The Brewers have announced a three-year deal with free-agent first baseman Eric Thames, who will reportedly receive a $16MM guarantee. His contract also comes with a $7.5MM option for the 2020 campaign.
Thames will receive $4MM for the 2017 season, followed by $5MM and $6MM salaries. He’s also promised a $1MM buyout on the option and can pick up $500K annually based upon plate appearances. The contract further provides that Thames must give consent to be optioned or outrighted to the minors. And he is entitled to a small assignment bonus in the event of a trade. Further, Milwaukee won’t be allowed to tender Thames at the conclusion of the deal even though he’ll remain eligible for arbitration.
As had been reported last night, the organization will clear a role and a spot by designating Chris Carter for assignment. Though Carter mashed 41 home runs last year, he’s a one-dimensional slugger and wasn’t going to be cheap. MLBTR projected him to earn $8.1MM through arbitration, and McCalvy suggests the team expected to pay even more, perhaps reflecting the possibility that he’d try to argue for his 2015 arb salary as a starting point for a raise.
Given that Carter was designated, it’s still possible he could be dealt. As MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets, the club intends to explore a possible deal in advance of the non-tender deadline, which is on Friday. Milwaukee obviously won’t have much leverage, and probably would have struck a deal already if there was an enticing offer to be found, but it’s still possible to imagine something coming together.
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Thames becomes the latest player to move from Korea to the majors, though in his case it’s a return. When last we saw the left-handed hitter in the majors, he was a young outfielder still trying to find his way. Now, he’s a 30-year-old first baseman who established himself as a monster power threat in the hitter-friendly KBO.
Over his three seasons with the NC Dinos, Thames compiled a ridiculous .348/.450/.720 batting line and swatted 124 home runs and 64 stolen bases. While those Ruthian numbers aren’t exactly unheard of in Korea, they do represent top-level production in a competitive league. It’s worth noting, too, that Thames fared rather well in terms of plate discipline, racking up 235 walks to go with his 293 strikeouts.
Just what Thames will deliver upon his return is anyone’s guess. Other KBO-to-majors hitters have been highly productive, such as Jung Ho Kang and Hyun Soo Kim. Things haven’t gone as well for Byung Ho Park, though he has shown that he has legitimate power and is only one season into his contract.
Unlike those players, Thames already has a track record in North American ball. He struck out 175 times in 684 major league plate appearances, all coming in 2011 and 2012, but was hardly unable to compete. Thames carried a .250/.296/.431 batting line and hit 21 home runs in his 181-game MLB run. He has also spent quite a bit of time at Triple-A, racking up a .312/.389/.506 slash and 23 dingers over 870 trips to the plate at the highest level of the minors.
It doesn’t hurt that Thames has a history as a corner outfielder. Milwaukee GM David Stearns noted that the added flexibility was seen as a benefit, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tweets. Just what kind of glove he’d bring in the outfield grass isn’t known, but Thames did play there previously and still evidently can run given his stolen base tallies.
All told, it’s an interesting gambit for the Brewers, who reportedly scouted Thames using only video of his action in Korea. He matched Carter’s long ball output there, but doing so against major league pitching will be quite another matter. Of course, Thames also holds out the promise of delivering value in other areas, and he’ll make quite a bit less annually than Carter stood to earn.
MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reported the signing (Twitter links). Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links), ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick (Twitter links), and Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (in a tweet) reported on the financial and other contract details.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
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Y not
They’re going to cut Carter to make room for Thames? It must be a huge cost savings. Otherwise, I’m not sure I understand it.
Carter was terrible last year outside of hitting home runs. Thames might actually bring something to the table.. Like defense or plate discipline
I haven’t heard Thames being anything special with the glove. I imagine he runs better than Carter. Carter’s walk rate is actually quite good, but his terrible BA will always suppress his offensive potential.
Overall, I think it’s a risk for Milwaukee. Thames is an unknown quantity and actually had poor plate discipline in the Majors before. It will be interesting to see how he performs back in the States.
> I haven’t heard Thames being anything special with the glove
He won the KBO version of a gold glove at 1B in 2015. (What I don’t know is how seriously they take the honour, or if the award is like Jeter’s GGs.)
They won what, 73 games last year? Is it really a risk? They’re going to be bad either way. At least they might get a player that can do something besides only hitting homers…
I would say hitting a homerun every four games is solid plate discipline
I would say walking 38 times in 684 ML plate appearances indicates pretty poor plate discipline. It remains to be seen if his Korean stats will translate into ML production.
Dang it he was supposed to go to Japan
Korea
Actually he was leaving Korea for MLB or Japan. Rumour was he was heading to Japan for more money and MLB scouts were not impressed with him.
Well so much for those rumors since he signed here in the states. ‘Rumors’
I think it’s a good gamble. Hopefully AB Walker clears waivers and can be a power bat waiting if Thames fails.
After this one, next Brewers move is obvious: trade R. Braun for A-Rod
I get you are joking but how can you trade for someone not on a team
Still under contract
This is a stockpiling move right after a purge move.
I quit.
