Major League Ready

I wondered about how they value these guys. Some are more proven than others but you make a good point if they feel equally as comfortable with all five. That just did not seem likely to me. Damn nice for them if that's the case. It's going to be tough to make that deal because there will be great competition for whomever they give up. We helped put the Reds in great shape to beat out us for Seattle's pitching.

I pray Correa is much better this year and I also hope Lee is better than 1.1 WAR in 2025. It will really sting if Correa is not closer to his career norms. That money could have been spent on a top pitcher and Lewis or Lee at SS. As a group we can't complain about a FO mistake when most people here were absolutely adamant about retaining him even when he was getting 12 years. I guess there were quite a few of us against the initial $300M+ contract but I was one that was OK with the deal when it became a 6 year deal. I would take it back now but I would still be crazy enough to invest in SP while understanding why the FO is very reluctant.

Arraez was replaced by Julien which resulted in basically no loss of production. We also had Polanco short-term and Lee long-term. Who is replacing Jeffers that won't result in a significant drop in production not to mention we have no depth a catcher in general which makes it even more risky. Move Polanco and free up the payroll space to sign a significant free agent or trade Polanco plus others to Seattle for one of their young guys. If necessary, trade Polanco and one of Kepler / Farmer to provide payroll space but let's not trade away highly productive / low cost players with several years of control.

Does Seattle need to trade one of their top SPs to get a bat like Polanco or Kepler or both? Would we want our team to trade away a top SP so that we could get a prospect added to the deal. Of course not. They could get Polanco and Kepler or similar players from other teams for one of their less established pitchers so why would they trade any of their top arms? Anything is possible but it makes no sense for Seattle or any other team to trade away a top arm unless the return is Juan Soto.

It's so hard to say with BP guys so I am glad we have room for now to take another look at these guys. They can stay on the 40-man until we need room. Who knows ... maybe Winder can tweak his delivery at Driveline as JMlease1 suggested and Sands does have great movement on his slider. He just has to learn how to avoid the long ball. There are quite a few guys coming up behind them that hopefully become the story of 2024. If one or two of these guys breakout, great!

This is why you keep a player. You build around them, not trade them.

I agree the timing is right but this absolute expectation that they can be traded for front of the rotation established pitching is misguided. Front of the rotation starters require a monster package. If Kepler is such a reach, why would anyone take him in trade for the most coveted asset in baseball? These guys are rarely traded and when they are it's generally a rebuilding team that would have no interest in Polanco or Kepler. They want Lewis or Jenkins and probably both. Seattle is in a very rare position being a club that could contend and has enough pitching to let one of their young guys go but that's one team and what if they share the sentiment of many posters here that Kepler will return to a league average player? What if they think Polanco is too much of an injury concern or another team offers they like better than Polanco. I really hope they can put together a deal with Seattle but a whole lot of other teams are going to be competing for a SP if they trade one.

Listening to the shows on MLB radio, those guys pretty much all believe the Brewers are going to sell like hell!

We have 4 open spots and 2-3 of Polanco / Kepler / Vazquez / Farmer / Gordon / Miranda / Severino are very likely to be traded. It would not be surprising if a couple of the pitchers mentioned here were traded too. I don't see these guys getting bumped off the 40 man to make room for additions.

I assume pretty much everyone here looks at team stats which tell the story without much analysis needed. Where the production came from is very clear so it's a bit astonishing to me that anyone can look at the facts supporting the position of keep the young guys in the minors where they belong and play the veterans. The season would have been quite dismal without the contributions of our younger players. Perhaps even more baffling is that success for teams in the bottom half of revenue is absolutely dependent upon developing young players. Why anyone would detest the most important aspect of building a mid market team just defies logic.

I probably would not bet even money but <10% seems overly pessimistic. He was mediocre for the first two months and then hit at a 138 clip for the last 4 months to end up at 126. Did the shift get in his head? IDK but I just am not inclined to say there is basically no chance. I would put the odds of him breaking 120 at 40% so all I am saying is the completely writing him off is a little over the top.

Kepler was important. The other 4 guys ranked 8th,9th,11th and 15th on the team measured by wRC+. The top 4 guys were Lewis, Wallner, Jeffers, and Julien. Why you would even mention Celestino, Refsnyder, Cave, and Blankenhorn is hard to understand.

I think it's a really bad idea to make up a playoff lineup around appeasing players, especially one that was hitting as poorly as Vazquez. If Vazquez is going to be a problem because he is pouting, the better solution is to dump him for whatever they can get and get players who care about the team and winning.

I have never suggested he can be replaced by Larnach. My position has been the return would have to be significant for Kepler to trade him because we are thin in OF depth. You avoided the entire point of the post. I was asking for your opinion as to the potential for him to post numbers similar to Hernandez or even Soler and what would that mean for an offer. If Kepler produces a wRC+ of 126 like he did this year, my guess is he would get at least 3/50M in free agency. There would be very little in him accepting a QO.

Kepler's wRC+ was 138 after June 1 and 126 for the year. Of course he is also a plus defender. Is it conceivable he does not have a bad April-May next year and ends up at 126 wRC+ he produced in 2022 or even a little higher with a decent start? If so, what will he get for offers. Teoscar Hernandez is projected by MLB Trade rumors to get 4/$80M. Jorge Soler is projected at 3/45. Hernandez produced a wRC+ of 130 in 2022 and 105 last year. Soler was at 95 in 2022 and bounced back to 126 last season. Of course, he has no defensive value. If Kepler produced a wRC+ of 126 in 2023, you would have to believe his offer would be considerable higher than Soler at which point Kepler would be extremely likely to reject a QO? Is it really that certain Kepler could not play well enough to get a QO?