Grading The Brewers Offseason: The Moves the Crew Made This Winter

Strongly disagree on the Winker grade... Will be a A+++ like Contreras when he shows us all that he's the same hitter as before Seattle.

Very excited thinking about Winker and Contreras in the middle of our lineup.

I don't think Winker crowds the outfield any further, just like McCutchen didn't make it any more crowded last year. He is a DH that may have to play OF every once in a while.

Love that you have the Suter move as an F, keep that Suter love going until the end.

Feliciano had no value, the Tigers were able to outright him to the minors. Developing him is another story.

Overall grade is a little high, just don't think it was an above average off season. In order to be above average I really think they need better bullpen pickups.

Also, I think it is fair to grade the off season in hindsight. If they give some younger guys opportunities because internal evaluation say they are ready then the grade may be better. If they hive these guys significant playing time and they fail then the front office has to be questioned. 

2 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

When we saw the author and title of the piece, we all knew the Suter grade going in, right? 😄

It's one thing to deal him, and get some possible value in return. A DSL lottery ticket or two would have been much better than a waiver claim.

Same with Feliciano.

I still don't understand the F grade for Suter. Suter was not flexible the last two years. He has been one of the lowest leverage relief pitchers in baseball. Losing him as a person sucks, but $3M for the last guy in the bullpen is just a waste of an already limited budget. 

Also giving the Feliciano move a D is pretty harsh. The Tigers DFA'd him and nobody in the MLB claimed him. He clearly isn't valued as someone deserving of taking up a 40-man spot at this point.

6 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

I still don't understand the F grade for Suter. Suter was not flexible the last two years. He has been one of the lowest leverage relief pitchers in baseball. Losing him as a person sucks, but $3M for the last guy in the bullpen is just a waste of an already limited budget. 

Clancy is what you call a Suter stan. Even going back to when Suter was in the minors and he'd consistently rank him as the team's #1 prospect.

In reality, though, Suter has basically zero overall value, which is why a trade didn't occur. 

4 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I think the B- is a pretty fair grade on the Winker deal.

The thing about the Winker deal is that he will have to rake to post big value due to his defensive limitations being to such an extent he'll see most of his time at DH.

And giving up Wong is a considerable loss of value. Again, I like the deal but Winker would have to post a monster OPS to make it an A+ deal, like top-of-the-league hitting.

I agree, but I'm not overly concerned with the WAR he ends up with, as we all know that WAR is not handed out generously to DHs. I like it as a stat, but it's really not a fan of the DH.

If Winker gets anywhere close to the 142/147 wRC+ level he was at in '21 and '22, he will be extremely valuable to this team, regardless of what the WAR formulas say.

Edit: David Ortiz posted a 147 wRC+ in 2004 and Fangraphs credits him with 4.2 WAR, so there's that benchmark to follow. It took a 175 wRC+ in 2007 to get his high-water mark of 6.3 WAR. 

Winker is not peak David Ortiz, but if he hits like he did a couple of years ago, he's pretty darn good.

11 minutes ago, monty57 said:

I agree, but I'm not overly concerned with the WAR he ends up with, as we all know that WAR is not handed out generously to DHs. I like it as a stat, but it's really not a fan of the DH.

If Winker gets anywhere close to the 142/147 wRC+ level he was at in '21 and '22, he will be extremely valuable to this team, regardless of what the WAR formulas say.

Edit: David Ortiz posted a 147 wRC+ in 2004 and Fangraphs credits him with 4.2 WAR, so there's that benchmark to follow. It took a 175 wRC+ in 2007 to get his high-water mark of 6.3 WAR. 

Winker is not peak David Ortiz, but if he hits like he did a couple of years ago, he's pretty darn good.

Agreed. I like him AT MINIMUM in that he can get on base and put the ball in play, the two areas where the offense struggled the most last year. 

Hopefully the power comes back now that he's healthy, and we'll really be in business. 

39 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Oh yeah, he can definitely provide value, which is why I generally like the deal, he's just working from a pretty severe disadvantage given his defensive limitations.

And it's not as if Wong was a slouch himself. The bar for Winker to hit even an equilibrium with Wong is relatively high.

To me, the most interesting part of the deal that can swing value way toward the Brewers is what happens with Toro over the next couple of seasons.

Ah, I misread. You meant “provide value over Wong” rather than “provide any value.” My bad. 
 

After last season, many/most posters thought the Brewers would decline Wong’s option. That they were able to get Winker and Toro when many thought they’d pay $2M to buy out Wong and get nothing of value leads me to say it was a pretty good deal. 

2 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Oh yeah, he can definitely provide value, which is why I generally like the deal, he's just working from a pretty severe disadvantage given his defensive limitations.

And it's not as if Wong was a slouch himself. The bar for Winker to hit even an equilibrium with Wong is relatively high.

To me, the most interesting part of the deal that can swing value way toward the Brewers is what happens with Toro over the next couple of seasons.

I'd expect Winker to bounce back somewhat offensively and Wong to regress somewhat offensively because Winker is moving to a more hitter-friendly park and Wong a more pitcher-friendly. What makes or breaks this trade imo is if Wong bounces back in the field. He was one of the worst if not the worst defensive 2B in baseball last year.