn't notice any adjustments?

 

These kind of statements always bother me. This team can see things that they can do to improve a certain player, but the previous team wasn't able to see the same things...

 

When does the new team not make a comment like this?

[PeaveyFury]

My point is: by any metric Knebel was a fantastic pitcher for the Brewers three seasons ago

 

I made the above alteration to make this a bit more accurate. If your point is that it's crappy that the Dodgers can take an $800k chance on him with little thought and the Brewers can't, I agree. We literally saw the same thing last year with Nelson, and it stunk back then too. But the other stuff is just stuff. There's always a chance that the 'they saw something in him' stories are correct, but I view that stuff similarly to the 'Player X is in the best shape of his career' stuff that we see every spring.

 

What team is going to come out after an acquisition and say, "Hey, he used to be good, so we're just going to see if he's toast or not?"

[sveumrules]

Talent costs money. Obviously the Dodgers, who have proven they are amongst the Top organizations in the game in terms of talent evaluation, feel Knebel is worth the 5 million dollars in pay.

 

Or, they wanted the opportunity to evaluate him at a closer level right now, gave up little to do so, and can cut him in the spring and only pay a few hundred K of his salary if they don't like what they see....

 

Exactly, but the Brewers could have done the same thing: rendered him a a contract and see how spring training went and then cut him if they didn’t like what they see.

 

My point is: by any metric Knebel was a fantastic pitcher for the Brewers, and they swapped him off to the competition in a cost cutting move. If that is a harbinger of things to come, there maybe a lot of aging bandaids in the daily lineup again come 2021

 

The Brewers could have done the same thing, sure, but given their bullpen depth without Corey & their budgetary situation, they likely thought those funds would be better allocated towards a position of more pressing need. If they had the Dodgers budget they may have behaved otherwise.

 

Tendering Knebel gives them even less to spend on band aids.

[monty57]

Topa, Rasmussen, Williams, yardley being all league minimum guys, Suter making 1.5, Peralta making 1.2 all makes for a pretty cheap pen. Hader obviously makes it almost double. But overall that’s a solid upside, relatively cheap pen.

 

Yeah, I don't see any reason the Brewers would have to go out and sign a "high priced" veteran for the pen. That's one place the farm should have plenty of talent. If they were going to spend on pitching, it would probably be on a reliable starter, which would push Houser or Lindblom to the 'pen, strengthening it further.

[pacopete4]

Didn't the Dodgers say the same type of thing with Jimmy Nelson?

[Jopal78]

My point is: by any metric Knebel was a fantastic pitcher for the Brewers three seasons ago

 

I made the above alteration to make this a bit more accurate. If your point is that it's crappy that the Dodgers can take an $800k chance on him with little thought and the Brewers can't, I agree. We literally saw the same thing last year with Nelson, and it stunk back then too. But the other stuff is just stuff. There's always a chance that the 'they saw something in him' stories are correct, but I view that stuff similarly to the 'Player X is in the best shape of his career' stuff that we see every spring.

 

What team is going to come out after an acquisition and say, "Hey, he used to be good, so we're just going to see if he's toast or not?"

 

227 total innings out of the pen for the Brewers, 12.8 strikeouts per 9 innings. 3:1 strike out to walk ratio, and a 1.23 WHIP. What else could anyone want. I think you're knocking Knebel and implying he somehow was no longer good because he had TJ surgery (which 25% of all pitchers undergo at some point), missed a season, then rehabbed at the major league level in a start stop fashion due to the pandemic. I guess it's all minutiae anyways.

 

Is there more or less talent on the Brewers roster than there was last week? Indisputably the answer is yes, why is there less talent on the roster, its also indisputably because they didn't want to pay the money to retain it.

 

It could mean nothing, maybe they have their eyes on a player who will add more to their aggregate talent than Knebel. Then again, teams who view themselves as contenders don't typically give away good players to their rivals.

[PeaveyFury]

I think you're knocking Knebel and implying he somehow was no longer good

 

I mean, he wasn't. As you note, lots of potential explanations. But he wasn't. And he wasn't anything beyond slightly above average in 2018 either, before the TJ surgery. Just pointing out the statistical facts. You can interpret them however you'd like, obviously.

 

I think what you're choosing to focus on is the loss of a guy that used to be good because of financial constraints, while not acknowledging that A)it is VERY possible that Knebel won't be worth close to $5 million next year, and B)that there's also a good possibility that, though you are correct that the loss of his talent has made the bullpen less talented overall at this moment in time, the off season isn't over and they made be able to replace or exceed said talent level in a more cost-effective way.

[3and2Fastball]

Clearly a money saving move for the Brewers.