"I talked to Doug (Melvin, the Brewers' general manager) about it the other day," Cirillo said. "We talked for awhile and he told me that he wasn't sure how it would work in terms of playing time. The Twins are offering me a chance to play a little more. I know I can get in against left-handers, so that was part of it."
I must admit, I'm a little sad. I was staunchly anti-Cirillo at the beginning of the reunion tour and I still think Yost overused him a bit, but he slaughtered lefties and seems to genuinely enjoy playing in Milwaukee:
...
"I know that Jeff wanted to stay here badly," Melvin said. "He liked playing here and I liked having him. He's a good pinch-hitter and I think he was a good influence on our younger guys. But, I couldn't guarantee him more than about 150 at-bats. I think with Minnesota, he'll probably be getting around 250.
"It's a tough thing to leave Milwaukee," Cirillo told OnMilwaukee.com [classy, Drew!] Monday afternoon from his home near Seattle. "It's very tough. I love the city and I love playing for the Brewers.
More somber thoughts from Adam McCalvy's version:
"It's a bummer that I'm leaving Milwaukee. I'm torn because you want to be loyal to the Brewers and the fans have treated me so well there," Cirillo said.
As you might expect, this means Graffanino will probably be sticking around:
Melvin said he would be reluctant to trade Graffanino, who was offered salary arbitration by the club, now that Cirillo has decided to sign with Minnesota and that deal will likely be for one year and about $1.5 million.
Easy there, Doug. We don't need to ink ALL our backups to multi-year contracts.
"We've talked to Tony about a two-year deal," Melvin said. "But, we haven't heard back from them yet."
Update [2006-12-11 21:7:56 by battlekow]: One angle I forgot to mention: in Cirillo and Daron Sutton, the Brewers have extirpated the men responsible for the most odious of the Brewers-affiliated commercials. Now I'm walking more comfortable.