MLB: Assessing the NL Central GMs at the midway point

Milwaukee Brewers, GM David Stearns, -0.4 games

The Brewers are so solidly in first place in the NL Central that it likely will surprise many to see that Stearns’ moves since the end of last season have actually done modest harm to his team.

How can that be? It’s simple, actually: Statistically about three-quarters of any team’s talent base is comprised of players whose performance does not factor into a GM’s short-term rating. Most of every team’s key players have been signed to multi-year deals, while others are young and thus pre-free agent or even pre-arbitration.

One look at the team’s five most valuable players for the first half of 2021 cements that idea: Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta, Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes and Omar Narvaez are all either pre-arb, arb 1 or at most arb 2. None are playing under new, freely negotiated contracts, none were acquired since October 2020, and none are first-year callups.

What has Stearns done? Most notably, he acquired shortstop Willy Adames (+1.2) from the Tampa Bay Rays. Adames has been surprisingly productive, batting .292 with the kind of power that is required of Brewers players. The deal cost Stearns reliever J.P. Feyerheisen (+0.8 for Tampa Bay), but that’s still a net gain to Milwaukee of 0.4 games.

Otherwise, Stearns has contented himself with working around the fringes of his team. He has brought in or re-signed 22 players who have contributed this season, while ridding Milwaukee of six players who went elsewhere. As is almost always the case, most of those moves have had trivial impact; 16 of the 28 moves generated between -0.3 and +0.3 WAA.

Here’s a recap of some of the more significant ones.

• He re-signed veteran free agent infielder Jace Peterson (+0.7), and signed veteran free agents Travis Shaw (-1.3), Kolten Wong (1.4) and Jackie Bradley (-1.1). Net impact: -0.3 games.
• He purchased reliever Hunter Strickland (+0.4) from the Angels.
• He released backup outfielder Ben Gamel, who signed with Cleveland and then was waived to Pittsburgh. Net impact of Gamel’s loss on the Brewers: +0.6 games.