The Milwaukee Brewers Would Be Absolutely NOWHERE Without Matt Arnold’s Brilliant Moves

The Milwaukee Brewers Would Be Absolutely NOWHERE Without Matt Arnold’s Brilliant Moves

Matt Arnold wins executive of the year for a second year in a row and why the Brewers would be nowhere without him. You are Locked On Brewers, your daily Milwaukee Brewers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Well, the Brewers get another postseason award. Matt Arnold, executive of the year, second year in a row. No surprise there. I’ll tell you how his hands are on all pieces of this organization. Will the Brewers make a trade involving someone not named Freddy Peralta? And I’ll tell you who could get traded on this team. Also, how the Brewers can improve your experience at Amanfield. Good to have you along. Chuck Freeman here. Locked on Brewers, part of Locked on Podcast Network. We are your team every day. Locked on Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network, and glad to be a part of it. All right, Matt Arnold, no surprise, just like Pat Murphy being named manager of the year, GM of the year, executive of the year goes to Matt Arnold. I mean, where can we start with what this guy has done? First of all, when he goes to work in the morning, he’s got one arm tied behind his back going to the ballpark because the guy who sits in the corner office, Mark Adanasio, when he’s not in California, he’s in the corner office and he’s got a payroll there that is not like the New York Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Yankees, the Red Sox, some of these other teams, most other teams, right? most of the teams. He has a limited payroll. There are things he wants to do, but he knows he can’t do it. So, his approach to doing things a little different than everybody else in Major League Baseball, and that’s why this guy is so amazing. The window for success with the Milwaukee Brewers. Um, you can’t make mistakes. You can’t make mistakes. You can’t make a mistake when you sign a guy to a long-term contract. You can’t make a mistake when you make a trade. You can’t make a mistake when you bring someone up from the farm system. You almost got to be perfect if you’re in the seat of Matt Arnold. And for the most part, he has, right? He has been so far. And his handprints are all over this team. And you look at the moves that he’s made. There’s nobody in baseball that have made as many moves as this guy. and it’s worked out. And again, I don’t want to have to qualify it by saying, “Yeah, he hasn’t won a world’s championship.” All right, they got the 97 wins. And I don’t have to tell you, and I’m sure maybe you don’t want to hear it, that the system is stacked against them. We know that. And yeah, that plays a part into why they can’t get by a team like the Dodgers or no one can. But you look at what he’s done. I mean, I could go around the horn here. Joseé Kintana getting him in spring training. Now, the Dodd, the Mets didn’t want him, okay, but he he brings Kintana in, gives him a one-year, $4 million deal with a buyout, and he comes in and gives gets 11 wins. Moves like that. Meanwhile, he looks on his roster from last year, and he’s got Frankie Montis, and he says, “Man, Frankie Montis, 20 million a year,$7 million a year. No, thank you. David Sterns couldn’t help himself because he’s got all that money to spend with New York. Oh, we’ll give Frankie Mont this two years 34 million. Well, we don’t want Canana anymore. I’m done with him. Well, the smart guys in the front office and he’s and and Sterns has got great people around him as well. Guys who never get mentioned, smart guys, as Murphy always calls, the guys who are sitting in the ivory tower up there. Noame guys, analytic guys. And that’s that plays a part in this. Although I’m not a huge analytic guy there, it does play some role. Obvious it does play a role, but obviously talent wins over anything, but they saw that Kintana could come in and do some things for them. And they got him on a one-year deal. They weren’t going to give him he would there was no way they were going to pick up the option on that deal this year. But they who knows down the road they might have a guy like that back, right? They might say goodbye to him now, but they might get him back. Who knows? But there’s got to be some reason why when guys come to Milwaukee, it usually always works out. Kintana, I thought that was a nice pickup. Didn’t think he’d get 11 wins, but he was. Now, he went there down the stretch of the season, the final couple of weeks, but by then the Brewers had had sewn things up anyway. But, um, I just thought Jos Canana, that’s number one. you know, getting a guy like Collins in the rule five draft and coming in and being a rookie of the year candidate and providing about as many big moments as you can expect from a guy no one ever heard of before, right? Um, did I call him Nick Collins? Why do I always call him the Packer the former Packer safety Nick Collins? Right. Why do I always do that? No. Collins