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

[Axman59]

What a chump. He forfeited his leadership card when he quit on the team in 2020.

[Robocaller]

2 hours ago, Axman59 said:

What a chump. He forfeited his leadership card when he quit on the team in 2020.

He made a choice for his family. Hardly a chump.

 

[wallus]

The Brewers kept Cain on the roster long enough to get 10 years of service time. Sounds like they did him a solid there and he should remember that.

[Axman59]

18 hours ago, Robocaller said:

He made a choice for his family. Hardly a chump.

 

What was the special circumstance he was dealing with that all of his other teammates were not?

 

And if there was a special circumstance why did he play 5 games before quitting?

[Vgmastr]

21 minutes ago, Axman59 said:

And if there was a special circumstance why did he play 5 games before quitting?

Because the Cardinals had a Covid breakout and got locked in their hotel in Milwaukee for a week.  It was when that happened and the entire home opening series got postponed that he opted out.  I think that was a bit of a wakeup call that MLB didn't have a handle on it like they thought they did, and I don't blame him for a second.

[Brewcrew82]

4 minutes ago, Vgmastr said:

Because the Cardinals had a Covid breakout and got locked in their hotel in Milwaukee for a week.  It was when that happened and the entire home opening series got postponed that he opted out.  I think that was a bit of a wakeup call that MLB didn't have a handle on it like they thought they did, and I don't blame him for a second.

Plus he had a young family at home to think about when we knew basically nothing about the virus. Don't understand how anyone could possibly fault him for what he did. 

[wildcat2237]

16 hours ago, wallus said:

The Brewers kept Cain on the roster long enough to get 10 years of service time. Sounds like they did him a solid there and he should remember that.

Yeah. They paid him millions and then kept him around for his 10 years despite him being washed up for months. 

I truly wish they would have dumped him 2 months earlier. 

Very ungrateful.  What a bum.

[areacodes]

51 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Plus he had a young family at home to think about when we knew basically nothing about the virus. Don't understand how anyone could possibly fault him for what he did. 

No surprise. Axman59 was railing on Cain for opting out when it was announced that he was DFA’d.

[tmwiese55]

I don't blame him for opting out, your life your choice. Totally fine by me.

Buuut, then you come back the next two years (especially this year) and essentially phone it in to collect the paycheck it comes off as pretty disingenuous to bash the team..  He can opt out, fine by me. But it's also fine by me if a fan looks at his 5 year contract and realize he only played/tried for 2/5 years and call him out for it a bit.  And most importantly, that he's collecting like 18 mil this year to not even show up.

[homer]

he got old. I don't think he stopped trying 

[Brewcrew82]

3 minutes ago, tmwiese55 said:

I don't blame him for opting out, your life your choice. Totally fine by me.

Buuut, then you come back the next two years (especially this year) and essentially phone it in to collect the paycheck it comes off as pretty disingenuous to bash the team..  He can opt out, fine by me. But it's also fine by me if a fan looks at his 5 year contract and realize he only played/tried for 2/5 years and call him out for it a bit.  And most importantly, that he's collecting like 18 mil this year to not even show up.

Last year he was fine. This year, father time just caught up with him. 

[tmwiese55]

Yea of course we don't know for sure.  But father time catches up quicker if you don't put in the effort to keep in shape, practice, etc all that grind that is needed to be successful at such a tough sport.  Some people know they have the money in the bank and relax and do less. Sure looked like a guy just collecting his check the last two years to me.  Bottomline, he didn't even show up to games 40% of the contract.  Can make excuses and some are fine/justified, but I don't blame a fan at all for simply saying "dude, who are you to talk right now".  Especially after they threw him a bone on the timing of his release.

