Perhaps this trade is most interesting because two months into the season, the principal assets in the deal are substantially equal at the MLB level: Bandy claims 0.7 WARP entering play Wednesday evening, Maldonado a cool 1.0. This might be surprising to some, as there was reason to question the trade for Milwaukee at the time of the deal.

I took this line between the Baseball Prospectus Transaction Analysis and roster analysis at BPMilwaukee. For the TA, I pitched Maldonado as a potentially serviceable gamble for a starting catching job: “Last season across MLB there were 108 catchers and that group produced median marks of 146 plate appearances, a .237 True Average, and -0.3 Fielding Runs Above Average. By those standards, Maldonado looks like an intriguing gamble for the vacant starting position in Anaheim, thanks to his 3.9 FRAA and .245 TAv marks in Milwaukee.” On Bandy, I basically punted: “It’s easy to shake this one off as an inconsequential deal at the margins of the roster, and there are some arguments to be made that the Brewers could have maximized their catching value with Susac and Maldonado. However, if Milwaukee consistently makes these types of value plays in each area of the roster they’ll maximize the odds of eventually contending.” Despite this narrative, when I designed roster surplus analysis for the Brewers rebuilding and counterbuilding trades, there was little question that the Brewers failed to maximize Maldonado’s surplus (see table above), and the loyal readership has remembered:

I remember when @BPMilwaukee said what a bad trade that was for the Brewers. Another nice move by Stearns.

— craigneu (@craigneu) May 27, 2017

Since that point in time, Bandy has become a sensation and fan favorite especially thanks to his dynamic duo sensibilities created with Manny Pina (see Colin Anderle at BPMilwaukee: Manny and The Jett). Compared to Maldonado, Bandy still has much less of a track record, but he also provides the Brewers with a clearer sense of his present production value and the club has reserve and arbitration rights through 2021. So, I’m not making this up, using depreciated surplus to account for 2017 production value thus far and remaining future value, the only aspect separating Maldonado and Bandy (besides Drew Gagnon) in terms of surplus value is Maldonado’s small $1.7M contract; extracting cash from the situation makes Bandy and Maldonado perfectly even:

Since the day of the trade, in terms of pure WARP, Maldonado has delivered approximately 72 percent of that initial surplus to Anaheim, while Bandy has already materialized 86 percent of his surplus in Milwaukee; basically, Maldonado’s final arbitration year with the Angels will turn into a boon for that organization, and Bandy’s contract reserve years look less like a mundane fact and more like an organizational asset. For both teams, this deal is already a smashing success in terms of overall return and immediate return (this is important: great immediate return maximizes odds that either club could trade either player in the near future, as well as reassess bullish or bearish predictions of future performance). Both catchers would be worth approximately one 50 OFP (Overall Future Potential) prospect grade at the deadline.

What’s fascinating about sifting through the elements of Bandy’s and Maldonado’s respective performances is that they are almost completely different players. Bandy is a near-three true outcomes bat-first catcher, although it is worth mentioning that his defensive performance has stabilized behind the plate since the beginning of the season. Maldonado is a batting average heavy player at the plate, but the Angels arguably tolerate his shortcomings in the plate discipline department thanks to his exceptional framing and solid throwing performances. Maldonado has also faced significantly tougher opposition than Bandy thus far in 2017.

Zach Crizer featured the value of Maldonado’s framing performance for the Angels pitching staff at Baseball Prospectus a couple of weeks ago, concluding, “Obviously, the Angels would love to have both a good-framing catcher and a staff full of pitchers who can produce without walking a called-strike tightrope. But they don’t have those pitchers. They have a bunch of hurlers inordinately better off staying further from the middle of the plate, and a catcher who can help enact that strategy more successfully than just about anyone, apparently. This wasn’t an accident, either. You’ll recall the Angels went out of their way to trade Jett Bandy, a not-bad-but-not-great defensive catcher with more team control and more offensive upside, for Maldonado over the offseason. Call me crazy, but that sounds like they’re using pitch framing to their distinct advantage. And I bet it doesn’t end there.”

It’s a fool’s errand to be concerned about “winning trades.” One trade can take many different forms over many different years, and it’s pointless to simply stop with the day-of analysis or the post hoc analysis. Digging into game theory or welfare economics, one could even question the ideal of seeking equilibrium in trade analysis, using linear time assumptions for both parties, or assuming equal bargaining positions for both parties. Setting that aside: Right now, this moment in time, it’s fascinating to look at the Bandy-Maldonado swap because they basically offer almost perfectly similar surplus despite their contractual scenarios and game profiles. This should be a helpful demonstration about what makes one WARP: no single Win Above Replacement need be created equal, in fact it need not even be a family resemblance.

