Milwaukee Brewers Still Listening to Offers for Josh Hader

The Milwaukee Brewers listening to trade offers for Josh Hader really is nothing new. There have been several rumors of this taking place over the last few years.

More recently, it was reported in August before the trade deadline by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic that Milwaukee’s asking price was “bananas.” Then in November, FanSided’s Robert Murray reported that the Brewers would “listen” to offers. And just yesterday, again Murray reported that the Brewers are still listening to offers, but the asking price is “overwhelming.”

Again, the fact that the asking price is “overwhelming” shouldn’t come as a surprise. Hader is a two-time NL Reliever of the Year, and the Brewers view him as the best left-handed reliever in baseball as Murray pointed out. Not to mention that his 2021 salary of $6.675 million is a bargain given his high level of play, and he is still under team control for three more seasons.

During the 2018 and 2019 seasons — when Hader was the NL Reliever of the Year — he appeared in 116 games, throwing in 157 innings, recording a 2.64 FIP, a WHIP of .0809, and logging 16.1 strikeouts per nine innings. Dominant, to say the least.

This past season, however, Hader’s numbers dipped a bit. His FIP jumped to 4.03, his WHIP to 0.947, and his strikeouts per nine fell to 14.7, while his walks per nine nearly doubled. And as Murray reported over the summer, some teams are concerned about Hader’s fastball velocity, which went from 95.95 mph in 2019 to 94.98 this year.

With the volatility of the reliever position in baseball, it’s understandable why some teams may be a little apprehensive after the 2020 season. But let’s not act like Hader still didn’t put together an impressive year. And who knows how much he was affected by the unusually shortened season like so many players were.

In fact, the Milwaukee Brewers believe that Hader actually became a more complete pitcher this season despite the uptick in some of his numbers. Previously, Murray has noted an increase in Hader’s slider usage which went from being used less than 16 percent of the time in 2019 to 32 percent of the time in 2020.

On top of that, Hader’s hard-hit rate was down four percent, his ground-ball rate was up, and his home run to fly ball ratio was down six percent as well, which led to his home runs allowed per nine innings to decrease substantially.

As far as what the Milwaukee Brewers’ asking price is, who knows exactly? But with a rotation including Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes, along with the emergence of Devin Williams, who could take over Hader’s role if he did in fact get traded, I imagine the Brewers are looking for some big-time bats in return.

With all of that said, just because the Brewers are listening doesn’t mean anything will happen. As we’ve seen throughout the years, with David Stearns at the helm, he will listen to offers on just about every player. And with this news still being reported, it does mean that Hader is still drawing interest.

My guess is that Hader will be with the Milwaukee Brewers come Opening Day, but we’ve certainly been surprised by Stearns before.

All stats vis Baseball Reference, Fangraphs, and Brooks Baseball