Milwaukee Brewers may speak to free agent Ryan Dempster – MLB News
The Milwaukee Brewers' general manager Doug Melvin dropped a hint on Monday, December 3, that the club might talk to Ryan Dempster’s agent on the sidelines of the Winter Meetings. As to when exactly the talk between Brewers and Craig Landis – Dempster’s manager, will take place is unknown at this point in time.
Also, equally importantly, general manager Doug Melvin said the Brewers would like to give the youngsters a chance.
"While he's here, we might as well [meet]," Melvin said. "We like the starters that we have, though. You've got [Yovani] Gallardo, you've got [Marco] Estrada and [Mike] Fiers, [Wily] Peralta, Mark Rogers, [Chris] Narveson. Is it time to give our young guys a chance and find out about them?"
What is important to note here is that the Brewers are somewhat reluctant to go for big and long-term contracts. The hesitancy may well be stemming out of the experience they had in the past.
Take, for example, the Milwaukee Brewers' contracts with Jeff Suppan, Randy Wolf and David Riske. They were players with three-plus year contracts. While the Brewers might have a lot of things in the mind back then as far as the durability of the contracts is concerned, they eventually had to release the pitchers during the final season of the contracts.
As to what the Brewers are considering with regards to Ryan Dempster, the Brewers are wary about their spending limits.
"It's up to the individual player, who it is. It's up to the dollars," Melvin said. "I'll do a 10-year deal if the money is right. If you want $1 million a year, I'll do 10."
This past season Dempster was traded to the Texas Rangers by the Chicago Cubs. Featuring in 28 games, having had starts in all the game, he had 3.38 ERA with 12-8 record and153 strike-outs.
The 35-year-old pitcher has 4.33 career ERA in 547 games. That, which can be somewhat of a hurdle, if not fully problematic, at this point is his age. The Brewers will take into consideration this aspect before going for a deal – that too a long-term one.
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