Brew Crew Ball 2016-17 Offseason Plan Project

Our friends over at South Side Sox have been running a sort of ‘choose your own offseason’ project for the last two years, with their third iteration of the idea coming this winter. Since y’all within the Brew Crew Ball community are intelligent, dedicated fans with a good working knowledge of the organization, I have decided to steal the idea and see what you all can do with it. I’m sure that you’re going to dig it.

Here is your mission, should you choose to accept it:

*Copy and paste the template into a FanPost. If you’ve never written a FanPost, you’ll have the option if you’re a registered member of Brew Crew Ball. Once logged in, CTRL-F "Write a FanPost" or "Post your own" and you should be in the editor and ready to write.

*Cot’s Baseball Contracts has the Brewers’ payroll obligations. The upper limit of the Brewers’ payroll has historically been around $100 mil, so I’m setting the payroll limit at $100 mil. Obviously the Brewers weren’t anywhere close to that number this season and don’t project to be near there again next year if they stay the course with their rebuilding project. You have the ability to deviate from that plan, however, and sign/trade for whoever you see fit.

*MLB Trade Rumors has a list of the 2016-17 MLB free agents. Please make a note of the players with options and try and use some logic in whether the team will exercise those options (our old friend Jonathan Lucroy will not being hitting the free agent market this winter, for example).

Start here, be creative, and have fun!

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[Insert your name]’s Offseason Plan

Arbitration-eligible (with projected salaries from MLBTR):

Write "tender" or "non-tender" after each of the following names. You can also trade a player before or after tendering a contract.

• Kirk Nieuwenhuis - $1.6 mil
• Martin Maldonado - $1.6 mil
• Chris Carter - $8.1 mil
• Scooter Gennett- $3 mil
• Chase Anderson - $3.1 mil
• Wily Peralta - $4.4 mil
• Tyler Thornburg - $2.2 mil
• Carlos Torres - $2 mil

Explain the toughest calls if necessary:

Contract options (pick up or buy out)

• none

Impending free agents (re-sign, let go or qualifying offer)

• Chris Capuano: made $1.5 mil in 2016
• Blaine Boyer: made $950,000 in 2016

Elaborate if needed:

Free agents

Peruse the list of potential free agents and name one, two, or more that you would pursue, the maximum offer that you would extend to them, and a brief explanation. An example:

No. 1: Kenley Jansen (4 years, $75 mil). Tyler Thornburg blew his last two saves of the year so he’s clearly not closer material. Bump him back to set-up and sign Jansen for the ninth inning and you’ve effectively shortened the game.

Trades

Propose a trade or two or several that you think sound reasonable for both sides, and the rationale behind them. Example:

No. 1: Trade Scooter Gennett to the Angels for Nate Smith and Grayson Long. Scooter is expendable and the Angels could use help at the keystone. Milwaukee is always looking to add pitching.

Try and stay objective when proposing these trades, don’t be too outrageous and try and keep the value similar on both sides. I’m hoping to see some realistic ideas.

Summary

If you end up with a complete, rock solid 25-man roster, feel free to list it with as much detail as you can. The more in-depth, the better. More important, however, is describing how you are either continuing the course of the rebuild or taking advantage of the assets the organization already has and trying to open the competitive window. There’s an organizational hole at third base, catcher is unsettled, pitching could be improved...but remember that you are under a payroll constraint, however.

For some, part of the game might be trying to guess as much of the 2017 roster as possible. Really though, you don't need to be a comprehensive roster architect to participate. You might have one idea that gets people talking, and that's just as worth it. You can also borrow ideas if you like them to fill out your plan, because I’m also interested in which players are the most popular for potential solutions.

The point of this project is to survey the community and consider as many realistic players and angles as possible before the Brewers start making the moves that count.

Have fun and I’m looking forward to seeing what y’all can come up with!