Milwaukee turned a $5.7M surplus gamble (and a potential half-a-win surplus hit) into approximately two future wins for the organization, while Anaheim turned what might have been one certain win into nearly two future wins. In terms of trade value, Bandy and Maldonado are matching punch for punch, which will only leave Brewers fans questioning whether they would rather have that supreme thump in the bottom of the batting order, or that beautiful strike zone framing for this upstart pitching staff. Returning to my original transaction analysis, finding an additional Win Above Replacement in each marginal roster deal is indeed what will help propel the Brewers to sustained contending seasons; both the Angels and the Brewers prove this is why you don’t slack off at the margins of the roster.

Top Play (WPA):
In the sixth inning, the Brewers were up 3-2. Chase Anderson, at this point, was out of the game after pitching 5 innings and giving up two runs. In the top half of the inning, Corey Knebel did his job and worked a 1-2-3 sixth inning.

The Brewers then came to bat in the bottom of the sixth. The first hitter was Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who singled on a line drive to right field. Hernan Perez was the next batter, and he grounded a ball to third base. Nieuwenhuis was out at second, but Perez was able to reach first base on a fielder’s choice. The following batter was Ramon Flores. Flores singled to center field, putting runners on first and second with nobody out.

Braden Shipley was making his major league debut. He threw his fastball in the mid to low 90s, and a curveball with a lot of movement. Pitching in your major league debut can be hard. Many pitchers are very nervous and don’t always bring their best stuff, sometimes overwhelmed by the moment.

This might have happened in this game. The Diamondbacks coaching staff also didn’t do him any favors. Shipley was shaky from the get-go and after giving up these two hits it would have been a wise move to take him out of the game. Hell, they probably should have taken him out after Nieuwenhuis led off the inning with a single.

But, no, the Diamondbacks kept him in the game and on the first pitch of the at-bat, Martin Maldonado crushed Shipley’s curveball into the stands.

This gave the Brewers a six to two lead and put the game out of reach.

Bottom Play (WPA):
In the fourth inning, the Diamondbacks scored to tie the game at two apiece. Following that, in the fifth inning the Diamondbacks were threatening to take the lead after the Brewers were unable to score in the bottom half of the fourth.

The inning didn’t start off poorly, as Anderson got Segura to ground out. Then trouble ensued. Phil Gosselin singled on a line drive to center field. Then, Paul Goldschmidt singled as well, putting runners on first and third with only one out.

At this point in the game, the Diamondbacks had a 59 percent win expectancy. Basically, they had a 59 percent chance of winning the game. The next hitter was also Jake Lamb, who’s having a breakout year. Anderson was starting to come apart. He was able to get Lamb to swing and miss at the first offering, but then proceeded to throw three straight balls, putting him in an even bigger hole. However, Anderson battled back. He was able to throw a strike and get the count to three and two. On the three and two offering, Anderson was able to get Lamb to swing and miss, getting the much needed second out of the inning.

Anderson was then able to get Rickie Weeks, Jr. to pop up on the infield, allowing the Brewers to escape the jam.

Key Moment:
After Maldonado hit his home run, Andy Wilkins came up to the plate. Wilkins, a player who I had never heard of before this season, is a 27-year-old journeyman who the Brewers claimed from the Rangers in the offseason.

Before this season Wilkins only had 45 plate appearances in the majors. Those all came in 2014 with the White Sox. In 2015, Wilkins played the entire year in Triple-AAA, first with the Blue Jays and then with the Dodgers.

For most of this season, Wilkins has played first base at the Triple-A level. That’s until the Brewers called him up on July 6th. Since he’s been called up, Wilkins has primarily been used as a pitch hitter, only getting 10 at bats thus far this month, and all of them came in pitch hitting opportunities. This can make it difficult for a hitter to get into a rhythm.

But, the reason this is the key moment of the game is because after Maldonado put the game out of reach, Craig Counsell decided to pitch hit Wilkins. Wilkins, though, wasn’t up against Shipley; the Diamondbacks finally got the memo and took him out of the game, and replaced him with Dominic Leone.

After Wilkins worked a 1-1 count, he got a fastball up and he didn’t miss it.

Wilkins’s first hit for the Brewers was also his first major league home run.

This wasn’t the most valuable play of the game. It wasn’t even the best play of the game, but it was the most significant.

Many players work their whole lives to get to the major leagues, and many of them never make it. In fact, most of them never make it. Wilkins made it. He made it to the big leagues and he finally got his home run. A hit that so many players dream of getting, but never get their shot.

There are very good chances that this will be Wilkins’s last home run. Wilkins might never get another hit in the big leagues. Playing baseball is hard and there’s only a select few that get chosen. I don’t know whether this will be Wilkins’s last shot in the big leagues, but at least now he has a memory of a lifetime.

