Upcoming Free Agents

[wntrtxn21]

I'm coming around on Canha in RF.

 

Dude has power and real good at getting on base.

I like Canha. He always seems to sneak onto my fantasy team at some point, seems very undervalued for what he brings to the table. He's got quite a bit of time at all the outfield spots, but also has played a bit at first base. He'd be a great guy to grab early in the offseason so Stearns/Arnold have some extra positional flexibility in their annual late offseason bargain grabs.

 

I don't understand the fascinatiion with Canha. What does he offer that Taylor doesn't? Canah in 625 PAs: 17 HRs - 61 RBIs - .231/.746 OPS. Taylor in 271 PAs: 12 HRs - 43 RBIs - .247/.778 OPS..Canha will cost approx. $8M where Taylor is still at minimum. I'd rather Stearns use the $8M and go after a difference maker.

[TURBO]

Taylor gets no respect here...

 

Canha isn't the first guy brought up here that Taylor wasn't better than...

 

I think Taylor deserves a shot at the starting RF job, unless we get an actual BIG bat that is far superior to Taylor, and has a proven track record. Canha isn't that guy.

[brewmann04]

The need at bat just sure not at what position

[sveumrules]

I don't understand the fascinatiion with Canha. What does he offer that Taylor doesn't? Canah in 625 PAs: 17 HRs - 61 RBIs - .231/.746 OPS. Taylor in 271 PAs: 12 HRs - 43 RBIs - .247/.778 OPS..Canha will cost approx. $8M where Taylor is still at minimum. I'd rather Stearns use the $8M and go after a difference maker.

 

The main difference is experience. Canha has over 2,400 career PAs (four full seasons) compared to just over 300 PAs (half a season) for Tyrone. With a longer track record to draw from, Canha's projections will be more reliable.

 

Another big difference is home stadium. Oakland is one of the most pitcher friendly parks in MLB, so looking at one season of things like batting average, home runs and raw OPS aren't going to give you the best basis for comparison.

 

Since becoming a regular in 2018 Canha has a 126 wRC+ over 1776 PAs compared to a 109 wRC+ over 324 irregular career PAs for Taylor.

[Devinep]

I'm coming around on Canha in RF.

 

Dude has power and real good at getting on base.

I like Canha. He always seems to sneak onto my fantasy team at some point, seems very undervalued for what he brings to the table. He's got quite a bit of time at all the outfield spots, but also has played a bit at first base. He'd be a great guy to grab early in the offseason so Stearns/Arnold have some extra positional flexibility in their annual late offseason bargain grabs.

 

I don't understand the fascinatiion with Canha. What does he offer that Taylor doesn't? Canah in 625 PAs: 17 HRs - 61 RBIs - .231/.746 OPS. Taylor in 271 PAs: 12 HRs - 43 RBIs - .247/.778 OPS..Canha will cost approx. $8M where Taylor is still at minimum. I'd rather Stearns use the $8M and go after a difference maker.

 

I don’t understand why signing another player (even an OF) means Taylor wouldn’t also play. JBJ Sucked, Cain is old and injury prone, Chana for example can play 1B, and most importantly there will likely be a DH next year.

 

Why can’t both Canha and Taylor play? There’s plenty of time to go around.

[reillymcshane]

 

I don’t understand why signing another player (even an OF) means Taylor wouldn’t also play. JBJ Sucked, Cain is old and injury prone, Chana for example can play 1B, and most importantly there will likely be a DH next year.

 

Why can’t both Canha and Taylor play? There’s plenty of time to go around.

I'd agree with this as well.

 

I like Canha. Nothing great, but a solid player - and versatile. He does turn 33 this February, so you have to hope his age doesn't catch up to him.

 

All depends on price and years. Fangraphs and MLB Traderumors have him at 2-years/$20-30M.

[brewerfan82]

This is all great and what not but there wasn’t a strike looming in the all of those years. Seems like a lot of activity going on early in the offseason.

The strike possibility is a fair consideration, however, I'm not sure which way that will affect the "free agency flow" this offseason. Some teams may wait on certain types of signings wanting to know how that plays out first, while other teams may try taking advantage of a smaller marketplace early on to sign some guys sooner than later. Regardless, it's been pretty clear that Stearns and co. are very thorough in exploring player acquisitions, but also very patient and disciplined in waiting until they get the deals they want. So I would guess while we might see some role player type moves early on (like the Brosseau acquisition), we may need to wait out the market a bit to see which players fall in our laps again this year.