came in and gave them some big innings both defensively and left field. At one point during the season, he was ranked one of the best defensive left fielders. Now, he tailed off after that, but at one point he was considered one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball. And yeah, he slumped off after he he got back from his paternity leave, but he was he had a really good year. Enough to get himself the fourth most in vote v votes for rookie of the year. But I think we can all argue, yeah, Collins maybe not did nothing in the postseason, but he helped a lot in the regular season. I think back of the home run he hit uh against the Mets to help complete a five nothing comeback on a Sunday afternoon, a rainy Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee. calling up the Miz at just the appropriate time. Miz came up and gave them obviously some big starts and some big bullpin innings in the postseason and got some rookie of the year votes and made the All-Star game. Although was it really merit it? No. That was a that was Major League Baseball showcasing him. And in turn, Savali didn’t want to be here anymore because he lost his starting position. He didn’t want to pitch out of the bullpen. So, uh, he goes to the front office says, “I want to get traded if I’m not going to be a starter.” So, the Brewers say, “Fine.” You know, they’re they’re trading him. Now, the Brewers, most teams aren’t trading who are contending, aren’t trading starting pitching during the season, but they did. They traded. They saw this guy in the White Socks organization, former high draft pick who was struggling and they traded for him and they traded for him and he was great. Vaughn was just spectacular all season long. Uh yeah, he had his moments where he didn’t hit home runs, but for the most part, Vaughn and I saw the grades that he got uh from the Journal Sentinel. I think he got an A minus. Yeah. Deserved every one of those points or grades or whatever grading system they they did. I thought he got an A had an A minus type season. Um right from the very beginning he got called up after they traded from him. They put him down on the miners and when Hoskins got hurt, they brought him up and he was fantastic. Just fantastic. And his defense wasn’t bad at first base as well. So not only do you call up the Miz, but in turn you got a guy who’s not happy with your starting pitcher. you to put him in the bullpin and Savale um uses as a trade piece to get Vaughn and now you think you got your first baseman of the future when you’ve been juggling first baseman for the longest time. You may have got something here. Now, am I willing to sign this guy to a long-term contract at this point? Nah. Let’s see what he’s going to do this year, but we like what he did last year and so far so good. And as far as Savali goes, who didn’t want to be a starter? Boy, last time I checked, man, the guy was working on the bullpen for the Cubs, wasn’t he? Did he go to Craig Council, by the way, did Savali go to council and say, “No, I don’t want to be in the playoffs if I’m not going to be a starter, right?” I guess I wonder if Savali had that conversation with council because he had that conversation with the Brewers and with the Cubs was working on the bullpen in the postseason. He did pitch some nice innings in one of the games. I think he pitched four or five innings when the Brewers got um shelled the Cubs early on. I think that was in game one. Um the trade for Durban, the trade for Durban, I had downplayed that one severely. Um not that I was uh I was down on getting rid of Devin Williams. I thought they could have got a little bit better back for him. Um but it turns out they had their eye on Caleb Durban. They had done their homework. They didn’t sit down one day and say, “Boy, who do we want out of the Yankees farm system?” No, they obviously did their due diligence on Durban. All these general managers do that. Some just do a little bit better than others. And with the Brewers, they have to do those sort of things. They have to be better in those type of areas because that’s what they need, controllable talent. And that’s what Durban is, contract controllable. And Durban came in, got rookie of the year votes. after he was brought up uh after their well their first third base plan that was just an absolute joke at third base. Um you know Vinnie Capra Mr. February but Durban after they got rid of all that nonsense they brought Durban up. Durban was was fine and maybe that was the plan all along to bring Durban up after he had some seasoning down in their system at Triple A. But Durban for Williams and then they got Cortez and they spun that for Lockage picking up Quinn Prester. Now again at the time I thought they gave up way too much for Quinn Prester. I looked at Quinn Prester and I like holy cow you’re going to give that much up for that guy? Okay, who failed in the Pirates organization and was stuck in the farm system for the Red Sox. Priier 13 and three. Okay, you got Sheldon in in that postseason start at Wrigley Field. that kind of hangs in your mind. But Priest was fantastic. 