Coming Up Next:
The Brewers are in action again tonight at 7:10 PM. They will be facing the Diamondbacks again, and Matt Garza will get the nod for the Brew Crew. Since coming off the disabled list Garza hasn’t pitched very well. His DRA is at 5.17, and his ERA is even worse. Garza will soon have to find something that works or else he could find himself without a job come this winter.

[Editor’s Note: A previous version of the recap was updated to correct Wilkins’s hit total.]

Top Play (WPA):
There was only one run scored in this game, so naturally, it was the top play. The run happened in the fifth inning with nobody out. Martin Maldonado who was catching for Jonathan Lucroy in this game was leading off the inning. Max Scherzer fell behind 2-0 to Maldonado but got him to swing and miss on the third pitch of the at-bat to make it 2-1. Maldonado, however, didn’t miss the fourth pitch:

The Brewers, as mentioned above, didn’t need another run in this game as Guerra was magical once again.

Bottom play (WPA):
Guerra only allowed four men to reach base all game. That said, two of them reached in the sixth inning, which was one of the only chances the Nationals had of scoring in this game.

The inning started off as many others. Guerra got the first two hitters out, one by means of a groundout and another by the strikeout. Jason Werth was the next hitter, and after Guerra fell behind 3-0, Werth swung at the 3-0 offering and lined a single to right field. Ryan Braun misplayed the ball, allowing it to roll by him, and allowed Werth to reach second base on the error. The Brewers then walked Bryce Harper to face Wilson Ramos.

On the first pitch of the at-bat versus Ramos, Guerra bounced a splitter in the dirt which got away from Maldonado and allowed the runners to advance a base. This put runners on second and third with two outs. Guerra then fell behind 2-0 but was able to work the count back to 2-2. Then, after a couple of fouled pitches, Guerra was able to get out of the jam with his splitter.

Junior Guerra’s Game Score:
Junior Guerra, as you might know, has been the Brewers best starting pitcher thus far this season. That’s not something I thought I would ever say.

He’s been by far the Brewers most consistent pitcher and he’s had some of their best starts. In this outing, Guerra pitched 7 1/3 innings striking out seven hitters, only walking two, and gave up no runs. He also only allowed two base hits all game.

This was on the heels of another gem where Guerra went eight innings against the Dodgers, striking out seven hitters, walking two, and giving up no runs. He also only gave up two hits. Both starts were very similar, at least by those numbers.

That start, versus the Dodgers, Guerra had the second-best game score of the season for the Brewers at 83. (Game score is a metric that quantifies the quality of one start). The best was by Zach Davies when he pitched 8 innings and struck out nine while giving up no walks versus the Cardinals (85 game score).

Considering the similarity of Monday’s start to those games, it should not be surprising to see that Guerra posted a 79 game score yesterday.

Guerra’s Pitch Mix:
One of the more fascinating elements of Guerra’s success is his pitch mix. His bread and butter has been his splitter. As it’s been mentioned before, Guerra doesn’t have a ton of movement on the splitter yet it’s got a whiff rate of 42.86, which is the second highest percentage among splitters for 2016, only behind Kevin Gausman. Even more impressive, however, is if the season ended today, Guerra’s splitter would have the second highest whiff rate among all active pitchers, only behind Gausman.

The reason this is so fascinating is because during Guerra’s last game he increased the usage on his fastball and slider and decreased the usage of his splitter:

In that start, Guerra only used his splitter 1.8 percent of the time.

In this start, Guerra threw his splitter 32 percent of the time (According to MLBAMs pitch classification). This would be more of the norm for Guerra. That said, it’s interesting that Guerra, for one reason or another, decided to drop the splitter last time out, considering that it’s probably his best pitch. Certainly it’s the pitch that induces the most swing and misses. It’s certainly possible that Guerra simply didn’t have the “feel” for his splitter that day. It’s also possible that Guerra saw something with the Dodgers lineup that he thought he could exploit with the slider more than the splitter.

Coming Up Next:
The Brewers are in action again tomorrow, and Zach Davies will get the nod. Davies had one of his worst starts of the season in his last outing. He gave up six runs and three home runs. Pitchers such as Davies usually struggle with the long ball. With their velocity ratings, just one mistake could end up in the bleachers. That said, Davies has been a bright spot this year. He’s been able to mix his pitches well, and will need to continue doing so if he wants to have more success.

The top play of the game instead went to Matt Carpenters double in the second inning.

Wily Peralta was in his usual bad form today, leaving the ball in the middle of the plate and giving up a lot of hard contact. Grichuk opened the frame lining a single to left field. Yadier Molina followed with a double putting runner on second and third. Kolten Wong then hit a sacrifice fly to left field, to score Grichuk and putting the first run on the board. After Aledmys Diaz flied out, for the second out of the inning, opposing pitcher Jaime Garcia singled putting runners on the corner with two outs and Matt Carpenter at the plate. Carpenter is famous for grinding out at-bats and this one was no different, as, on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, he took the Peralta offering to right field on a liner for a double, scoring two runs and giving the Cardinals a 3-0 lead early on.

