Brewers remain active in trade discussions
In terms of sheer volume, Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said trade discussions were comparable to past years as MLB approached its 3 p.m. deadline Monday.
But, as with everything else in this pandemic-delayed 60-game season, it certainly doesn’t feel the same.
“There’s probably still not as much clarity a day out from a deadline as you might have in a normal year,” Stearns said Sunday. “There’s still uncertainty in how teams are approaching it.
“We’re in a variety of different discussions, evaluating different types of transactions. It’s very difficult to say right now whether something will get over the finish line. We’re not at the point now with any discussion where I feel like I could accurately predict that.”
Muddying the trade waters this season is the fact that 16 teams, not the usual 10, will advance to the playoffs. All first- and second-place teams will go as well as two wild cards from each league. And, with all first-round series consisting of three games, there’s no longer the one-game wild-card crap shoot.
Pittsburgh (10-21) is the only NL team hopelessly out of the playoff picture, though some teams, such as Arizona and Washington, are teetering. In the AL, teams with little or no hope included Boston, Kansas City, Seattle and Los Angeles.
“I think we’re involved in enough discussions, but I couldn’t tell you if anything will happen,” Stearns said. “There are teams that are still deciding whether they will hold pat or add, or hold pat or trade major-league players. So, it does change on a daily basis.
“Teams that have gone on three- or four-game winning streaks have changed their tune a little bit, and teams that have gone on three- or four-game losing streaks have probably changed their tune a little bit. It’s a constantly evolving situation. That’s what’s different this year.”
The Brewers (15-18) have been unable to push above .500 all season but remain in the playoff picture in terms of finishing in second place or capturing a wild-card berth. An underachieving offense has been the biggest issue but Stearns said he still believes that part of the club will improve.
“To some extent, we have to trust that players who have performed at the major-league level will perform at the major-league level again,” he said. “We can’t trust that indefinitely and we’ve already made difficult decisions.”
Rumors continue to persist that the Brewers might trade Josh Hader. Stearns doesn’t address trade rumors so he certainly wasn’t going to provide any clues but suffice it to say the cost would be exorbitant to acquire one of the top relievers in the game.
Beyond a possible mega-return, the only thing that would tempt the Brewers to move Hader would be future cost. His salary jumped to $4.1 million this year and as a “Super 2” player he has three more years of arbitration remaining, which could push his pay well into the teens of millions per year. And, with little revenue this year, the team probably will lose at least $100 million.
If so inclined to move Hader for financial reasons, the Brewers could always wait until the offseason when there are no deadlines and more time to find the right deal. That would allow them to keep him and make one more playoff run in 2020.
A rare occurrence
Until Hader did so Saturday night in the ninth inning, no Brewers pitcher had issued five walks in an inning since starter Jamie McAndrew did so in the fourth inning July 23, 1997, at Toronto. McAndrew had a unique pitching line that day: 3.1 IP, 1 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 8 BB, 1 K.
Another Brewers starter, Everett Stull issued five walks in the top of the first inning on April 29, 2000, against Houston but one was intentional. He, too, had an interesting pitching line: 3.2 IP, 1 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 9 BB, 3 K.
No Brewers reliever previously had issued five walks in an inning. The last pitcher to do so in the majors while recording just one out was Cincinnati reliever Steve Delabar against Cleveland on May 17, 2016.
Amazingly, Hader was not the first to do so this season. Los Angeles Angels starter Shohei Ohtani walked five in the top of the second inning Aug. 2, 2020, against Houston but complained of an arm issue afterward and has not pitched since. So, what was up with Hader walking five of the six Pittsburgh hitters he faced?
“Josh has been really good for so long,” pitching coach Chris Hook said. “When stuff like that happens, you’re like, ‘What’s going on here?’ I think there’s just sometimes you come into work and have a bad day. I think that’s kind of what it is.
“As an instructor, you’re just looking for some easy things to kind of get him back on track. I thought he was working a little bit too quick. Just talk about breathing more than anything.”
Long wait for Yelich
Brewers hitting coach Andy Haines knows Christian Yelich better than anyone, with the two going back to when both were in Miami’s farm system. As Haines noted Sunday, it’s never just one thing when a great hitter struggles for as long as Yelich has this season but he did point to one factor as perhaps the leading culprit: A long layoff between majorleague games.
Yelich fouled a pitch off his right kneecap last Sept. 10, forcing him to miss the Brewers’ final 18 games. When the Brewers opened spring training, he was brought along slowly, getting only 11 at-bats in the Cactus League before the pandemic shut down camps.
Then came the 31⁄2 month shutdown with Yelich quarantined like everyone else in Southern California, with few opportunities to swing a bat. Teams then rushed through a three-week summer camp, during which Yelich struggled at the plate, a sign of his 1-for-27 start to the season.
“It’s a lot of time not playing baseball,” Haines said. “It was almost 10 months.”