With less than two months until the start of the Major League Baseball season, over 125 free agents remain out of work.
The list includes last year’s NL Cy Young Award winner, Trevor Bauer, and 19 other players who could be classified as top 50 free agents.
Brewers President of Baseball Operations David Stearns and General Manager Matt Arnold are salivating.
Two years ago, Stearns capitalized on a system that allowed All-Stars Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas to fall back into the Brewers orbit. Seeking multi-year deals, both settled for one-year deals with the Brewers. Both were high-level contributors to a playoff team.
All-Star caliber production and a self-correcting market paved the way for Grandal and Moustakas to sign 4-year deals less than one year later with the White Sox and Reds.
The Brewers settled for the likes of Eric Sogard, Justin Smoak and a sub-500 record.
Like 2019, the bulk of free agent deals signed are of the 1–2-year variety.
Players who may have been viewed as out of the Brewers airspace, are slowly drawing closer.
Exhibit A: Kolten Wong. A two-time Gold Glove winning second baseman who agreed to a 2-year, $18MM deal with the Brewers.
The more you hear players suggest the system is broken, the more you should be smiling as a Brewers fan.
