Cordero to Reds; 4 years, $46 million

[Fatter than Joey]

That is unless Turnbow ends up being our best reliever. In that case we are screwed.

 

I suspect something will happen between now and April so that Turnbow is not our best reliever.

[MelGroceryStocker]

Same old Brewers. Can't keep our star players. This just shows me that Fielder, Braun, Hardy, Weeks, etc., are all on their way out.

 

Until we learn that good players cost $$, we will never contend. We have gotten worse at catcher and worse in the bullpen, we've lost Geoff Jenkins, who while overpaid, was still better than his replacement.

 

2008 Brewers: 80-82.

[Tbadder]

I think they now need to sign Sheets. 4 years 70 mil. The money's there.

 

What i don't think they should do is lose their own picks by signing class A or B free agents. The die has been cast. I don't believe they were going to contend next year anyways. Go with the flow. Find the reclamation project. Find the organizationally blocked young catcher, find the young stud outfielder a year away, etc.

[brettac1]

Same old Brewers. Can't keep our star players. This just shows me that Fielder, Braun, Hardy, Weeks, etc., are all on their way out.

 

Actually, signing Cordero would have been much more detrimental in their ability to re-sign those guys than not signing him does. Now they'll have some money when those guys hit FA, instead of an old ineffective closer.

[Ennder]

Cordero blew 7 saves last year, I'm sure just about anyone could do about the same. I'll miss him more because it pushes everyone in the bullpen up the depth chart more than losing him as a closer. That is way too much money for a closer though, so I'm glad to see him gone.

 

Until we learn that good players cost $$, we will never contend. We have gotten worse at catcher and worse in the bullpen, we've lost Geoff Jenkins, who while overpaid, was still better than his replacement.

 

2008 Brewers: 80-82.

 

The offseason isn't over. Jenkins isn't any better than his replacement. We got better at C. The bullpen looks pretty nasty you are correct there. I think we are still about an 83 win team because of CV and Gallardo starting for a full year. If we can fix the bullpen or Yost turns into a league average manager I could see 85+.

[MelGroceryStocker]

TBadder we have been "one year away" for a while now. This is pretty pathetic IMO ... at this point I believe the team is substantially worse than it was this past season. Acquiring guys like Mota won't fix that problem.

[Fatter than Joey]

That the Reds spent this much on a guy who only figures to throw 70 innings per year shows precisely why they're going nowhere fast. Cordero is a fine pitcher, but he blew one more save than David Weathers did last season. He's only going to make so much of a difference."

 

The problem with this logic, is that Weathers will replace a crappy setup Reds pitcher. The Reds probably wont convert a higher number of saves

but Weathers/Cordero is good depth.

[splitterpfj]

The Brewers just offered 10.5 million dollars per year to a guy who will pitch 75 innings per season. These are most definitely not the Brewers of old.

 

I absolutely will not miss Johnny Estrada, and I would not have given Cordero what the Reds gave him.

 

There are four months left to work with, let's see what tomorrow brings.

[AdvantageSchneider]

Income taxes could play a role as well however I have no idea what kind of tax rates Ohio has, but I believe Wisconsin has one of the higher state income taxes

 

OHIO (a)

0.649

-

6.555

9

WISCONSIN (a)

4.6

-

6.75

4

These are the rates I found online. Not a huge difference. I don't know what the brackets are, but let's just make a silly assumption that the entire $46 million would be taxed at the highest rates in both states. The difference would only be $89,700. No $90k is a lot of money to you and me but to Cococ it's less than .002 of his entire contract. I don't think you make that decision based on $90k.

 

Also somebody said he might not have liked Milwaukee. I've never been to Cincinnati, but I have a hard time beleiving Cincy is that much different than Milwaukee that Coco would really care, or that Coco would have a great affinity for Cinncy over Milwaukee. It's not like he's going home to his hometown.

 

I think Doug had it right. It was and is always about the $

 

BTW rates I got from this website if you care.

http://www.taxadmin.org/FTA/rate/ind_inc.html

[Lorax1]

Given Cordero's performance away from The Keg last year, I don't know how well this will work out for the Reds.

 

Probably very well when they visit the keg.

Isn't this assuming the Reds actually have a lead when they visit the Keg next year?

[RayKingsForemanGrill]

Same old Brewers. Can't keep our star players. This just shows me that Fielder, Braun, Hardy, Weeks, etc., are all on their way out.

 

Until we learn that good players cost $$, we will never contend. We have gotten worse at catcher and worse in the bullpen, we've lost Geoff Jenkins, who while overpaid, was still better than his replacement.

 

2008 Brewers: 80-82.

I usually don't violently disagree with posts, but this one I do.

 

I think not signing Cordero is smart business and smart baseball... there are other options...

[strawbossisevil]

Mel, I'm impatient also. But the offseason has just started. There are a number of sensible options out there that we could bring in, for less money, who could pitch quite well for us.

 

Riske and Fuentes being examples. (Go ahead and look at their numbers last season vs. Cordero's)

 

Here's a comparison:

 

Fuentes 3.08 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, .206 BAA (while playing half of his games at Coors)

Riske 2.45 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, .240 BAA (is a free agent)

Herges 2.96 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, .198 BAA (is a free agent)

F. Cordero 2.98 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, .218 BAA

 

We could probably have all three, Fuentes, Riske and Herges for about the same cost as Cordero. Is Cordero really that much better than those three? You be the judge.

