McCutchen in agreement with Brewers

[benji]

56 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

McCutchen & Renfroe combined for 3.7 WAR last year, which is a 4.4 WAR improvement over JBJ’s -0.7 WAR.

An extra two months of Adames could be worth another couple wins compared to last year.

Even if there hasn’t been a sexy move the needle appears to have maybe moved anyway.

Obviously there’s a lot of off-season left, but FanGraphs thinks this is one of the better teams in the NL as currently constructed…

https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds

 

You are also replacing Garcia's 2.9 WAR. 

[Tim Muma]

Solid move. Cost won't be much and matters less on 1-year deal. Could open up trade possibilities with Tyrone Taylor. Yes, I know many like him...but the return would be the key.

[sveumrules]

1 hour ago, benji said:

You are also replacing Garcia's 2.9 WAR. 

Good point, totally spaced on Avi, so more of a 1-2 net WAR instead of 4-5 on the OF transactions.

Pick up someone better to replace Brosseau/Pederson in the IF mix & I think the position player mix is pretty solid.

[John Egan]

What are everyone’s thoughts on McCutchen? Here are mine:

Honestly I’ve always liked McCutchen a lot and now get to watch him be a Brewer. He’s not an MVP anymore but I will take a bat who can hit off of lefties. He’s a fun player and just a true baseball player. 
Watching McCutchen and Cain play together with what could be the last year for both players is going to be something special. Two of the best centerfielders of an era playing together. Don’t care if they both hit .230, give me some lean backs and dingers off lefties. 

Do I want the Brewers to add another piece or bigger hitter? Sure. But this was a fun signing. I also hope Tyrone Taylor gets his chances too. I think he will. Renfroe replaces Garcia and McCutchen for JBJ. I’m excited to see this roster fill out

[jerichoholicninja]

18 hours ago, brewerfan82 said:

Ok, I'm 100% okay with this acquisition now:

 

I wouldn't mind seeing the Brewers in that uniform. It's quite snazzy.

[MNBrew]

18 hours ago, ClosetBrewerFan said:

Can we add another bat?  We already have 13 hitters now.  Three starting OF, 4 IF, 2 C, and then McCutchen, Brosseau, Peterson, Taylor..  I'm assuming we will have 13 pitchers most of the season.  Sure, I believe to start the season we will have expanded rosters but throughout the season we will be limited to 13.  Only Brosseau has an option left so its not like we can just option these guys out.  Jace is going to get a lot of ABs being the only LH bat on the bench.

I agree with questioning the feasibility of another addition.  If Hiura makes the team and if/when the McCutcheon thing is announced, we have 14 guys for 13 position player spots.  If there's another substantial bat acquired, at least one guy has to go.

Brosseau having an option remaining helps, but his bat should also help.  This makes for an interesting situation to watch.  Plus David Dahl is in camp as an NRI.  Whoever makes the team is part of the deal, but having some quality depth matters, too.

Of course, if Freddie Freeman wants to join the Brewers, I'd take him as an upgrade over Tellez.  ?

[sveumrules]

Hiura is like #13.5 for me right now.

If he looks closer to the Keston of 2019 in ST I've got not problem with him being in the DH/1B mix to start the season.

If he looks more like the Hiura of the last two years he's going to have to earn his way back up from AAA.

[brewers888]

3 hours ago, PeaveyFury said:

Bingo. That's exactly my expectation. It'll be a name completely out of the blue but logical ala Wong last year, IMO.

The team needs a big time hitter with only Castellanos as a remote possibility. Story away from Coors Field makes no sense at all and I just don’t see any chance of signing Bryant or Freeman.

I would be thrilled with Castellanos but just don’t see it happening and most of the other possibilities are as underwhelming as McCutchen at this point in his career.

Considering how good and mostly cheap our pitching staff is now is the time to get a big time hitter to win us a World Series.

 

 

[sveumrules]

22 minutes ago, brewers888 said:

Considering how good and mostly cheap our pitching staff is now is the time to get a big time hitter to win us a World Series.

The Dodgers have made each of the last nine postseasons, winning an MLB best 820 games. The next best team, the Yankees, have only won 759 games over that same stretch. That's an average of about 6-7 wins per season better than the next best team. A pretty significant margin over almost a decades worth of games.

 

A large part of that has been their offense. Over those nine seasons Dodgers position players have posted a 113 wRC+, the best mark in all of MLB. Their 6,398 runs scored was 5th in MLB & 2nd in the NL behind only to the Rockies.

 

Yet, with all that offensive firepower (& the pitching to match, 2nd in rWAR) they only won one World Series in the pandemic shortened 2020 season out of those nine tries.

 

Over the last seven seasons no one has given the Dodgers more of a run for their money than the Astros, winning the 2nd most games (only 29 behind, 634 to 605) during that stretch & making the playoffs six times.

 

The Astros offense has scored the 2nd most runs in MLB over that stretch while tying with the Dodgers for the top wRC+ mark at 113 again.

 

Yet, with all that offensive firepower (& the pitching to match, 3rd in rWAR) they only won one World Series out of those six tries.

 

I'd love getting whatever constitutes a big hitter, but it realistically isn't shifting our World Series odds more than 1 or 2 percent given how overwhelmingly random the postseason is.

