An interesting note from Ken Rosenthal today — the Brewers briefly discussed a Jeff Suppan-for-Chris Snyder trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks, but didn’t want to take on Snyder’s $5.75 million salary for next season.
Trading Suppan would definitely have it’s benefits — for one, you wouldn’t have to worry about how poorly he’d pitch every 5 days, and the Brewers wouldn’t have to worry about trying to find enough innings for Manny Parra and Chris Narveson in the bullpen. But at this point, I can see why the Brewers are reluctant to make this deal.
Suppan’s contract is up at the end of the year, and they’ll be freeing up over $12 million (even more when you consider Bill Hall will no longer be their responsibility, either). With Prince Fielder expecting to cash in big with his last season of arbitration eligibility, that money will come in handy. While it would be nice to get something for Suppan rather than just letting him rot on the roster or releasing him (something that Rosenthal’s sources say isn’t likely), this particular trade wouldn’t make sense.
Knowing the Diamondbacks’ financial situation, any deal would probably be dependent on the Brewers eating a significant portion of Suppan’s 2010 salary, on top of taking the full value of Snyder’s deal. As I mentioned, he’s slated to make $5.75 million next season, with a $750,000 buyout for 2012. That’s simply too much money for the Brewers to be spending on a salary dump trade, let alone for a catcher with a career .233/.333/.398 line.
If the Brewers are going to end up paying Suppan anyway, they might as well keep him around for as long as they possibly can and see if they can squeeze a few more quality outings from him. It’d be nice to get something for him in a trade, but only if the return doesn’t require the Brewers to spend significant amounts of money beyond this season.
I’ll continue to hold out hope that the Brewers simply give him his walking papers, but since that isn’t likely, let’s just hope he surprises us a few times and doesn’t hurt the team too much.
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