Last offseason, the Brewers traded Brett Lawrie to the Blue Jays for Shaun Marcum, who helped the club to the NLCS. Now they're faced with his impending free agency. Marcum is scheduled to hit the open market after this season, and he told Todd Rosiak of The Journal Sentinel that the two sides have yet to talk about an extension.
"There hasn't been (talks)," said Marcum. "When we were doing the arbitration thing, we were told they just wanted to do a one-year deal. I'm assuming that's what that means — we're just doing one year and they're going to let me walk."
Marcum and the Brewers avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year contract worth $7.725MM earlier this month. The soft-tossing changeup specialist told Rosiak that he's made it clear to the team that he hopes to remain in Milwaukee long-term.
"I told my agent, and he's let it be known that we're interested," Marcum said. "But the door's definitely wide open if they want to talk. The organization's been great. It feels like home; it's a lot like where I live back in the off-season (Missouri). My wife loves it there, and we feel like it's a great fit for us. And playing in front of 40,000 fans every night, you can't beat it."
Back in November we heard that the Brewers were expected to explore long-term deals with Marcum and Zack Greinke, who is also open to an extension. The 30-year-old Marcum pitched to a 3.54 ERA with 7.1 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 33 starts last season, though he was bothered by a hip flexor. He was absolutely brutal during his final four starts of the regular season (1.64 WHIP and 6.66 ERA in 24 1/3 innings) and it carried over into the playoffs (2.28 WHIP and 14.90 ERA in 9 2/3 innings), so perhaps the club wants to make sure that's behind him before getting serious about an extension.
I’d love to see him back in a Jays uni.
he got slaughtered by AL East teams
Yes but he still had good seasons , so there is still value in Marcum if they price is right specially in the 3-4-5 spots.
True… but I still liked the guy.
That’s kind of weird that they traded for the guy and they don’t appear to have a lot of initiative to sign him long term. I’m sure they want him back, but I guess maybe the higher than expected payroll is having a slight toll on the ownership.
The Brewers kinda threw everything into “win in 2011.” Thus the Marcum and Grienke trades.
According to Cot’s, even without Fielder on the team, they’re already at a higher salary than last season and I don’t think they can go much higher. I kinda think they’re trying to decide who is a better long term deal, Grienke or Marcum.
Marcum finished poorly and was injured. This board would be the first place you would go to rip Milwaukee if they extended an injured and ineffective Marcum. Grienke first then see about Marcum.
I wouldn’t rip on an extension of Marcum, so I don’t see where you’re getting that from. Everything depends on years and money, of course. He looked like a solid pitcher basically every time I saw him. I could find a boat load more ineffective and injured pitchers than Marcum.
Agreed, the Brewers focus should definitely be on extending Greinke before Marcum. Marcum is a very solid pitcher, but the Brewers have a decent amount of solid back-end rotation options in their system who could potentially match Marcum’s numbers. They do not, however, have anyone of Greinke’s caliber waiting in the wings, and Greinke appears willing to take a reasonable deal to stay in Milwaukee.
Should have never traded Lawrei anyways Marcum pretty much sucked …
In hindsight it’s definitely a bad trade, but Marcum in no way sucked. Breaking down at the end of the season sucked, but he had a pretty good year overall.
In hind sight it’s not a bad trade at all actually
Marcum was a big piece to the brewers making the playoffs last year, which was a big reason for the push.
Not to mention he’s still on the team. Yes Lawrie looks like he’s going to be a good player, but there is such a thing as good trade for both teams
I disagree (to an extent). Even though they got exactly what they wanted, if Lawrie turns out to be a perennial All-Star like it looks like he has the potential to be, then I consider it to be a bad trade.
It’s not a perfect comparison, but the Smoltz-Alexander trade always comes to mind when evaluating a rental trade. The Tigers got amazing production from Alexander and Smoltz wasn’t an elite prospect at the time, but the end result was they traded away a future HOF’er.
Both teams can get what they want in a trade and still be considered bad for one team if the other got something of incredible long-term value. In my opinion anyway. It’s not totally fair but this is the way I see it.
That comparison is not only not perfect, its invalid.
Lawrie has 60 games under his belt, lets not anoint him a future all star yet.
Not to mention that even if Lawrie does become a perennial all star, it still wasnt a bad trade.
The only way that this trade would have been bad was if Marcum flopped, which he didnt, in fact he had his best year of his career in 2011.
The brewers got more they what they expected and got in to the playoffs. So in what way could you call it a bad trade, with hindsight or with out
No, Marcum didn’t have his best year last year. He only looked good because he moved to the NL and because hitting is down all over the league. Comparing him to league-wide pitching, he has actually regressed each year since 2008.