Explains why they let Carter go. I doubt he will come close to 40hr’s but he will get the opportunity assuming for half the price of Carter.
Stud. Bomber. Should be an excellent platoon OF/1B.
While I get this, the cost savings isn’t worth the reduction in production. I know he was one dimensional. But he can homer enough to help you win some games.
His 41 home runs were worth a grand total of 0.9 WAR. Poor defense at first, zero baserunning value, strikes out in over 30% of plate appearances, and doesn’t walk enough to offset the strikeouts.
AKA its a spot the Brewers could easily upgrade, and Carter was projected for $8M in arbitration when he’s probably not worth half of that.
Thank you, DShires.
They should’ve kept both and threw someone in CF for their next try at a top 5 draft pick
the answer seems to be: yes!
Maybe they try to bring Carter back for cheaper and platoon with Thames
So you dropped a known power hitter slated to make roughly $8m in 2017 for an unknown hitting commodity that is guaranteed to cost you $15m? Carter isn’t an on-base machine but you knew you were getting 30+ HR with him in the lineup. Thames hit well in the KBO and we’ve all seen that power over there doesn’t automatically translate to power in MLB.
1/8 vs 3/15. If they tendered Carter a contract this year then next year alone would bring the 2 year total for Carter over the 3 year total to Thames by at least a couple million. Carter is no guarantee to repeat last year, look at his 2015 after his strong 2014. Maybe Thames can’t match Carter in power but factoring in improved baserunning and glove, as well as the annual savings it makes sense to me.
I for one and very excited to see Eric Thames back in MLB and curious to see how he does. I honestly hope he lights up the league except for when he’s playing against my Giants.
I too heard what the scouts said but if other people from Korea can do well you have to think he’s got a fair chance to make a decent transition.
Here’s why it makes sense. Thames will cost less per year over the next two seasons than Carter would. Plus he’s a LH bat with power. Brewers were last in the NL in HR by LH hitters. They still have plenty of pop from the right side with Braun, Santana, Broxton, Perez and most of the prospects they have that are close to major league ready like Brinson and Cordell are also RH hitters.
If Thames puts up a line like .275/.350/.475 with 25-30 HR, he’ll be well worth that contract.
The downside isn’t huge for a team in Brewers position but the upside is worth the risk.
That makes sense. I think the downside is that if Carter had a lackluster season, he could be non-tendered. If Thames can’t come close to his Korea numbers or hits like he did in the Majors before, he will be on board for three years. It’s roughly twice the commitment in overall salary.
“If Thames puts up a line like .275/.350/.475 with 25-30 HR, he’ll be well worth that contract.”
I would hope so. That’s a pretty impressive line, pretty much what Victor Martinez put up last year, except Thames won’t be nearly as bad of a baserunner and presumably will put up more defensive value than a DH. V-Mart was worth 0.9 fWAR last year with all of his negatives going along with his 120 wRC+. If Epic Thumbs can also put up a ~120 wRC+, he’s a 2+ WAR player being paid to be less than a 1 WAR player by market rate. .
Victor hit over 300 last year, just saying
What? He hit .289/.351/.476 which is quite close to the .275/.350/.475 that OP proposed
That line is something like a 130 wRC+ hitter. He’s not doing that, or even close.
yep. more like .215/.310/..400 in 135 games. woo.
2nd lowest payroll in baseball, 25 million less than 2015, they’re trying to trade Braun’s contract, and Garza’s will be done after next year. Cutting cost is pointless right now.
Also you’re citing 3 players who combined for 34 HR last year as replacements for one person who hit 40.
Dude what?? If he puts up those numbers he’s damn near an all star. I can’t even think of an hyperbole that would describe just how unlikely to happen I think this is
Ok.. Thames wasn’t worth a flip either until playing in those less than PCL class KBO stadiums. Does Carter go to Korea, try to put up some funny numbers also now and get way overpaid also?
I, for one, think Thames will be the same guy with a huge swing that will not have improved one bit the last 3y he was away in Korea, just has now gotten 15m richer.
Carter was a proven 1 trick threat. Thames? man.. Just dunno.
What you basing your idea that he didn’t get better on? Reports are saying he increased his plate discipline and baserunning (or was that already good?)…
In Korea
Want a case in point example of a guy EXACTLY like Thames with no p-late discipline and a huge swing who put up comic book type numbers in a league tougher than the KBO (Japan)?
Willy Mo Pena.. remember that guy? He swung at everything. He was best known for hitting BP balls out of stadiums, or to me? Throwing balls to fans pre game at Tropicana field, then called the Thunderdome from LONG distance think mostly to show off his arm.
Check out Pena’s struggling MLB numbers, then his JPL numbers.. Then look at Thames…
care to reconsider?
This will be fun to see how it unfolds. Good luck to him and the Brewers
Around $15 million guaranteed over 3 year. Guessing incentives too. Must be why the Brewers cut Carter.