[Brewcrew82]

8 minutes ago, tmwiese55 said:

Yea of course we don't know for sure.  But father time catches up quicker if you don't put in the effort to keep in shape, practice, etc all that grind that is needed to be successful at such a tough sport.  Some people know they have the money in the bank and relax and do less. Sure looked like a guy just collecting his check the last two years to me.  Bottomline, he didn't even show up to games 40% of the contract.  Can make excuses and some are fine/justified, but I don't blame a fan at all for simply saying "dude, who are you to talk right now"

How do we know how much time/effort he put into practice, keeping in shape, etc? All we as fans can see is whether a player gives it all on the field, and Cain certainly did that during his time here. 

Now, I think the criticism of his recent comments should be separated from criticism of his opt-out. One is merited, especially with how the Brewers gave Cain ample opportunity to turn it around and even then only released him when he reached 10 years of service time, while the other is completely bogus. 

[tmwiese55]

3 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

How do we know how much time/effort he put in practice, keeping in shape, etc? All we as fans can see is whether a player gives it all on the field, and Cain certainly did that during his time here. 

Now, I think the criticism of his recent comments should be separated from criticism of his opt-out. One is merited, especially with how the Brewers gave Cain ample opportunity to turn it around and even then only released him when he reached 10 years service time, while the other is completely bogus. 

Like I said, we don't know for sure.  you also don't know that he did.   I know where my guess is though.  Probably not easy to get back into the grind of it all after a year off at his age.   I mean yea when on the field I'm sure he tried to get a hit when up and catch any ball he could.  But based on everything else I don't think his heart was in it. Body language to me read like a idgaf attitude, looked like a guy 'phoning it in' or 'playing out the string' to me.  Essentially, my guess is that if he didn't have a two year contract left for big money he'd have just retired and didn't really wanna be there.  

[thebruce44]

If we are stating reasons for the team having a rough second half, I think lack of leadership/accountability would be down the list from the $18 mil in dead money that he is accepting, but these things are hard to quantify.

If he is so concerned about the team, and this is a serious question, couldn't he act as a bench coach? They are already paying him.

[Robocaller]

2 hours ago, Axman59 said:

What was the special circumstance he was dealing with that all of his other teammates were not?

 

And if there was a special circumstance why did he play 5 games before quitting?

There didn't need to be a special circumstance. The circumstance was sufficient to make that decision. Though I seem to recall mention of someone at high risk in his (extended?) family.

[Thurston Fluff]

53 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

How do we know how much time/effort he put into practice, keeping in shape, etc? All we as fans can see is whether a player gives it all on the field, and Cain certainly did that during his time here. 

Now, I think the criticism of his recent comments should be separated from criticism of his opt-out. One is merited, especially with how the Brewers gave Cain ample opportunity to turn it around and even then only released him when he reached 10 years of service time, while the other is completely bogus. 

 

Because we didn't read or hear a single thing about him being in the best shape of his life in spring training.?

[monty57]

1 hour ago, Brewcrew82 said:

How do we know how much time/effort he put into practice, keeping in shape, etc? All we as fans can see is whether a player gives it all on the field, and Cain certainly did that during his time here. 

Now, I think the criticism of his recent comments should be separated from criticism of his opt-out. One is merited, especially with how the Brewers gave Cain ample opportunity to turn it around and even then only released him when he reached 10 years of service time, while the other is completely bogus. 

McCalvy did an article on him prior to the 2021 season. He asked something like "How have you been keeping in shape during your season away from baseball," and Cain's response was that he didn't work out, and his only exercise was chasing after his kids.

I think his lack of effort was the reason the team signed JBJ for insurance. They babied him in Spring Training to try to ease him into shape, and he got injured anyhow. Even when healthy, he was subpar at the plate in 2021, and completely abysmal in 2022.

Who knows all the details, but it was at that point that I figured he really liked being home with his family, and didn't like spending all of his time training for or playing baseball, but he realized that he had to show up in order to get his paycheck.

It sucks because I really liked the way he played, and he was the main reason I didn't like the Greinke deal. We traded away a good portion of a back-to-back World Series roster for a season-and-a-half of Greink, and then compounded the problem by re-signing Cain to give us two seasons worth of effort for a five-year deal.

