NEWSLETTER
Yes, yes. We see you, Brewers. We see you.
Lorenzo Cain has agreed on a 5-year, $80M deal with the #Brewers, source says. It’s the biggest free agent contract of the offseason. The deal includes no-trade protection and significant award bonuses. Milwaukee building a super outfield with addition of Yelich and Cain.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) January 26, 2018
First thing’s first, you’re probably goin’ … huh? Didn’t the Brewers just add Christian Yelich to an already full-ish outfield? Sure. But Cain’s good, and it’s not like the Brewers can’t use him in a roundabout way.
Given the timing, I’d say it’s a virtual lock that the Cain deal was predicated on the Brewers first finishing up the Yelich deal, which would only be the case if the Brewers then ALSO had a deal involving another outfielder all but sewed up. So I think it’s fair to expect one or several of Keon Broxton, Brett Phillips, and/or Domingo Santana will be headed out for pitching very soon.
As for Cain, himself, in analyzing him as a buy-low candidate for the Cubs, it sure felt like his best years would come in the next two or so (he’s 32 and a speed guy), so the Brewers are very clearly pushing to go for it right now. More additions on the pitching side – whether by trade or free agency or both – should be expected. The NL Central gets more competitive by the hour.
The deal Cain got is certainly a lot more than folks had come to be expecting at this point in the offseason, but it’s only slightly higher than what was projected for him at the start of the offseason, so … hooray, no collusion?
I think it’s bound to be a rough deal for the Brewers in a few years, but for now, Cain makes them a lot better in 2018, just as Yelich did. At least signing Cain will cost the Brewers a draft pick, but since they are a small market team, they will lose only their third highest pick and will not lose any IFA bonus pool money.
We’ll have more on the Cain impact soon, though another Brewers move might break before we get there …
UPDATE: The question is, how “in” is “interested”:
Lorenzo Cain's deal with #Brewers includes a $300K bonus for each All-Star team, and $500K for MVP award. The #Dodgers, #Cubs and #SFGiants were all interested. Somewhat surprisingly, #Indians also were involved in discussions with him.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) January 26, 2018
We knew the Cubs were at least interested in a bargain, but I’d be very surprised to learn that they were seriously involved at four years, let alone five. Here’s hoping the Cubs at least were the team that pushed the Brewers up to five years to get the deal done.
Had the Cubs added Cain, you probably could have banked on them to consider doing what I now expect the Brewers to do – add pitching via trade. As things have shaken out, though, I’d expect the Cubs to add one of their top three free agent starter targets (Darvish-Arrieta-Cobb) before the offseason is up.
