Trade option declining for Milwaukee Brewers as Prince Fielder eyes free agency
The Milwaukee Brewers are finding it harder, day-by-day to look for trading options concerning Prince Fielder. The 26-year-old, defensive first baseman has been the talk of the winter meetings and while his pay off has not been
the topic of discussion, his future remains to be a concern at the club and the meetings.
The Brewers have not continued talks with the young slugger since spring training. The topic being a contract extension, hasn’t been picking up much pace as there are declining services offered by players, similar to Prince. The
valuation on his presence in the club is said to be out of bounds for the Brewers. With Jayson Werth moving to the Washington Nationals for a $126 million contract and Carl Crawford doing the same with a $142 million deal, the player’s agent, Scott Boras stressed
on the cost of hiring a slugger these days.
He said, "I find attractive information that's occurred over the past couple of weeks about the value of hitters and sluggers and things. I think the important thing is the rarity of them, particularly in the game today.
He further went on to explain, "The metrics are different than they were five years ago. The general managers and the teams, they're looking for things that I think, in the past, there was a plentiful supply of. Now there is really
just a lot less reliability in the ability to have an .800 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage)- An ability to drive in runs and play defence and have power, boil down the numbers, the rarity - the realization of that really hit this winter."
Prince Fielder’s statistics were indeed impressive in the 2010 league season. His batting average climbed at .261 and he smashed 32 home runs during the season to add value to his attack and need. The young gun batted in 83 runs
during the campaign and maintained an on base percentage of .401. Being a defensive player, Fielder brought forward an interesting slugging percentage of .471. In addition to that, he pushed in 94 runs from 161 games.
Prince will be arbitration eligible next year, but it seems the top gun will move to the free agency for a better deal. For the Brewers, that fact is a hindrance in trading the star. Unless a top team trades, it is unlikely Fielder
will move out anytime soon.
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