Brewers inactive in free agency thus far; could find deals late in offseason

Here is the most boring rumor of the offseason, if it can even count as a rumor: The Brewers are currently quite inactive in free agency and seem pretty content to hang back for most of the offseason as far as signing players goes, reports Jon Heyman.

Shocking? Not really. Like, at all.

As far as rosters go for 2015, the Brewers are already pretty much set. An early trade for Adam Lind provided the first solution to the team's first base problem in three years and Aramis Ramirez agreeing to a mutual option means Milwaukee is set at third base as well. The outfield has an MVP, an All-Star and a folk hero. Scooter Gennett and Jean Segura have the middle infield locked down. The best danged catcher in the league (only a little biased) is behind home plate, receiving for a rotation that is at least six-deep already.

Thus, the Brewers don't exactly have a reason to be particularly notable on the whole free agent thing. Instead, Heyman posits, they might sit back and see what happens, then make a move for a useful player later in the off-season as asking-prices assumedly come down.

The one thing that could change this course of action for Milwaukee is if they see a great deal being available on a player that can improve the team or if they make a big trade that leaves them weak elsewhere. Matt Garza came out of nowhere last year as most thought the Brewers were content with their rotation at the time; it's not unusual for the Brewers to make surprising moves when they find the right price.

Still, they found a bench upgrade in Gerardo Parra and a bullpen upgrade in Jonathan Broxton mid-season in 2014, leaving less to be done in the off-season. The bullpen will surely need reinforcements for next year. Potential platoon partners for Lind and Gennett could be of use. More upgrades to the bench, maybe.

All of those are of less consequence, however, and the Brewers can wait to see what shakes out rather than go for a 'premium' bench player, so to speak. Or the team might prefer to deal through trades than over-paying in free agency. They might be working on a trade now, even.

The Brewers certainly aren't done for the off-season already but they might have a quiet couple of months for the end of 2014. It's boring, but it's probably a good thing that the team already has most of the roster figured out for next year.