Cain DFA'd.... Jonathan Davis contract selected

[DoubleSwitch]

The 2020 season was fake as hell. Is there really anyone out there who is upset we didn't do better? Get a life, lol. They should have lost every game for the draft position. It's not like any team accomplished anything of lasting significance that year. It wound up being a perfect pivot year between two separate contending runs.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

8 minutes ago, DoubleSwitch said:

The 2020 season was fake as hell. Is there really anyone out there who is upset we didn't do better? Get a life, lol. They should have lost every game for the draft position. It's not like any team accomplished anything of lasting significance that year. It wound up being a perfect pivot year between two separate contending runs.

The summer of 2020 sucked. I was just happy to have some baseball ... fake or not.

[homer]

HI please move on from the Covid talk. Thanks.

[DuWayne Steurer]

guys, a mod had already asked that we move on from the COVID discussion. thanks. 

[Jopal78]

On 6/19/2022 at 8:56 AM, Opening Day said:

If they kept him around only as a favor to get his 10 years in, thats not classy, thats idiotic.  They are already paying him $18 mil this year and he hasnt contributed anything toward winning.  In a tight race, why risk a playoff birth to make sure someone you already paid $80 million get a pension?  Im hoping they thought he might turn it around at some point and contribute to winning baseball and then they came to the realization it wasnt going to happen so they let him go.  I know as a Brewer fan if they lose out to the Cardinals by 1 game, Im going to be pissed if part of the reason why is that they wanted to make sure someone they paid $12 million to stay home got extra checks in retirement.

I have no idea if players (ignoring cliche statements made to the media) like playing for the Brewers organization, or if one organization is better to the players than another. However, it would be some bad PR with their labor force if Milwaukee cut a player one day before reaching 10 years of service time and all the perks the Union gives players for reaching that milestone. 

With Cain calling the decision "mutual" I do wonder if he was not particularly interested in his recent role of coming off the bench, or if he was asked to go to the minors in an attempt to get his swing going and he refused. Either way, its likely the end of the line because no club is going to offer him a major league deal at this point. 

[Baldkin]

On 6/18/2022 at 1:57 PM, hawing said:

Oof.  I understand it, but this move hurts.  Lorenzo is special enough so losing him in the Greinke trade was a big sting for me.  Thus I was extra delighted at his return in 2018. 

Enjoy your THREE KID$, Lo.  You've earned your success and deserve a rest.

I don't have any kids of my own, but I'm pretty sure being home with 3 kids means he'll get a lot less rest. 

[Outlander]

On 6/18/2022 at 1:10 PM, Brewcrew82 said:

Best wishes in retirement, Lorenzo, and we'll see you in a few years or so when you're inducted into the Brewers Wall of Honor. 

He fell short by 136 plate appearances. Maybe they will make a new criteria to get him his plaque but as it stands he doesn't get in. It would be as simple as adding glove glove winners to the list but we shall see.

[hawing]

58 minutes ago, Baldkin said:

I don't have any kids of my own, but I'm pretty sure being home with 3 kids means he'll get a lot less rest. 

Haha, fair point, but he's not as likely to be crashing into outfield walls, at least. ?

[JCREW]

3 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

I have no idea if players (ignoring cliche statements made to the media) like playing for the Brewers organization, or if one organization is better to the players than another. However, it would be some bad PR with their labor force if Milwaukee cut a player one day before reaching 10 years of service time and all the perks the Union gives players for reaching that milestone. 

I was thinking about this for a while. It may have cost a win or tens of thousands of dollars, but the Front Office might have made a very important statement about respecting players. It would be great if excellent baseball players want to come to Milwaukee because they know they'll be respected. 

Or maybe I'm naive to think that respect matters in a world of 8 and 9 figure contracts. 

Either way, I am thankful for the joy that Lo-Cain brought to baseball. 

[Axman59]

On 6/19/2022 at 8:19 AM, Opening Day said:

I don’t get valuing 1 war equaling $10 mil.  For example,  Burnes has 2.2right now, if his season ended today, it’s not worth $22 mil.  Jace Peterson has been great this year, but if his season ended today I don’t think $14 mil would be a good deal for the Brewers, and if he continues this the rest of the year I don’t think it would be a good deal to pay him $30 mil his performance.  Where does the $10 mil per WAR come from?  I see that thrown around a lot and I never understood why that’s the standard, it seems like it should be closer to half of that.

 

The problem is that the number people like to throw around is massively skewed by people like Chris Davis who put up -2.8 WAR for $161 million.

So compared to Chris Davis, Lorenzo Cain's contract was pretty good.

[Robocaller]

4 hours ago, Axman59 said:

 

The problem is that the number people like to throw around is massively skewed by people like Chris Davis who put up -2.8 WAR for $161 million.

So compared to Chris Davis, Lorenzo Cain's contract was pretty good.

compared to the great majority of free-agent signings his contract was pretty good.

[Opening Day]

21 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

I have no idea if players (ignoring cliche statements made to the media) like playing for the Brewers organization, or if one organization is better to the players than another. However, it would be some bad PR with their labor force if Milwaukee cut a player one day before reaching 10 years of service time and all the perks the Union gives players for reaching that milestone. 

With Cain calling the decision "mutual" I do wonder if he was not particularly interested in his recent role of coming off the bench, or if he was asked to go to the minors in an attempt to get his swing going and he refused. Either way, its likely the end of the line because no club is going to offer him a major league deal at this point. 

