AUG 28 UPDATE--We hate to do this, but we're going to eat our words. Despite everyone's initial reaction, including ours below, the Hader trade is looking like a good move. His ERA (earned run average) since joining the Padres is a horrific 25.71. But then, maybe if he hadn't been traded, he'd be pitching better. Who knows. All we can say for sure is that he's sucked big time since arriving in San Diego. The players the Brewers got back haven't played great, but they've been better than Hader. The Padres and Brewers are fighting for the last playoff spot (along with the Philthies).
Analysis.— By now everyone has heard the news, but I just have to let out this rant.
One day prior to Tuesday's MLB trade deadline, in what may go down as one of the worst trades in major league history, the first place Milwaukee Brewers on Monday in a stunning move
sent their All-Star closer, Josh Hader, to the San Diego Padres for
recently benched San Diego closer Taylor Rogers, reclamation project Dinelson Lamet, and two minor leaguers.
Then one day later, in a creepy second act to the incredible trade-away, Dinelson Lamet, the other major leaguer acquired by the Brewers, was
DFA'd, i.e. released by the team.
Urk?
What exactly is going on here? Does Brewers management know something that we don't, as in Hader is injured..?
"Thhbbbbbbb," said Brewers GM David Stearns when asked why he would trade away the game's best closer for a handful of marginal players.
Rogers was the Padres' closer until recently, when struggles saw his ERA balloon to 4.35. Hader, too, had a couple of bad outings in July, watching his own ERA
balloon from 1.09 on July 1 to 4.24 as of August 1. But his
velocity hasn't dropped, indicating that he's not injured.
As of August 2, Hader was leading the major leagues in saves this season. That means the Brewers got Rogers and two minor leaguers for the best closer in the game, and arguably the best player on the Brewers staff. Plus the Brewers are still on the hook for the rest of Lamet's $4.4M 2022 salary unless he gets picked up by another team.
Most first place teams at the trade deadline try to add a key piece or two to bolster their playoff run, but not the Brewers. They looked to the distant future, hoping to at least stay "competetive" for a few more years.
Apparently the rationale was: Hader will be a free agent in 2024 (
not 2023) and we won't be able to re-sign him, assuming he's still good--so let's get rid of him now! That's
two playoff runs the Brewers could have had him for before he becomes a free agent.
We explained the Brewers' modus operandi in a
2017 post. It's mediocrity, quantity over quality, the mindset of an also-ran. The problem with going for quantity is that major league rosters are limited to 26 total players, and 13 pitchers.
A less obvious and more insidious reason for the trade might be that Stearns, who
wants to be released ASAP so he can join the Mets--where they do have a budget--made this move deliberately so the fans in Wisconsin would hate him so much that the Brewers would have to let him go early. Very clever, Dave. Unfortunately, in so doing you may have sabotaged any chance the Brewers had of advancing in the playoffs this year. You simply don't trade away one of your best players before the playoffs.
Hader had this to say about the trade:
"The atmosphere here [San Diego] is they want to win, and not just go to the playoffs but win a World Series," said Hader. "That's a contagious atmosphere to be a part of." By comparison, in Wisconsin it's enough just to play the game.
With that in mind, San Diego also did what the Brewers--or any first place team trying to go all the way--would have done. They also traded for Washington Nationals superstar outfielder
Juan Soto and first baseman Josh Bell. That's what a team does if it's trying to get to the World Series. Not trade away your All-Star closer who's the best in the game.
San Diego was able to acquire Soto and Bell because they didn't send anything of value to the Brewers and still had all their top prospects to offer the Nationals.
The Brewers do have another All-Star reliever in Devin Williams, but they just traded one of their two aces for a jack, the two of clubs, and two cards in the blind. It should be noted that in his first appearance after the loss of Hader, Williams on Wednesday night
gave up a game-winning home run to Pittsburgh in the ninth inning.
What does all this have to do with Hoofer Sailing Club?
It's another Wisconsin organization shitting on its customers.