 

All that said, there have been six signings so far, and the Brewers have one of them (plus the Brosseau trade): https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents/

 

[sarcasm]So I guess we've been more aggressive than 24 teams so far![/sarcasm]

[CheezWizHed]

After sifting through the FA list, it seems like a very unusual year at least for positional players. Kris Bryant is the only person that really interests me in that whole list (ignoring Freddy Freeman as I don't see him moving). I understand why Manny Pina went so quickly as FA catchers are really thin.

 

I loved Pina, but I think it is a good time to move on. We have some young depth and Manny's age becomes and issue at some point. That is a good position to work in our younger players. You can start with Feliciano and de-risk him as backup with Fry and a MiLB vet signing.

 

Likewise for OF. We have Yellich, Cain, JBJ, and Taylor signed. Mitchell is about a year away (nice Cain replacement timing), Corey Ray is probably ready to fill in at OF as needed this year, Lutz and Wiemer are more like 2 years away. And I think our best chance at improvement here is with Yellich getting healthy and JBJ regressing to his mean.

 

Where I'd like to see us improve our offense is at 3B and 1B (or perhaps DH). We don't have much in the pipeline there and have replacement level bats filling those spots right now. That is probably where our FA $$ would be best spent.

[TURBO]

I'm not so sure Mitchell is going to be ready in 2023, hopefully he will, but he is not a lock. I could actually see Wiemer passing him up.

[CheezWizHed]

No, not a lock, but he easily could be if he stays healthy. He D is ready and CF is the easiest place to deal with a good D, light stick player. If not, we still have Ray and Taylor in CF (for 2023).

[Madhawk23]

After sifting through the FA list, it seems like a very unusual year at least for positional players. Kris Bryant is the only person that really interests me in that whole list (ignoring Freddy Freeman as I don't see him moving). I understand why Manny Pina went so quickly as FA catchers are really thin.

 

I loved Pina, but I think it is a good time to move on. We have some young depth and Manny's age becomes and issue at some point. That is a good position to work in our younger players. You can start with Feliciano and de-risk him as backup with Fry and a MiLB vet signing.

 

Likewise for OF. We have Yellich, Cain, JBJ, and Taylor signed. Mitchell is about a year away (nice Cain replacement timing), Corey Ray is probably ready to fill in at OF as needed this year, Lutz and Wiemer are more like 2 years away. And I think our best chance at improvement here is with Yellich getting healthy and JBJ regressing to his mean.

 

Where I'd like to see us improve our offense is at 3B and 1B (or perhaps DH). We don't have much in the pipeline there and have replacement level bats filling those spots right now. That is probably where our FA $$ would be best spent.

 

Ummmm....what has Lutz done in his minor league career thus far to suggest to you that he's a couple of years away? Maybe he explodes one of these years and gets himself back on the radar screen, but right now I have very little confidence that Lutz is actually going to become a big league guy.

[brewcrewdue80]

I'm not so sure Mitchell is going to be ready in 2023, hopefully he will, but he is not a lock. I could actually see Wiemer passing him up.

 

If you are referring to Mitchell being the opening day Starter in CF in 2023 I can agree. But if you just mean to make the team as a Starter at some point in 2023, I think that is a poor assumption.

[titletownking]

I mentioned earlier I thought this would be a very busy early offseason and it sure appears to be going that way. Would be nice to see the Crew get a bat. Wonder if a deal for somebody is already out there. Either way, wanted to pick up the chatter a bit. Boards been a little quiet last few days.

[brewmann04]

I think it going to be very quiet for the until David works his magic for a bat.

[brewerfan82]

FanGraphs has a nice free agent tracker tool that you can sort by proj. WAR: https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/free-agent-tracker

 

Lots of good players still out there including:

- Top 9 free agents still available

- 38 of the top 50 FAs still available

- 85 of the top 100 FAs still available

- 131 of the top 150 FAs still available

- 175 of the top 200 FAs still available

 

Also only 4 of the top 59 FAs who play 1B and/or RF have been signed so far.

 

25 free agents have been signed:

- 17 of 30 MLB teams have signed a FA

- The Brewers are 1 of 7 MLB teams to have signed 2 or more FAs

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see them grab another guy with some positional flexibility (ala the Brosseau acquisition, but maybe someone that covers OF/1B primarily) sooner than later in order to keep their options open, but I suspect we'll see them hold off on any larger acquisitions until the market plays out more and they can get a good value grab after the New Year (as seems to be their strategy more often than not).