[Brewcrew82]

41 minutes ago, monty57 said:

McCalvy did an article on him prior to the 2021 season. He asked something like "How have you been keeping in shape during your season away from baseball," and Cain's response was that he didn't work out, and his only exercise was chasing after his kids.

I think his lack of effort was the reason the team signed JBJ for insurance. They babied him in Spring Training to try to ease him into shape, and he got injured anyhow. Even when healthy, he was subpar at the plate in 2021, and completely abysmal in 2022.

Who knows all the details, but it was at that point that I figured he really liked being home with his family, and didn't like spending all of his time training for or playing baseball, but he realized that he had to show up in order to get his paycheck.

It sucks because I really liked the way he played, and he was the main reason I didn't like the Greinke deal. We traded away a good portion of a back-to-back World Series roster for a season-and-a-half of Greink, and then compounded the problem by re-signing Cain to give us two seasons worth of effort for a five-year deal.

I wouldn't take McCalvy's article at face value, fwiw, as I find it incredibly hard to believe that a professional baseball player did absolutely nothing in the off-season to stay in shape other than "chase his kids around". I'm sure he worked out in some form behind the scenes, and the "chasing the kids around" was more of a comment in jest. 

Also, he was not "subpar" at the plate in 2021. He was around league average to slightly above average with a 103 OPS+ and a 3.2 fWAR. Combined with his typically stellar defense and baserunning, that was more than enough production from him when healthy. The problem really started this year, when his power completely vanished and he turned into a below replacement-level player. 

[Axman59]

3 hours ago, Vgmastr said:

Because the Cardinals had a Covid breakout and got locked in their hotel in Milwaukee for a week.  It was when that happened and the entire home opening series got postponed that he opted out.  I think that was a bit of a wakeup call that MLB didn't have a handle on it like they thought they did, and I don't blame him for a second.

So what other Brewers opted out? None.

I'm not saying he didn't have the right to opt out. He did. And thankfully the Brewers didn't have to pay him. I'm saying he surrendered his leadership card when he quit the team.

And then to stink up the joint over the next 2 seasons and rip the Brewers for not respecting him and his leadership? Beyond the pale.

[Samurai Bucky]

I'm sorry for not knowing this.  Is he still getting paid even though he was DFA'd?

[timpep]

4 minutes ago, Samurai Bucky said:

I'm sorry for not knowing this.  Is he still getting paid even though he was DFA'd?

Yeah he gets the remainder of his contract paid.

[Brewcrew82]

18 minutes ago, Axman59 said:

So what other Brewers opted out? None.

I'm not saying he didn't have the right to opt out. He did. And thankfully the Brewers didn't have to pay him. I'm saying he surrendered his leadership card when he quit the team.

And then to stink up the joint over the next 2 seasons and rip the Brewers for not respecting him and his leadership? Beyond the pale.

And what do you know about his young family's personal health situation? A lot of major leaguers opted out during the 2020 season...Buster Posey, David Price, etc. 

Again, he didn't stink up the joint last year. This year? Yes. But the Brewers knew that when they signed him as an early 30s player to a 5 year deal. 

Criticizing him for anything 2020/COVID-related is such an asinine take, and I don't understand why you continue to repeat it. 

[Robocaller]

28 minutes ago, Axman59 said:

So what other Brewers opted out? None.

I'm not saying he didn't have the right to opt out. He did. And thankfully the Brewers didn't have to pay him. I'm saying he surrendered his leadership card when he quit the team.

And then to stink up the joint over the next 2 seasons and rip the Brewers for not respecting him and his leadership? Beyond the pale.

just because someone is going in a different direction than you would have chosen, doesn't mean he's not being a leader. And he wasn't bad in 2021, so stop saying that.

[tmwiese55]

he missed over 50% of the games in 2021.  He was mediocre/ok/fine/blah when he played. Missing half the games makes him bad in 2021 though.    He played in under 1/3 of possible games in his last 3 years, about 37% in the last two.