icult to envision a blockbuster signing like this happening in the Menomonee Valley this winter.There have been rumblings since the start of the offseason about the “financial constraints” faced by the Milwaukee Brewers http://www.raysfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , including intimations from the front office that there just wasn’t much money to spend. With a payroll that was already approaching $100 mil, it didn’t seem like a significant upgrade was in the offing for the Brew Crew.That is, until free agent catcher Yasmani Grandal fell into the club’s lap.Grandal was predicted to find free agent riches at the outset of this winter, with MLB Trade Rumors ranking him as their sixth-best available player for hire and forecasting a four-year, $64 mil deal for the 30 year old backstop. Rumors indicate that he did receive at least one offer in that monetary range, with various outlets writing that Grandal rejected a four-year, $60 mil deal from the New York Mets before they moved on to sign Wilson Ramos. But, whether it was a lack of interest or a misread of his market, some confluence of factors helped Grandal and his camp determine that Milwaukee’s reported one-year, $18.25 mil offer was the way to go for 2019. (Perhaps that is an indictment of baseball’s broken financial system when it comes to fairly compensating players versus the revenue that they generate, but alas.)For the Brewers, this deal looks like an immediate home run. The short term deal that he’ll be signing essentially removes all risk from the equation on Milwaukee’s end of things, as besides pushing the projected Opening Day payroll to what would be a club-record $115 mil, the small market club won’t have to worry about any sort of long term ramifications of adding another significant financial commitment to the books. And, Grandal was arguably the top position player available this winter not named Harper or Machado, boasting not only a potent bat but also some of the game’s best defensive chops behind at a premium position behind the plate.Since debuting in the big leagues back with the Padres back in 2012, the switch-hitting former first-round pick has produced a terrific .240/.341/.441 slash line with 113 home runs across 2,660 plate appearances for a wRC+ of 117. He has never posted a wRC+ lower than 100 in the MLB, whereas the league-average catcher has hovered in between an 84 wRC+ and 93 wRC+ over the last seven seasons. Grandal didn’t land his first full-time role at catcher until 2014, but he has topped double-digit home runs in each of the five years since then and has popped 22+ balls over the fence in the last three seasons. Among catchers with at least 1,500 plate appearances since the start of 2014 http://www.rangersfanproshop.com/authentic-matt-moore-jersey , Grandal ranks second behind only Buster Posey in terms of wRC+. Only Evan Gattis and Salvador Perez have launched more dingers within that group and time frame. Grandal hit .241/.349/.466 with 24 homers (125 wRC+) in 2018. Milwaukee’s group of catchers, meanwhile, combined for a .238/.294/.363 slash line (75 wRC+) with 16 homers. That’s more than a 150 point difference in OPS.Defensively, Grandal ranks out as similarly elite among his peers, his postseason struggles behind the plate against the Brewers in the NLCS notwithstanding. Grandal’s +44 Defensive Runs Saved ranks fourth-most among catchers over the last five years. He routinely grades out among the game’s elite pitch framers, finishing seventh, first, second, fourth, and first again in the last five years when it comes to total runs added via framing according to Baseball Prospectus. Grandal struggled to throw out runners early on in his career but has matched or exceeded the league average caught-stealing rate in each year since 2015, and he also usually receives solid grades when it comes to his blocking. According to Baseball Prospectus’ fielding statistic, Grandal has added a whopping +136.8 runs to his teams’ ledgers during the course of his parts of seven MLB seasons. Per BP’s WARP statistic, the only WAR stat that incorporates pitch framing (and uses Deserved Runs Created Plus), Grandal has accumlated 28.1 wins above replacement during his career, including 21.2 WARP over the last four seasons.Imagine taking the defensive skillset that Erik Kratz was so highly praised for during his year in Milwaukee last season, and then adding Travis Shaw’s bat to that mix. Basically, that’s what the Milwaukee Brewers should be getting with Yasmani Grandal in 2019 based on his previous track record at the game’s highest level. And that’s not even acknowledging the boost that his bat could see while moving from cavernous Dodger Stadium to the bandbox that is Miller Park. Grandal is truly an impact player on both sides of the ball, a stalwart who will help his team score more runs on offense while also assisting the pitching staff in preventing runs with his defense.His presence lengthens a lineup that should be six legitimate sluggers deep on a given day against a right-handed pitcher (with Cain, Yelich, Shaw, Aguilar Ivan Rodriguez Jersey , Braun, and now Grandal, with Thames off the bench). It also greatly reduces the need to add more offense at second base, where the club would probably be just fine sticking with their in-house mix and letting Tyler Saladino, Hernan Perez, and Cory Spangenberg compete for playing time in Spring Training. They could very well just wait out the market, too, and see who is left hanging around in February and perhaps find themselves another bargain.There’s an argument to be made that Yasmani Grandal is perhaps the best all-around catcher in Major League Baseball. Now we’ll get to watch him suit up for our beloved Cream City Nine in 2019. For the modest price of an short-term guarantee and a surrendered third-round draft pick, Slingin’ David Stearns has done it again.Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus Well, this was a fun one, as well as a night of firsts. Merrill Kelly had his first MLB appearance as a 30-year-old "rookie," Jon Duplantier and his glasses made their major league debut, and the D..."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Diamondbacks Farm TeamsGameday ThreadsDiamondbacks NewsDiamondbacks Game ReportsFang FoodDiamondbacks 10, Padres 3New,9commentsEDTShareTweetShareShareDiamondbacks 10, Padres 3Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY SportsWell, this was a fun one, as well as a night of firsts. Merrill Kelly had his first MLB appearance as a 30-year-old “rookie,” Jon Duplantier and his glasses made their major league debut, and the Diamondbacks offense scored early, scored often http://www.rangersfanproshop.com/authentic-matt-moore-jersey , and kept piling on, which we haven’t seen a whole lot of in the last year or so.Adam Jones put the good guys on the board right away, with a towering lead-off homer to left field, and the hits (and runs) just kept on coming. The D-Backs scored in the first, second, third and fifth innings, spotting Kelly a 9-0 lead before the Padres even got on the board. Quite the change from the first four games of the season. Just sayin’.Meanwhile, Kelly did a marvelous job through the first five innings, getting ahead in the count, making Padres batters put the ball in play, and basically just mowing ‘em down. One hit and two walks were all San Diego managed to scrape together until the sixth inning, when he gave up two hits and three runs, capped off by a Fernando Tatis Jr. two-run homer to left that was essentially a carbon copy of Jones’s shot in the Diamondbacks first. Still, it was a helluva start by Kelly, and he definitely pitched a lot better than his final pitching line maybe suggests.The D-Backs picked up one more run in the seventh, and long-awaited prospect Jon Duplantier closed out the game with a three-inning save—not too shabby to earn a save in a game where your team has a seven-run lead. So this was a good one, and a needed palate cleanser after the opening season in Los Angeles. Full recap to follow, as shortly as all those runs will allow.