My post wasnt in reference to cutting him one day earleir, it was to a post saying they decided 3-4 weeks earlier or perhaps even before the season.  I was saying if either of those were the case they should have cut him then.  And I think if a FA is looking at a Brewer offer which is better than any other one he has, the top reason players pick teams, they arent going to turn the Brewers down because they didnt keep Lorenzo Cain long enough to get some extra money in retirement.  

[Fear The Chorizo]

One thing to remember with Cain is we likely only saw him fully healthy for 1 season of that contract before he got old.  Cain was among the NL league leaders in WAR in 2018 and on the fringe of MVP consideration that season.  In 2019, Cain played in 148 games but really struggled with thumb and wrist injuries that undoubtedly diminished his performance at the plate...but he was out of this world defensively in center.

Opting out of the 2020 season due to COVID didn't give us the opportunity to see if Cain had something left in the tank over year 3 of that contract after his hand/wrist healed, and the extended time away from baseball coupled with his age led to a very uneven and injury-marred 2021 season.  2022 confirmed the fact he "lost a step" at the plate and was essentially done.

It's a shame his 2019 offensive decline that was largely influenced by nagging injuries coupled with the COVID opt out of 2020 took away what were probably two more solid seasons of offensive production that an otherwise healthy Cain could have contributed, making his overall 5 year contract look much better in terms of onfield value for dollars spent.  However, as others have mentioned Cain didn't make his pro-rated 2020 salary after opting out, so this essentially boiled down to a 4 year contract in terms of money the Brewers spent.

[jerichoholicninja]

Two thoughts

1. How did his bat crater while his defense remained good? That seems really weird to me. Defense should go first or both at the same time.

2. Does the union have any backing to file a grievance against the Brewers for getting him the full pension? The Brewers holding on to him even he was clearly toast just to get him his pension cost the team no money but the pension cost will be footed by the union. I mean if they're going to complain about service time manipulation with guys when they're called up they should be complaining here too on the back end.

[dlk9s]

5 minutes ago, jerichoholicninja said:

Two thoughts

1. How did his bat crater while his defense remained good? That seems really weird to me. Defense should go first or both at the same time.

This is me just spitballing and oversimplifying, but it would seem to me that he still had some good athleticism and baseball instincts, which would serve him well in the outfield. But just a slight decline in reflexes, bat speed, etc. can tank someone at the plate. There's more room for error (no pun intended) in the outfield than there is at bat.

 

EDIT: Not exactly a comparable example, but as long as my legs function, I can still run after and catch a fly ball (obviously not like a pro player can, we're talking in relative terms), but there's no way I could hit a pitch even in the 70-MPH range anymore without completely selling out and swinging before I even see the ball.

[Fear The Chorizo]

57 minutes ago, jerichoholicninja said:

Two thoughts

1. How did his bat crater while his defense remained good? That seems really weird to me. Defense should go first or both at the same time.

2. Does the union have any backing to file a grievance against the Brewers for getting him the full pension? The Brewers holding on to him even he was clearly toast just to get him his pension cost the team no money but the pension cost will be footed by the union. I mean if they're going to complain about service time manipulation with guys when they're called up they should be complaining here too on the back end.

If you've got minor injuries in your hands/wrists, you can struggle swinging a bat - just ask Rickie Weeks or Braun...but as an outfielder you can still run balls down and catch them.  Hitting requires a totally different combination of pitch recognition and quick twitch athleticism to swing the bat compared to playing the outfield.  Cain could still be a plus outfielder defensively, but his bat now completely negates that value to a roster as an everyday player.

[djoctagone]

 

[Brock Beauchamp]

On 6/21/2022 at 10:39 AM, jerichoholicninja said:

Two thoughts

1. How did his bat crater while his defense remained good? That seems really weird to me. Defense should go first or both at the same time.

2. Does the union have any backing to file a grievance against the Brewers for getting him the full pension? The Brewers holding on to him even he was clearly toast just to get him his pension cost the team no money but the pension cost will be footed by the union. I mean if they're going to complain about service time manipulation with guys when they're called up they should be complaining here too on the back end.

The union’s job is to protect the interest of players, they’re not going to complain if a team does a solid for a player. 

[NBBrewFan]

I wonder if some of that relates to his decision to sit out 2020?

[wibadgers23]

This is really bizarre. Absolutely no rumblings that anything was going on at the time and now this comes out of nowhere. It’s a shame that there are hard feelings.

[Oxy]

This is weird.  It sounds more like a shot at his playing peers than anybody else though.  I'm struggling to see how administration or management has anything to do with "giving respect as a leader and veteran."  That's just kind of earned and is a natural ability.  As others said, after not playing in 2020 he pretty much abdicated any leadership role he would've wanted to have (which was his right and everything, but ten you can't complain about something like this after the fact.  Especially when you are terrible at baseball)

[damuelle]

Trying to read between the lines is tricky. I'd speculate that a negative seed was sown prior to the 2020 season...something along the lines of a planned reduction in playing time in light of the team having Braun, Yelich, Cain, Garcia and Gamel going into that 2020 season.

[markedman5]

 

[markedman5]

It’s interesting how the Orioles traded their unquestioned team leader……Trey Mancini at the deadline……..and yet somehow it didn’t destroy team chemistry even though everyone was sad to see him go…….they have played great since the trade.

 

I can’t believe anyone falls for this BS…….Lorenzo had a great career but it seems he’s trying to make himself feel better about the way it ended.

Not really sure what he expected the Brewers to do to show him the “ respect” he felt like he deserved? Continue to play him and allow his leadership to make up for the worst centerfield production in the major leagues? 

 

 

[markedman5]

Lets also add this for context purposes

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2944084-brewers-lorenzo-cain-leaves-game-vs-cubs-because-of-hip-injury