I’m not trying to insult the guy; I was a big Marcum fan when he pitched for the Jays, but to say that last year was his best year is simply not true.
I Understand the move from AL east the NL central helped.
but you still cant take away how he performed, and saying things like he has regressed each year since 2008, not taking in to account his surgery seems odd. Especially when you say you are a big marcum fan.. 2010 and 2011 have been his best years to date, a fan would know that
lets review
last year he had a 3.73 FIP, lowest of his career. While Pitching 200 innings, highest total of his career. He also had a .99 HR/FB %, lowest of his career.. All his other stats k/9, bb/9, GB% hovered around his career norms.
So regardless of the change of league, which is to be expected, the Brewers got EXACTLY the pitcher they thought they were
It’s a cautionary tale of what might be. I agree we can’t go around saying he will 100% definitely be those things, but it’s seriously looking like he has the potential to be.
To me, it will always be a bad trade if you give up several years of a great (or better) player for one or two years of a pretty good one. I’m a fan of the long-term.
That’s not even touching the fact that it didn’t work. I’m not a huge fan of saying trade A was actually ok because the team won the World Series in the end, but in this case they didn’t even make it there so it looks even worse.
They didn’t make the trade to win the world series.. the playoffs are as much about luck as anything else
they made the trade and several others, to make the playoffs, to participate in that crapshoot.
this is as preposterous as saying the cardinals made a good trade because they won the world series.
Again, the brewers got exactly what they wanted. So if you didn’t call the trade a bad one on day one, you can’t call the trade a bad one after Marcum has a pretty good 2011 season
It didn’t look bad at the time, but we have the benefit of hindsight a year later and I feel it’s stupid not to use it. They got everything they wanted out of Marcum and traded a very solid prospect to get him. Now it turns out that prospect may be WAY better than just solid, and I feel that any time you trade away someone that talented, you messed up.
I’m sorry, but 1/4 of a season of Lawrie is not enough change the projections of his future..
They traded a solid prospect for Marcum, and thats all that he is at this point. Defensively he looks better, but is also now playing a less premium position.
If I had said “It’s looking like it may end up being a bad trade” instead, would that have solved this problem?
no. because much of what will happen in the future wont matter..
if it was a prospect for prospect trade. IE Wallace for Gose, and Gose turns out to be amazing and Wallace flops, thats a bad trade.
but this wasnt a future trade for the brewers, it was a now trade
meh, we’ll just have to disagree on this.
They didn’t make the trade to win the world series.. the playoffs are as much about luck as anything else
they made the trade and several others, to make the playoffs, to participate in that crapshoot.
this is as preposterous as saying the cardinals made a good trade because they won the world series.
Again, the brewers got exactly what they wanted. So if you didn’t call the trade a bad one on day one, you can’t call the trade a bad one after Marcum has a pretty good 2011 season
It’s a cautionary tale of what might be. I agree we can’t go around saying he will 100% definitely be those things, but it’s seriously looking like he has the potential to be.
To me, it will always be a bad trade if you give up several years of a great (or better) player for one or two years of a pretty good one. I’m a fan of the long-term.
That’s not even touching the fact that it didn’t work. I’m not a huge fan of saying trade A was actually ok because the team won the World Series in the end, but in this case they didn’t even make it there so it looks even worse.
Yes, Marcum basically carried the entire pitching staff for the first month while Greinke was still on the DL. Without him, they do not hover near 500 while waiting to get some of their players healthy to eventually make their push.
You’re right, too often the focus on trades is which team “won,” but just as often a trade ends up working out for both teams involved.
I have trouble calling it a bad trade even in hindsight. The Brewers gambled their farm to win everything and they nearly pulled it off. Just getting to the NLCS really ignited their fan base… I’m just curious if the Braun debacle will hurt that.
“Marcum pretty much sucked”
…You’re joking… right?
I think it depends on what he expects. I like marcum, but i don’t think you can sign a guy with his type of stuff to anything more than maybe 3 yr 35 mil with an option. Anything more is just too risky. Without a big fastball, his stuff could dissapear overnight. I’d probly let him walk and go hard at greinke.
I’m curious if, after the departure of Fielder and with no Braun for 50 games, whether he will, in fact, be playing in front of 40,000 fans a year. If the Brewers don’t start strong, I could see attendance slipping in Milwaukee.
I don’t really think so, from what I’ve heard, season ticket sales and ticket packages are selling at all time highs. Ownership has shown fans a willingness to spend the money to put a contender on the field, and its paid off.
Last year the Brewers started well below expectations, and had another year of 3+ mil attendance, which is ridiculous.