Lukewarm Stove: Brewers Signings, Low-Cost Imports, Donaldson, Hader, McCann, More

The Cubs do did a signing tonight, but it is not gonna do did you the excitement. It’s a minor league deal for utility-man Hernan Perez. Perfectly fine move for depth and a little Spring Training competition. But I know. We all grow antsy.

  • But, hey, at least the Brewers returned the favor by making a couple of their own minor moves to get fans riled up:
  • Healy, 27, might sound familiar as a dude who came out of nowhere to put up a couple good years with the A’s in 2016-17, but he fell way off after a trade to the Mariners. He’s a corner infielder only, so he’ll be competition for Luis Urias at third base and Ryan Braun(?) at first base. There’s considerable power upside in the bat, but he hasn’t been able to translate it to results the last couple years. Not a terrible low-risk signing, though, even on a big league deal. He had hip surgery in August, so I don’t exactly know his health status going forward.
  • Peterson, 29, raked at AAA and struggled badly in the big leagues, as has been his story for the last half-decade.
  • As noted earlier, the Cardinals signed lefty Kwang-Hyun Kim out of Korea, and now we’ve got the contract details, which suggest the market was not overly aggressive for his services:
  • As we’ve said about players who come from Japan or Korea, sometimes the contract signed tells us as much or more about the league’s perception of the player’s ability to transition than the previous scouting reports. Kim was expected to be a back-end starter or swing type in the bullpen, and at this level of contract, it seems much more likely that the league expects him to be more swing man than sure-fire starter. For the Cardinals, he’ll be an option at the back of the rotation, and, for a relatively small cost, he’s just about all upside. Clearly, though, the expectation is he will not get there.
  • You may or may not recall that there was another back-end starter/swing-man type coming to MLB from abroad, with righty Shun Yamaguchi coming over from Japan:
  • Another modest contract. That comes after Josh Lindblom got a pretty cheap three-year deal from the Brewers, and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo got only two years and $12 million from the Rays. Every player is different, of course, but it does make you wonder if the two year, $10 million ask from Shogo Akiyama is viewed as too much by all of the market, not just the Cubs.
  • Akiyama, by the way, is expected to make his decision over the next week. Here’s hoping he winds up on the Cubs, and on a deal commensurate with what appears to be a softened interest in imported veterans.
  • Jon Heyman did a radio hit with a variety of notes:
  • Among Heyman’s comments: he gets the sense that Josh Donaldson will make a decision soon, and thinks it’s coming down to just the Nationals (likely to be the high bidder) and the Braves. The Dodgers (less likely), Rangers (seemingly stuck on 3 years), and Twins are trying, but it would be a surprise if it’s one of those three.
  • Heyman interestingly said that the Dodgers were looking at Josh Hader, but, uh, this (which he later tweeted) would not happen:
  • Heyman hears Starling Marte most linked to the Mets, Padres and Diamondbacks, and hears that the Indians genuinely do not want to trade Francisco Lindor.
  • Separately, doesn’t this sound like the White Sox putting out feelers on a guy they obviously were planning to shop from the moment they signed Grandal:
  • McCann, 29, was very solid as a most-of-the-time starter last year (109 wRC+, mediocre defense), but prior to 2019, he was abysmal at the plate. His big season was built mostly on a .359 BABIP that was 61(!) points higher than his career average coming into the season, and not earned by the expected statistics. He’s not a reasonable fallback for teams seriously considering a run at Willson Contreras.
  • Unrelated last-minute Christmas shopping sale:
  • https://twitter.com/obvious_shirts/status/1207103182356320256

    Michael Cerami contributed to this post.

    written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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