Now, about the third base …
After having slipped Wong to a contract with important postpones, the club always has a hole in the warm corner and has remained linked to the free agent Justin Turner as recently as Thursday evening in a report By Robert Murray de Fandedated. But the addition of Wong improved two other positions, while the president of Milwaukee of baseball operations, David Stearns, confirmed it Keston hiuraThe height striker with defensive problems linked to an wandering launch arm is Go from the second base to the first To accommodate the arrival of Wong.
“We know that we add, in our opinion, the best defensive player of all baseball,” said Stearns. “This is an important addition to our club. This allows us to formulate what could be one of the first defensive championships of all baseball, and really transforms our defense in the Milieu of our club.”
Of course, having a leading defensive field field is to park someone with the third goal. For the moment, the main Brewers options are there Luis Uríasthat they still like a lot after a first season disjointed in Milwaukee in 2020, or Daniel Robertsonthe old best hope that signed a modest one year contract With the Brewers at the start of this historically calm off -season.
With the finances of the club affected by the pandemic and the Brewers television agreement – an agreement with Sinclair Broadcasting expired after last season, and negotiations with various points of sale on a new agreement were still underway on Friday – Stearns did not exclude additional expenses. He said he was in regular contact with the main owner Mark Attanasio and the rest of the team’s ownership group “on what is in the best interest of our organization near and long term”.
Before Wong passed his physique and signed his two -year contract with a club option that could bring value to $ 26 million over three years, Stearns and the Brewers had spent $ 1.725 million throughout the winter – in one year for Robertson and Catcher Luke Maile. According to Jon Paul Morosi of MLB.com, the Wong contract “only” adds $ 3 million in total for 2021. By Morosi, Wong obtains a signing bonus of $ 1 million and a salary of $ 7 million for 21, with $ 5 million in these additional acquisitions. Wong then obtained $ 8 million in 22 with a club option for 23 to 10 million dollars with a 2 million dollars takeover.
According to the club policy, the Brewers did not confirm any of the financial conditions of the Wong contract, but on the basis of the declaration of their salary provided in 2021, would be somewhere in the $ 84 million district on Friday.
“This is the constant balance we have to work on,” said Stearns. “We believe that our best chance of winning a world series is to get as many apple bites as possible. It means staying competitive as long as possible.
The signing of Turner, who is 36 years old, but one of the best market strikers, would lead this much higher figure this year and in the years to come. Other types of third basis may be available on one -year offers. Free agents still available include Jedd Gyorko, Maikel Franco, Jake Lamb, Todd Frazier and others.
“We understand the extent of the market that exists,” said Stearns. “We also understand our internal options. When we assess an external acquisition, we must be comfortable that it makes us better, because by definition, this will cut the opportunity for these interns. This is part of the process we are going through at the moment.
“I am at ease that, once we arrive at the opening, we are going to have a good understanding of the third base and be satisfied with its place.”
Although this remains an open question, it is not difficult to project the rest of an opening list of Brewers. They have a plethora of sensors led by Omar Narváez and Manny Piña, two stops capable of Orlando Arcia and Urías, and a complete supplement of the starting championships to Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain and Avisaíl García. They also have relatively a stable solid beginners (Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta, Josh Lindblom and Adrian Houser could include a rotation) and lifts (led by Josh Hader and the recruit of the national league of the year 2020 Devin Williams).
Stearns said that the Brewers would continue to depth the eyes, constituting the challenges that the teams faced 60 games last season at 162 games scheduled for this season.
Stearns also reiterated on Friday that the club expects the award -winning central defender Gold Cain to return to the fold for 2021 after choosing not to play in 2020. It is another significant boost in addition to Wong, which gives the Brewers a defense dose on the field and contact in the plate. Its 14.4% withdrawal rate was the 18th lower among the MLB qualifying strikers last season.
“We have not necessarily considered that Kolten Wong is available when we started our intersane preparation,” said Stearns, referring to the cardinals’ decision to refuse the $ 12.5 million Wong option. “To this extent, it was a pivot, it was a quarter of work once he became available and how he could adapt to our team, and what our team might look like, this has become quite attractive to us.”