19 in a row. They won 19 games in a row with him as a starter. He went out there, whether he was a pitcher of record or not, he was credited with them winning 19 games in a row with him on the hill. So that’s just part of it. Chad Patrick even like mirrors last year, but that’s part of this. Kenny part of this last year um up and down that roster. He has got Matt Arnold has got his hands on all this and if he had not done such a spectacular job the Brewers wouldn’t have won 97 games. Wouldn’t have won 97 games and I think the preseason favorite going in next year. I want to touch on MVP votes because I thought Terra kind of got screwed in that. We’ll get to that coming up next. Also, I want to ask I want to tell you about Freddy Peralta. Well, not Freddy Peralta, but what I want to tell you is who’s going to get who’s on the trading block besides Freddy Peralta. Who’s another trade piece out there the Brewers might be able to use besides Freddy? We get to that next here on Lockdown Brewers. Lockdown Brewers, part of Lockdown Podcast Network. We are your team every day. Brought to you by FanDuel, America’s number one sports book. The NBA is in full swing. Hey, and next week you’re going to have everything going, man. College basketball, college football all day, NBA, NFL, the Thanksgiving week, it all hits the fan. You want to get away from your relatives and watch more sports? Well, hey, get into FanDuel. FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet hits. What a deal. Head to FanDuel.com, sign up, play your game with FanDuel. FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NFL. And you’re going to love their live betting. Their live betting, I’m telling you, some sites you go to, the live betting is absolutely just brutal and tough and they make it difficult. They make you work to find plays. FanDuel, easy layouts, easy to get play uh easy to get paid, and you name it. The the second to none. FanDuel is just fantastic. And especially especially to play your game with FanDuel right now. When your first $5 bet wins, you get the $300 in bonus bets. Add it right to your account. You got me. FanDuel.com. Sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Chuck Freeman here on Lockdown Brewers. Part of the podcast where I say, “Hey, thanks for joining us.” I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s podcast with my friend Gabby. We did a little podcast. The Brewers and Red Sox are talking a little trade possibly. That’s what the Rumblings could be out there. Could he go to Boston? That might be the best fit for him for Freddy. So, we kind of chatted about that on yesterday’s crossover episode with myself and Gabby from Locked on Red Sox. All right. By the way, our podcast, you get it on Google, Spotify, Apple, wherever you download your audio podcast. We’re the number one Brewers podcast on the internet because of you great Brewers fans out there. And if you already download us on the audio platforms, go to our growing YouTube page, search Lockdown Brewers, hit the subscribe button, hit the bell. That alert you every time we drop an episode on Lockdown Brewers. All right, MVP votes. Yelich finished ahead of Terang in the MVP voting, which I was surprised at. Um, Yelich got a total of 34 votes. Terrain got 23. I thought Terrain should have been higher than where he where he finished, especially uh below Yelich. I thought Tang should have been ahead of Yelich. Again, I’m watching this team. Some of these guys who get these votes were MVP and Sai Young and all that. It’s all baseball writers. And I’m not knocking baseball writers here, but man, I wish broadcasters had a say in it. The Baseball Writers Association of America, they are the ones who tabulate the votes. I think there’s one guy in radio who’s in it and um he’s down in Chicago who’s in the baseball writers association. Otherwise, it’s all newspaper guys. I wish they let radio people into it. I wish we had a say into it. You know, some of us guys who are there a lot. There are people who have who have votes in the MVP and Sai Young and all this who don’t maybe watch maybe but a handful of games, but somehow they have votes. They somehow have votes. I don’t know how it happens, but they do. Okay, now that I’m off my soap box and that the writers I like and I like the Milwaukee Raiders. I like those guys. But writers in general control coverage of Major League Baseball. Control the coverage. It’s an old school mentality that has not changed. Writers control the press box. Writers control. They have first dibs on everything. It is it’s just it’s an old it’s a mentality that goes back to the 30s and it hasn’t changed. and radio and TV people and podcasters were always taking a backseat to the writers. Again, this is not this is like an old this is like everywhere in the country and I wish it wasn’t that way, but we have no say really in anything us broadcasters and