UPDATE: Here is the official Journal-Sentinel article. New material – Melvin admitted to an interest in David Riske, and may have an offer out to him. Thanks to Al’s Ramblings for the tip.
Tom Haudricourt recently spoke to Brewers GM Doug Melvin about his pursuit for a closer candidate. Melvin recently had Kerry Wood pass over his two-year, $6MM offer for a one-year deal with the Cubs.
Melvin seemingly would only offer a one-year deal to Eric Gagne, Troy Percival, or Octavio Dotel. All want multiyear contracts, however. It’s a bit odd that he wouldn’t offer two years to any of these guys but did to Wood. Maybe the Brewers only budgeted $6MM or so for this. I imagine Gagne, for instance, would want more than that for just one year.
By the way, both Melvin and owner Mark Attanasio were perturbed by Bean Stringfellow’s handling of the Francisco Cordero negotiations. The Crew lost out by just $4MM but didn’t get a chance to match Cincinnati’s offer. Stringfellow’s agency represents a couple of current Brewers in Greg Aquino and Claudio Vargas, plus free agent reliever and former Brewer Luis Vizcaino. I imagine Vizcaino is not among the eight or nine relievers on Melvin’s radar.