Brewers are thinking a little outside the box and I like it. it is a risk that might work just like trying to sneak Walker through waivers. We are who we are and it is a small risk with possible high reward. Remember Cecil Fielder went to Japan about 20 years ago. Think that helped him with attitude and appreciation. This could be what helps him too, or just like J.D. Martinez. Either way this is what I want in a front office and that is trying to make the Brewers good again in all aspects.
Even if he ends up as only a platoon player, $5MM/year is not a bad deal. Defensively he has to be an improvement over Carter, and I can’t see his baserunning being effected much by the change in leagues, so that will be an improvement as well. I would have loved to see the Tigers pick him up for their OF. Nice move by Milwaukee.
As to Carter coming back as a platoon mate, I find it doubtful he will have to settle for platooning after taking the HR crown last year.
Yeah I don’t know why people keep suggesting he platoon when the post says one of his biggest selling points is his lack of significant platoon splits.
.275/.350/.475 ? That’s borderline all star. You can’t seriously expect him to hit like that at any point in the contract can you? 5 million a year is nothing in this days league, the braves just paid 5 million for a bench guy. If he bats at that line, he’s seriously underpaid
Thames was a nearly .900 OPS guy at AAA as a 24-25 year old. He honed his skills in Korea and is now in his prime.
Kang has an .838 OPS in Pittsburgh. Thames has been just as good if not better than Kang was in Korea.
It’s reasonable to expect Thames to put up an .825 or so OPS if Kang can. He might well do better as he doesn’t have the cultural adjustment to deal with.
He also did that in AAA with a crazy high BABIP in the Pacific Coast League. Sure, he got better in Korea, and there is a chance that he can transition back to the Majors as well as Kang has transitioned, but to expect anything more than an .800 OPS is probably being a little over zealous.
I hope the Marlins go after Carter and platoon him with Bour. That would be one hell of a platoon.
Typically a “platoon” is when you have a lefty and a righty where youre essentially combining two players for one position. So you wouldn’t sign a righty to “platoon” with another righty.
Bour is a Lefty bud
Thought SD would give him a shot…but hell, Mil and SD basically have the same sucky ol’ team.
Does Korea test fo PED’s? Because I wouldn’t doubt Thames went over there and started juicing
Tom Selleck changed his entire attitude to playing baseball by playing in Japan. NOW look at him, he’s the NYPD Chief of Police!!!!
If he can do amazing things by playing overseas, then so can Thames. I fully expect Thames to come back, hit .403 with 81 home runs, have a movie made after him and then become President.
Also I wanna be in the movie as one of the mean opposing players that becomes nice in the end… call my agent I’ll send you my reel.
Mr. Baseball!
You can be in the movie, but only as the rube teammate that is always getting pranked.
Bold prediction: Carter will sign on to an American League team and have a way better season than Thames.
Thames could come back and hit .240, but he has that new plate discipline that I feel like will carry over. Plus the power, the OPS numbers could be nice. Figure a 240/330/420 line wouldn’t be too bad for AAV $5m
That OBP is probably close, maybe a little high of a target for him. But I think he can outperform that SLG. Even in his season or so worth of plate appearances before he went to Korea he put up a higher SLG, and leaguewide SLG has increased by about 15 points since that time. I could see him pushing .475, if not more.
You are all delusional in thinking Thames is a permanently changed baseball player. Best case scenario is he Casey McGehees his way into one above average season and then fades back into oblivion.
Hey Casey was a good pick up for what we paid him and how he performed it was worth it. a complete joy having him as a Brewer
I’m not dogging CMcG. He was excellent for a year and a half, but people need to temper their expectations. People here are already cementing him as a top 25-50 player.
fair enough my bad
Okay. I understand why CC won’t be coming back now.
Carter’s fine as a 7th place hitter who doesn’t cost too much; he was a perfect signing last year.
But when guys like him start getting the bucks, it’ s time to go. Good move for the Brew Crew. Thames doesn’t have to be an all star at that pay-rate. They’ll get 5 million’s worth out of him.
I like this signing. A guy who can provide solid enough Defense. Even if he hits 15 Homers and 20 2B with a .250 average its worth 5 mil a year. He could realistically have close to 30 2B’s and 25 HR a year or more. Could be a solid steal for the Brewers.
The only reason for a team in the position the Brewers are in (rebuilding, about two maybe three years away) to sign any player like Carter or Thames is to trade him for prospects.
There were no takers for Carter last year at $2.5MM. It certainly doesn’t make sense that the market would increase with a more than tripling of his contract, since there’s no indication that Carter is any more of a ball player than he’s already shown.
Bring in someone else. The contract is small enough that it’s not going to break the bank. If nothing else, Thames can slide right into the fourth outfielder/back-up first base spot and not do worse than Nieuwenhuis.
Most affordable bat the Rays can obtain this winter Carter…watch them miss their opportunity.
If it’s true that rosters will expand to 26 next season, that’s very good news for the Chris Carters of the world, as teams are now more likely to carry a one dimensional power bat that they’d otherwise be reluctant to. Especially NL teams.
Carter and gennet to the mets for duda and flores
Why would the Mets make that trade?
Why would the Brewers make that trade? They didn’t DFA Carter to turn around and trade him for more payroll.