The Brewers introduced new manager Ron Roenicke at a press conference on Thursday, and GM Doug Melvin spoke to the media about the upcoming free agent period afterwards. Tom Haudricourt of The Journal Sentinel fills us in on the details…
- Melvin told right-hander Dave Bush that "he should test the market." Bush didn't take it as a sign that the team will not attempt to re-sign him however, he told Haudricourt that Melvin encouraged him to explore the market since it's his first time as a free agent.
- Melvin indicated that he had calls into the agents for Chris Capuano and Craig Counsell, and that it's possible he'll make them offers before other teams can jump in.
- There has been no indication that the team will try to bring Trevor Hoffman, Doug Davis, and/or Gregg Zaun back. The Brewers recently declined the club options for all three players.
- MLB.com's Adam McCalvy reports that Milwaukee has re-signed right-hander Tim Dillard to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training. The 27 year old spent the season in Triple-A working on a new sidearm delivery.
This is going to sound absolutley crazy, but if he doesn’t retire, I think Trevor Hoffman would be an outstanding fit for the Indians…
I agree that Hoffman has something to offer still. Could be a solid setup guy for a contender, or as you’re implying he could close for a non-contender for 3 months and serve as a mentor to a young bullpen before getting dealt into a pennant race. But I think Hoffman will want to start off as the closer wherever he goes, and in Cleveland he probably sets up for Perez.
But he gets to close every 3rd game maybe.
In the right type of yard (think Petco or AT&T Park or Dodger Stadium) I think DBush can be a huge bargain at 2-3 years, $3m per. Can get a strikeout here and there, but really can excel with good outfield defense and deep fences. I would love to see him as the Giants 5th starter, with JSanchez traded for a good corner outfielder.
id trade sanchez and and branden belt, who could be the bat u guys can build around and then trade fielder, for ryan braun.
for some reason, myself included, goants fans would need to be really overpaid for a sanchez trade.
Yeah, no, he’s all yours. Don’t worry, you’ve got Cody Ross. Why would you want Braun when you have him?
A GM telling a pitcher he should test the market is never a good sign for the pitcher. If the GM really wanted the pitcher back he wouldn’t encourage him to get competing offers. He would try to sign the guy BEFORE he could get competing offers. The only rationale I can think of for a GM to encourage a pitcher to test the market is so the pitcher can see for himself that the offers simply aren’t going to be that good, in which case the pitchers simply isn’t that good, meaning the GM probably doesn’t want him back unless he simply can’t find or afford anything better. It just doesn’t look good for Dave Bush, one way or the other. He’ll get offers, probably later in the offseason than most, but he’s not going to get many and he’s not going to get much money.
We don’t need any of these guys. Take a chance on a young player for less money. No need to keep guys that have no chance to develop into good everyday players. Guys like Casey M. are out there. Melvin needs to continue to try to find them and not worry about guys that are a year from retirement or have already reached their peak.