 

Maybe they'll grab another bullpen arm soon-ish as well to keep things interesting in the meantime

[titletownking]

FanGraphs has a nice free agent tracker tool that you can sort by proj. WAR: https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/free-agent-tracker

 

Lots of good players still out there including:

- Top 9 free agents still available

- 38 of the top 50 FAs still available

- 85 of the top 100 FAs still available

- 131 of the top 150 FAs still available

- 175 of the top 200 FAs still available

 

Also only 4 of the top 59 FAs who play 1B and/or RF have been signed so far.

 

25 free agents have been signed:

- 17 of 30 MLB teams have signed a FA

- The Brewers are 1 of 7 MLB teams to have signed 2 or more FAs

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see them grab another guy with some positional flexibility (ala the Brosseau acquisition, but maybe someone that covers OF/1B primarily) sooner than later in order to keep their options open, but I suspect we'll see them hold off on any larger acquisitions until the market plays out more and they can get a good value grab after the New Year (as seems to be their strategy more often than not).

 

Maybe they'll grab another bullpen arm soon-ish as well to keep things interesting in the meantime

 

 

You do a really nice job summarizing things. I feel the same, I do think more big signings are coming as a lot of the chatter is pointing towards agents wanting deals done before December 1st lockout.

[titletownking]

A lot of big names signing today. Gonna be a crazy 48 hours til the lockout.

[TURBO]

All the stuff going on and this board is dead. Kind of like we all know we aren't involved, so why bother posting...

 

It really does suck knowing we aren't making a splash anytime soon in the FA market.

[titletownking]

All the stuff going on and this board is dead. Kind of like we all know we aren't involved, so why bother posting...

 

It really does suck knowing we aren't making a splash anytime soon in the FA market.

 

It’s almost better that way tho. We all know they aren’t in the market for the majority of the guys signing today. Rather forget about it then get upset about it. Best we can hope for are some contract extensions or a trade.

[SRB]

I'd be posting more random thoughts but I never feel they warrant standalone threads. I guess this can just be a general free agency thread?

 

One guy I would love for the front office to target is Tommy Pham. Not projected to get a huge contract due to underperforming in 2021 and in the 2020 Covid season, but advanced metrics suggest he was extremely unlucky:

 

2020 = .284 wOBA, .350 xwOBA

2021 = .318 wOBA, .354 xwOBA

 

Prior to that he had been one of the most underrated players in the game. A combined 13.8 fWAR from 2017-2019.

 

No real reason to think the decline in production will continue going forward. He hit the ball as hard as ever in 2021, in fact his Barrel% and HardHit% were better in 2021 than in 2019 and 2017.

[DR28]

I totally forgot Pham was a FA, I would love to see him as our everyday RF.

[Jaylyn]

I totally forgot Pham was a FA, I would love to see him as our everyday RF.

I'm on board with that, as long as his contract stipulates no strip clubs!

[Eye Black]

Looking at the early released projection systems, Steamer likes Pham more than Davenport’s system…

 

Steamer: .258 BA / .354 OBP / .429 SLG (.783 OPS)

Davenport: .240 BA / .338 OBP / .395 SLG (.733 OPS)

 

My question with Pham is if he’s a viable everyday RF? Noticed he’s only played 43.0 innings in RF over the course of his MLB career.

[wntrtxn21]

I totally forgot Pham was a FA, I would love to see him as our everyday RF.

 

I don't think Pham (.229/.340 15 HRs - 49 RBIs - 475 ABs) offers any more than Taylor (.247/.321 - 12 HRs- 43 RBIs - 243 ABs). Pham made somewhere near $9M last year and would be looking at about the same or more this year. IMO money better spent towards a real upgrade in RF.

[TURBO]

I totally forgot Pham was a FA, I would love to see him as our everyday RF.

 

I don't think Pham (.229/.340 15 HRs - 49 RBIs - 475 ABs) offers any more than Taylor (.247/.321 - 12 HRs- 43 RBIs - 243 ABs). Pham made somewhere near $9M last year and would be looking at about the same or more this year. IMO money better spent towards a real upgrade in RF.

 

 

Not for the kind of money he will demand, that is for sure. I don't think Pham is enough of an upgrade over what we have now to spend that kind of dough.

 

I'd start out with Taylor before I pour another 10 million into our outfield, especially for a guy like Pham.