Looks like Brewers’ general manager Doug Melvin was full of it when he proclaimed just last week that the team was all set, and wouldn’t be making any more moves. Perhaps continued massive deflation in the free agent market changed his mind.
I just talked to Brewers general manager Doug Melvin. He would not say a deal with free agent right-hander Braden Looper was done but said he was “optimistic” that it would be.
Melvin said it probably wouldn’t be announced until later in the week.
Translation: Looper has to pass a physical first. JSOnline.
Reaction to the possible deal, and how it affects the Cubs’ biggest Central rival this year, after the jump.
I’m not convinced signing Looper makes the Brewers rotation immediately better, but it certainly gives it depth that it does not presently have.
Looper has been below-average in his two years as a starter, so the contract he receives will be interesting. He was rumored to want a deal similar to whatever Jon Garland and Randy Wolf would ultimately receive, so it’s likely he’ll get something like a one-year, $5, 6, 7 mill deal from the Brewers.
Melvin praised Looper’s innings-eating ability, but Looper has always been at his best out of the pen. So it’s not completely inconceivable the Brewers could stash him there, or at least use him in a swing role.
The best part for Cubs fans? Melvin conceded that making this move would reduce the Brewers’ flexibility to add going forward.