[Fatter than Joey]

The Brewers just offered 10.5 million dollars per year to a guy who will pitch 75 innings per season. These are most definitely not the Brewers of old.

 

You are right. Although in all this shrewdness we still are paying Mota $3.2M

[fondybrewfan]

Same old Brewers. Can't keep our star players. This just shows me that Fielder, Braun, Hardy, Weeks, etc., are all on their way out.

 

Until we learn that good players cost $$, we will never contend. We have gotten worse at catcher and worse in the bullpen, we've lost Geoff Jenkins, who while overpaid, was still better than his replacement.

 

2008 Brewers: 80-82.

I hope that was tongue in cheek.

[PeaveyFury]

A few quick thoughts:

 

It is nice to see that the Brewers didn't just make a token offer to be able to say they 'tried.' That said, our bullpen is much worse than it was in 2007, and we're in a position where a weak spot in the team has gotten weaker. On the bright side, if they were budgeting 10+ million for Coco, that should allow them to spend that money elsewhere (LF, 3B, and hopefully bullpen) yet this offseason.

[bsglorydays]

So, do the Reds now undo that acquisition by dealing Dunn citing money issues? It wouldn't surprise me a bit.

 

In this market, $11.5 million a year isn't shocking for a very good closer. I was always figuring around 4 years, $44 million would be about what he would go for. Heck, I like that deal better than the Linebrink deal.

 

Robert

Dunn can't be traded until sometime in June, per the clause in his contract that kicked in when his option was picked up.

Melvin does not have a good track record of building bullpens, so this offseason could become very interesting. Bullpen was a weak spot on this team when the season ended. Subtract the two best arms, and now the pen is a black hole. I'm glad Melvin didn't go 4 years/$46 million for a closer, but now he is in a real bind. If he wants a bonafide closer now, he's going to have to go the trade route (Chad Cordero comes to mind).

 

[logan82]

I guess Cordero didn't like playing in Milwaukee as much as he claimed. That is unless anybody thinks there is a huge difference between $42M and $46M. The only other thing could be the buyout for the 5th year. That might be worth quite a bit.

 

Edit: Looks like we offered $1M more than the Reds did in the option year, so if Cordero would have had the 5th year picked up the difference becomes $3M over 5 years.

[strawbossisevil]

Really, considering we only had Linebrink for a little over a month, I see this as us only subtracting our best arm. Linebrink didn't figure into our bullpen all that much last year. That doesn't mean we things don't need to get better, we definitively need two or three solid FA/trade moves to slide in there.

[ILuvDaBush]

Guys, also remember that starting pitching is at a premium right now and we are well-positioned to make a splash in the trade market. And honestly, the most disconcerting aspect of the situation is learning that Melvin doesn't have interest in Gagne, though at these prices, I can easily understand.

[letsgored]

A few quick thoughts:

 

It is nice to see that the Brewers didn't just make a token offer to be able to say they 'tried.' That said, our bullpen is much worse than it was in 2007, and we're in a position where a weak spot in the team has gotten weaker. On the bright side, if they were budgeting 10+ million for Coco, that should allow them to spend that money elsewhere (LF, 3B, and hopefully bullpen) yet this offseason.

I don't think the Brewers will automatically spend 10-12 million on other players now that CoCo has signed elsewhere. You run in to trouble when you spend money just to spend money. If the right player or players come along, sure they will spend some money, but I wouldn't assume that they will spend it just because they have it.

[PeaveyFury]

I don't think the Brewers will automatically spend 10-12 million on other players now that CoCo has signed elsewhere.

 

I didn't mean to imply that. Rather, if Melvin wants to spend it, it's probably available.

[ryanbraun75]

i vote that we revisit the Tony Gwynn for Atsuka deal and make him our closer... i hate the reds and they just picked up our closer that kinda makes me sick...

[strawbossisevil]

i vote that we revisit the Tony Gwynn for Atsuka deal and make him our closer... i hate the reds and they just picked up our closer that kinda makes me sick...

 

I know, kind feels like when an ex-girlfriend goes and dates one of your worst enemies. Not only do you have the feeling of rejection, but betrayal as well.

[TooLiveBrew]

Out of frustration & laziness, I can't read this thread yet. I'm glad he didn't sign with a contending team, but $46 mil over 4 years doesn't seem like that much more than we could've offered. I'm talking same dollars over 3 years. But part of me is also really glad we didn't burn that much money on one player in the bullpen. Bush or Vargas to the bullpen makes sense right about now, with Vargas making more sense, since Bush likely has better trade value.

 

I hope one of our guys gets him big next year in either one of our teams' HR parks, though. I won't boo him, but I'll enjoy games that we win off him just a notch more.

[Dmiles23]

You are right. Although in all this shrewdness we still are paying Mota $3.2M

Well... 4 years ago, Mota had a 1.97 ERA over 105 innings. He didn't have the saves of Cordero, but that just shows how far someone can fall in 4-5 years. Paying a reliever $12 mil per year, just isn't smart. I'd rather have Mota this year for $3.2M, than Cordero $12M 4-5 years from now if he did happen to fall off at all. With Milwaukee being the small market it is, you have to ask yourself: Is Cordero a sure thing? To me he's not, and the Brewers can not afford to miss on a player making that much money.