some of these guys some broadcasters who who watch every game and should be at every game should have votes in this. But anyway, Yellish 34 votes uh total votes as high as he he did have a 1/4th place vote. Terang had one fifth place vote and that was it. Otani unanimous uh deserved to be unanimous. Of course, that was of course just like Murphy should have been unanimous manager of the year. I didn’t check the voting for Arnold, but I assume he was unanimous. I don’t see how you make a case for anybody else there. And um Murphy should have been unanimous. He wasn’t. In fact, somebody didn’t even have him on all first, second, or third. That person right there should never be allowed to vote again. And uh yeah, and this I just thought Tang should have got more votes, but they got it right. Obviously, Utani Otani, most dangerous hitter in baseball, MVP, swept it. Uh, all the first place votes and no surprise there. All right, a couple of guys who I think got trade value. Yellish is not getting traded. We I think we’ve established that. Uh, the Brewers aren’t trading Trey Collins. I saw some rumblings about that. They’re not trading Collins. I think they look at him as a well, not only is he controllable, but he’s as an outfielder. They’re not trading Mitchell because you can’t. He’s got no v he’s got no value. I’ve seen stuff out there about Mitchell. The guy can’t even play 10 games a season. And I’m being facicious on that. But right, I mean, every year it’s the same thing with Mitchell. Um, Ortiz, Ortiz, the trade value he’s got, he’s got to be in a package deal. The only way you’re trading Ortiz is in a package deal, right? Otherwise, guy can, as a defensive whiz, he just can’t hit his way at all. Um, Vaughn, they’re not trading Vaughn controllable and I think they love they feel like they think there’s some upside there to van at Afanam Field. Uh, but guys, you know, there’s certain guy I mean, Cheerio untradeable. We don’t want to trade Churio. We don’t want to trade Freick. We don’t want to trade Terra. Untradable guys. Durban untradeable. Some of you guys brought up Contrarus who’s got two years left. He is their best chip right now other than Peralta to trade because he’s got two years left. I think we have two since you got two years left. You become a better commodity out there, right? People would look at it like Peralta’s got one year left. So maybe his trade value dips a little bit because he’s got one year left on his deal before he hits the free agent market with some more time to spare with Contrarus. If you wanted to trade him, which I’m not advocating at all, you probably could get a little bit more back on that because of the the controllable years and he’s not making a lot of money. He’s going to go to arbitration, probably make what 10 million, $11 million on that. Um, but there’s a lot of teams who love to have him and the hand. He’s going to have the hand looked at again this this winter and should be ready for spring training. But Contrarus, my opinion, one of the best catchers in baseball. I’d love to see the Brewers buy him out of arbitration, buy him out of these two years, sign him long term, and let’s keep this guy. Let’s keep Contrarus because not only is he a good player, he’s a good guy, he’s a great teammate guy. Uh I want Contrarus here. But all I’m saying is if you thought about trading somebody and making a bold move, Contras would be your guy. Contrarus would be your guy. Brewers did make a couple of moves. Non-roster Miller, Eddie’s Leonard, Darien Miller, uh Edgardo Garcia, all guys non-roster invitees. This is something the Brewers do every year. Bring these guys into training camp. And you know, I’m sure a couple of these guys will wow and get some get some big at bats and innings and all that. And we’re going to think about adding them to the team. But this is what the Brewers do every year. This is how they they’re non-roster invitees. They do this. All teams do this. Um Freddy Peralta, I didn’t mention this yesterday. Uh fifth in the in the Syang. That’s about right. candidate there. See the Brewers candidates for all these awards. Ste’s the winner. No surprise. Uh Baralta did get a He did get third He did get four third place votes in the balloting. He did. All right. So that’s that’s kind of what I was thinking about Contraras. He’s their most tradable part. General manager meetings are over. Nothing pretty much nothing really done there. A lot of table setting I’m sure. We’ll see what happens here in the next couple of weeks and then a baseball winter meeting start in the second week of December. All right, when we come back, the Milwaukee Brewers are doing something uh on the outside of their ballpark. They’re thinking about doing something. This is long overdue. We’ll touch on that coming up next here on Lockdown Brewers, part of Lockdown Podcast Network. We are your team every day. All right, lockdown brewers. Uh, by the way, you see under on YouTube it says on today’s show. Somehow I forgot to put down