Milwaukee Brewers Make Huge Moves for 2018 Season | Ticket King Green Bay

The 2018 Major League Baseball off season has been the quietest in recent memory. Most of the best players on the market have yet to sign. Of course, whose fault this is might be up for debate. Some of the players and their agents, most notably Scott Boras, are saying that the owners are colluding against them to keep contracts down. It’s probably more about basic economics 101. After endless years of handing out these massive contracts, both in terms of length and money, to players over 30, teams have finally realized that these contracts rarely ever benefit them. What Billy Beane started 18 years ago in Oakland has now made its way across the entire league. Every team now uses advanced analytics to properly determine how much a player is worth in terms of both length and money.

Regardless, the Milwaukee Brewers decided to buck that quiet trend recently. They signed outfielder Lorenzo Cain, who began his career in Milwaukee, to a five-year, 80 million dollar contract. So far, that is the biggest contract signed this off season. Yes, the Milwaukee Brewers have made the biggest free agent splash of the off season. On that same day, they traded four prospects to the Marlins for outfielder Christian Yelich. The Brewers now find themselves with a surplus of outfield talent. So what could they do to undo the log jam?

The only thing that is for certain at this point is what Ryan Braun will do. Shortly following the moves to acquire Cain and Yelich, the club announced that Ryan Braun is headed to first base, in what could eventually become a full-time gig. So what does this mean for Eric Thames, who had the best season of his career a year ago? Well, one of the rumors circulating for Thames is if free agent Eric Hosmer signs somewhere else besides Kansas City, Milwaukee could try to trade Thames to the Royals. There is also rumors of Brett Phillips possibly being on the move in a trade to the Rays for starting pitcher Chris Archer. Most of the rumors surround Domingo Santana though. Santana has been mentioned in trades to Cleveland, Tampa Bay, and Seattle, with the likeliest of the three being Cleveland for starting pitcher Danny Salazar. If they trade Santana but not Phillips, Milwaukee could have an outfield of Brett Phillips in left, Lorenzo Cain in center, and Christian Yelich in right on opening day, with Keon Broxton perhaps being the fourth outfielder. Broxton would make perfect sense as a bench outfielder. He’s fast, plays great defense, has experience at all three positions, and can pinch run. Also, the Brewers are still in on Yu Darvish, the best starting pitcher on the market. The reason Darvish hasn’t been signed yet is the length of the contract he is asking for. Darvish is asking for six years. Every offer he has is no more than four.

If the Brewers can acquire a couple of good starting pitchers here late in the offseason, they could make a serious run at toppling the Cubs in 2018.