Kyle Lohse's long winter ended yesterday, as the 34-year-old righty signed a three-year, $33MM deal with the Brewers. According to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Lohse will receive $4MM in 2013, with $7MM deferred in 2016-18, and $11MM salaries in '14 and '15. The players' union values the Lohse deal at $31.95MM over three years, factoring in the deferred money, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The Brewers also had to surrender the 17th overall pick in the June draft, while the Cardinals gained the 28th for their loss. Lohse has been throwing bullpens and simulated games, and will begin the season on the Brewers' active roster. Let's check out some Lohse reactions and links:
- Olney doesn't think the Lohse signing made sense for the Brewers, as the loss of the draft pick means they are "drifting into more talent debt." The Brewers "pushed forward at a time when it really needed to take a step back," writes Olney.
- Keith Law, also at ESPN, feels the contract is "pretty reasonable relative to market values for starters of his caliber." Law also feels the Brewers are "sliding out of contender status," but notes that the contract seems tradeable later on. Lohse did not receive a no-trade clause, noted Rosenthal.
- Agent Scott Boras "doesn't lose, even if he didn't exactly win" on the Lohse deal, writes Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs. Lohse should have gotten a higher average annual value, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, but he's not convinced the new draft pick compensation system needs an overhaul.
- "When you have a system that does not reward performance, you know we have something corrupt in the major league process," Boras told Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. Boras says baseball should remove the financial motivation for teams to lose, as the worst teams receive the largest pools of draft dollars. The current system allows bad teams to make up ground on the good ones, which wasn't possible before, Astros GM Jeff Luhnow said on Law's podcast a few weeks ago. Is it fair, though, that the Astros have significantly more draft dollars to spend than the Nationals? It's good for parity, though teams don't necessarily lose because of their market size.
- "Losing the first-round pick is tough, but that's a decision we had to make," GM Doug Melvin told reporters including Haudricourt.