today’s rundown. That’s yesterday’s rundown. Don’t let that fool you. I uh I did one for today. Somehow I forgot to upload it here on a Friday. What the Brewers want to upload is they want to do a little facelift on the outside of their on their parking lot. You know, they got tons and tons of parking spot, tons and tons of space. But what I feel that this is long overdue, the Bucks have their deer district where people go down there and and the and the Bucks mostly are playing in cold weather, but they got the deer district down there, bars and and all that. And it’s kind of a cool district, especially if your team is playing until June. That’s when it’s really really cool. Uh the Packers have their title town district where people are using that that facility year round. Title Town District, bars, restaurants, you name it. The Brewers do not have a Brewers district, right? There’s the stadium and that’s it. Long overdue. The Brewers are so far behind in this and I feel like they needed to do this yesterday. They’re talking about building a hotel down there, maybe a couple of restaurants or whatever, but this is something that they needed to do a long time ago. And yeah, they’ll have to take out a couple of parking lots and maybe put in a parking structure down there, work it around. I don’t know how the logistics would work on something like that for sure. But all I’m saying is they got to people they got to get people to go to that facility in that area year round. Like people do go to the tidle town district and the deer district year round. People got to go down to Anfam Field. Where do you go after a game field? Well, you’re getting shuttled in sometimes if you take the shuttles from those bars on Blue Mountain Road. And those bars are are great places and those restaurants terrific places to hang out. All I’m saying is they need places down by the stadium. They need places by the stadium that you could walk to to and from the ballpark, right down the road from the the casino, which is perfect right down a canal street. That’s perfect for the Brewers. having that casino right down the road. I do feel someday, who knows when, you’re going to be able to bet in these ballparks. You know, the when I was at uh in Arizona, they have betting kiosks right outside the ballpark. Right outside the ballpark for the football stadium. It wasn’t at the baseball, but the football stadium there. They have kiosk. They have a sports book right outside the stadium. And I’m sure someday we might see that uh at AFAM theater. You might see a little sports book out there. Um right by, you know, kiosks or something. You might see something just outside the ballpark. But I anyway you look at it, they need to build outside the ballpark. There’s, you know, this isn’t 1977 anymore. They need to build stuff and get people coming thinking about baseball and coming around to that area. and have more concerts in the stadium. They’re bringing heat in. They’re going to put pipe heat in that place, but they need to get people year round, bringing money into that ballpark. Why? So the Brewers have more money in the long term to spend. So we’re not thinking about trading away a Contraras or wondering what we’re going to do with Peralta and making my Arnold’s job a little bit easier so he doesn’t go down to the corner office and he says he wants to trade for some guy making $17 million. And there’s Antinasio getting out his calculator to see if he can do it. Have yourself a great weekend everybody. Thanks for listening and watching us on Lockdown Brewers. the number one sports cast podcast. Uh, let me get that right again. The number one sports podcast network out there. Just became the number one sports podcast network out there. Wanted to make sure I got it right. Locked on Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network out there. My name is Chuck Freeman. Have yourself a great weekend, everybody. We’ll talk to you on Monday.

Matt Arnold wins Executive of the Year for the second consecutive season. How does a GM with one of baseball’s smallest payrolls consistently outmaneuver the rest of the NL Central.
Chuck Freimund breaks down Arnold’s masterclass in roster construction, from the Jose Quintana bargain signing to the Andrew Vaughn trade that solved first base. The analysis covers Issac Collins’ Rule 5 draft success, Quinn Priester’s 19-game winning streak as a starter, and the Devin Williams trade that netted Caleb Durbin.
Key discussions include MVP voting controversies between Christian Yelich and Jackson Chourio, William Contreras’ value as the Milwaukee Brewers’ top trade chip, and why the organization should lock him up long-term. The episode also examines the Brewers’ plans to develop a district around American Family Field, creating year-round revenue streams similar to the Bucks’ Deer District.

Discover why Arnold’s near-perfect decision-making turned 97 wins into reality despite severe payroll constraints.

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