All Eric Gagne, All the Time

Tom H fills in some details:

Amazingly, I've heard the deal might be near $10 million, which is more than I thought the Brewers would spend. The key is that the deal is for one year, so if something happens to Gagne, the Brewers wouldn't be committed beyond '08. Don't forget, Melvin offered Francisco Cordero a four-year, $42 million deal before he took $4 million more to sign with Cincinnati.

Haudricourt also points out that we're rapidly approaching a 42-man roster, which is a problem. It seems increasingly likely that Mench will be non-tendered, and he speculates that Wise might be too.

In Wise's case, I hope not. I'm not sure I have a better idea, but it seems odd to be spending $3MM+ on guys like Torres and Mota and shying away from spending $1.5MM (maybe as much as $2MM) on Wise.

If Wise has to go, it will make the Mota deal look worse. I don't think there's any reason to expect that Mota will be better than Wise next year, and we weren't required to dump Estrada's salary -- we could've just been non-tendering him right now instead of Wise.

Of course, Melvin could have another deal in the works, perhaps with Capuano and a bullpen arm heading somewhere in exchange for a 3B/LF.

One more note regarding Gagne: Rotoworld points out that a good year from Gagne would make him a Type A free agent, so if he does go the Coco route next offseason, we get two draft picks out of the deal.