Milwaukee Brewers Rumors: Crew will “Listen” to Josh Hader Offers

It’s been reported by Robert Murray that the Milwaukee Brewers will “intend to listen” to offers for Josh Hader this offseason.

This isn’t exactly news that should come as a complete shock, as there have been rumblings over the last two seasons that the Milwaukee Brewers were “listening” to offers for star reliever Josh Hader. But this is certainly noteworthy. Fansided’s own, Robert Murray, reported on Monday that this offseason the Brewers once again will “intend to listen” to offers for Hader.

While Hader’s 2020 numbers weren’t as dominant as they had been the previous two seasons, he was still very good. In 21 appearances that covered 19 innings, Hader recorded a 3.79 ERA, although his FIP was at 4.03, and he struck out 14.7 batters per nine innings and he also led the NL in saves with 13.

In most major statistical categories, Hader’s numbers in 2020 were down compared to what they were in 2018 and 2019 when he was the National League Reliever of the Year. This includes a higher ERA, FIP, WHIP, and walk rate. Not to mention that his strikeout rate was also down. However, as noted above, he was still very effective and in what was a weird and shortened 2020 season, take those numbers as you will.

Where we did see improvement from Hader was on some of his underlying numbers. His hard-hit rate was down almost four percent from 2019, while his groundball percentage was up over four percent, and his home run-fly ball ratio was down over six percent. This resulted in a lower home run per nine inning rate than last season as well, and that was certainly promising to see after the long ball caused some issues the year before.

On top of that, we saw Hader less reliant on his fastball as he used his slider over 32 percent of the time, a far cry from the 15.6 percent usage rate in 2019.

This offseason, MLB Trade Rumors projects that Hader will earn $5.1 million in arbitration, and naturally, that figure will continue to rise over the next two years until he hits free agency in 2024. And for a Milwaukee Brewers team that is very cost-conscious under GM David Stearns, it’s not surprising that they are willing to listen to offers for the All-Star–especially with so much uncertainty around their payroll after not having fans in attendance.

Yet just because the Brewers are “listening,” it doesn’t mean that a deal will get done. Listening is not the same as actively looking for a trade partner. As we’ve seen from Stearns in the past, he expects a high return for Hader given his performance the last few years, the fact that he’s under team control for three more seasons, and that $5.1 million is cheap considering the caliber of player that he is.

As far as who the Brewers would net in return for trading Hader, well, that’s the million-dollar question, but Murray would also report that Milwaukee’s “top priority” this winter is to upgrade their offense. So if a deal were to get done, I’d expect some bats in return.

With the emergence of Devin Williams as NL Reliever of the Year and Hader’s value potentially being at an all-time high, dealing him this winter would make sense. However, Stearns won’t just trade Hader for the sake of trading Hader, if a deal happens, the Brewers will require a high premium to do so.

All stats via Baseball Reference, Fangraphs, Brooks Baseball