[LouisEly]

On 3/14/2022 at 7:32 PM, brewers888 said:

Now go get Castellanos and I won’t care about this stupid signing.

Castellanos:

2021 OPS at Great American Bandbox: 1.109

2021 OPS not at Great American Bandbox: .772

McCutcheon 2021 OPS: .778

 

[SRB]

We are really cooking against lefties. Splits vs. LHP from 2019-2021:

DH Andrew McCutchen - .412 wOBA (seventh in all of baseball)

RF Hunter Renfroe - .366 wOBA

LF Christian Yelich - .359 wOBA

3B Mike Brosseau - .357 wOBA

CF Tyrone Taylor - .347 wOBA

SS Luis Urias - .346 wOBA

1B Rowdy Tellez - .337 wOBA

C Pedro Severino - .336 wOBA

2B Kolten Wong - .324 wOBA

That's not even counting Cain, who used to destroy lefties prior to the last two seasons. (I don't think we're going to have platoons at 3B/SS/CF, just noting our fire power for when we need it.)

[pitchleague]

Just watch, this will be one of those weird seasons in which we don’t face a LH starter until game 33 of the season and end up with a grand total of 30 games vs a LH starter.

That’d be kinda funny.

[brewerfan82]

I think we're gonna like this guy

 

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

7 hours ago, John Egan said:

What are everyone’s thoughts on McCutchen? Here are mine:

Honestly I’ve always liked McCutchen a lot and now get to watch him be a Brewer. He’s not an MVP anymore but I will take a bat who can hit off of lefties. He’s a fun player and just a true baseball player. 
Watching McCutchen and Cain play together with what could be the last year for both players is going to be something special. Two of the best centerfielders of an era playing together. Don’t care if they both hit .230, give me some lean backs and dingers off lefties. 

Do I want the Brewers to add another piece or bigger hitter? Sure. But this was a fun signing. I also hope Tyrone Taylor gets his chances too. I think he will. Renfroe replaces Garcia and McCutchen for JBJ. I’m excited to see this roster fill out

This is really true for me too. Emotional reasons don't cloud my judgment on the actual impact of this, but I love the idea of getting to watch a fun player contribute in Milwaukee. I have always wanted to root for Cutch, even though he always killed us it seemed, so that's really a nice feeling.

[Patrick425]

No details regarding the terms of the signing yet?

[John Egan]

Appears nothing yet which is strange but heard 9.5 with second year option 

[markedman5]

Mccalvy says 1 year no option....still nothing on money

oh....CC says primary position will be DH.......not surprising to me....but some speculated otherwise.....

https://twitter.com/WillSammon/status/1504112832224276489?s=20&t=1eg5PYXgy9WY1StPnhjxkg

[DR28]

3 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

Mccalvy says 1 year no option....still nothing on money

oh....CC says primary position will be DH.......not surprising to me....but some speculated otherwise.....

https://twitter.com/WillSammon/status/1504112832224276489?s=20&t=1eg5PYXgy9WY1StPnhjxkg

Yea... We're not adding another big bat then... Such a disappointment.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

15 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

Mccalvy says 1 year no option....still nothing on money

oh....CC says primary position will be DH.......not surprising to me....but some speculated otherwise.....

https://twitter.com/WillSammon/status/1504112832224276489?s=20&t=1eg5PYXgy9WY1StPnhjxkg

1 year, $8.5 million. 

[brewerfan82]

13 minutes ago, DR28 said:

Yea... We're not adding another big bat then... Such a disappointment.

There's certainly still room for a "big bat" if the right opportunity presents itself. McCutchen would be primarily filling the small side of a DH platoon. So a bat that hits RHP well still fits in nicely. Also Tellez is no where near a sure thing over at 1B, so someone that can help there. I still wouldn't bet on a Castellanos/Bryant type, but I'm still crossing my fingers on someone like Voit or Davis.

[liveforoctober]

A smaller piece to this but something that should NOT be overshadowed is that the chemistry in the clubhouse should be really, really good. This helps indefinitely during the grind. Signing 'Cutch has that intangible added to it. Everywhere he has gone it is said he is an all-time teammate.

[DR28]

6 minutes ago, brewerfan82 said:

There's certainly still room for a "big bat" if the right opportunity presents itself. McCutchen would be primarily filling the small side of a DH platoon. So a bat that hits RHP well still fits in nicely. Also Tellez is no where near a sure thing over at 1B, so someone that can help there. I still wouldn't bet on a Castellanos/Bryant type, but I'm still crossing my fingers on someone like Voit or Davis.

Man I sure hope so!

[Seth Stohs]

 

 

[DR28]

Since Cutch is most likely our last "big" addition I guess we're looking at

Wong

Adames

Yelich

Renfroe

Tellez

Cutch

Narvaez

Urias

Cain

If Yelich is close to the old Yelich, this COULD be a good offense... I just cant stop thinking about that post from the other day of us being the 2nd best offense from Adames deal to 9/4, or w/e it was... Maybe this lineup will be alright.

[Crew Fan58]

20 minutes ago, DR28 said:

Man I sure hope so!

I agree, I hope Cutch isn't the only signing. But I hate to be a downer I just don't see MA ponying up big dollars to put this team over the top. Which is a shame because with this pitching staff this is the time to go for it.