WORST PLAY (WPA):
When the opposing pitcher gets more hits than your entire team, you know it’s been a pretty bad day. Ya, if you missed this game, Garcia got more hits than he allowed.

On the bright side, Martin Maldonado made this pretty sweet play.

Ok, so Jeremy Hazelbaker probably shouldn’t have been stealing in that situation. Maldonado’s one of the best defensive catchers in the game and he’s got a pretty damn good arm, plus with Halliday at the plate, Peralta pitching and only one out, the Cardinals might have wasted a good opportunity to get ahead early on. Of course, though, none of that really mattered.

Key Moment:

You probably know what’s coming here. After striking out Matt Holliday and walking Brandon Moss, Wily Peralta gave up this homer to Randal Grichuk.

Keon Broxton almost, and probably should’ve had that but that wasn’t the weirdest part of this play.

Ya, Grichuk passed Moss who was tagging up at first base.

It’s one of those plays that makes people say, “I’ve never seen anything like that before and I’ve been watching baseball for X years.”

That’s a pretty weird play indeed. But, again the play itself wasn’t the strangest part of the events that unfolded. The strangest part was that A) the umps missed it and didn’t call Grichuk out, and B) worst of all the Brewers also missed it and didn’t ask for the play to be challenged.

No excuses from #Brewers on missing Grichuk passing runner on HR. Counsell: “All our eyes missed it. Everyone missed it.”

— Tom (@Haudricourt) April 14, 2016

Counsell did note that 1B umpire John Hirschbeck also missed obvious call on Grichuk: “His job is to watch that.”

— Tom (@Haudricourt) April 14, 2016

TREND TO WATCH:

If the plan to start Wily Peralta on opening was done to give him more confidence, well then Counsel is going to need to come up with a new plan, and quickly.

Peralta has made three starts thus far, in the first start he pitched four innings and a third and gave up 6 runs. In his second start he performed slightly better giving up five runs in four innings pitched, and finally today, he went five innings giving up five runs. If quick with your math, that’s good for a 10.13 ERA and a 7.45 FIP.

In other words, Peralta’s off to a rough start. The question now is, how long to the Brewers stick with this performance. They have options in the minors with Zachary Davies and Jorge Lopez. Lopez hasn’t gotten off to a strong start in Triple-A but Davies is sporting an ERA of 2 after his first two starts.

If Peralta keeps up this type of performance, then the Brewers might be looking to give one of these young starters a chance sooner rather than later.

UP NEXT:
The Brewers will be back in action Friday against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jimmy Nelson will get the start for the Brew Crew and will look to keep up his solid performance.

The Brewers will be facing Jeff Locke who’s gotten off to a good start with his 1.50 ERA.

Ultimately, though, Maldonado has already earned the “career backup” label. He will turn 30 this season and has only accumulated 841 plate appearances and +4.3 WARP across five big-league seasons. His .225 TAv perhaps indicates why he’s been unable to push for more regular at-bats. The native of Puerto Rico has been a serviceable backup, but he has not been able to challenge Lucroy for playing time.

But with Lucroy almost out the door, Maldonado’s future is now a matter for serious consideration. His age alone rules him out from being the club’s catcher of the future, but he could very well be a short-term stopgap should the Brewers decide to keep him.

One factor affecting Maldonado’s future is his contract. He signed a two-year deal before the 2015 season that was designed to buy out his first two arbitration years, but he will still be under team control (although arbitration-eligible) after that contract ends this fall. And as a part-time player without flashy numbers, he should remain cheap enough even once he does get to the arbitration process.

He’s obviously not a future star, and one would not and should not expect him to be starter-quality. However, a competent backup is worth something to a contending team. Someone of Maldonado’s quality isn’t worth anything to the Brewers. If they could even have the opportunity to take a flier on a hard-throwing A-ball pitcher with no idea where anything is going, such a gamble would be worth the risk.

The new front office has done an excellent job this offseason at acquiring low-risk assets who may turn into something more valuable. They have done this without sacrificing the future in any way. They have also done this without bringing in players who could block their two best prospects, who are on the cusp of the majors. However, while this is a smart strategy that attempts to not prolong the rebuild, it doesn’t necessarily accelerate it. General manager David Stearns hasn’t acquired any key members of the next good Brewers’ team who are in the majors. The hope of the rebuild, primarily Orlando Arcia and Brett Phillips, remain in the minor leagues, and even a best-case scenario for this winter’s additions would just see guys like Chris Carter and Garin Cecchini turn into solid role players, not franchise-altering ones.

What this means is that Maldonado doesn’t have much use to the Brewers over the next couple years as they are currently constructed. If the club trades Lucroy tomorrow, he can capably fill in and likely would not embarrass them if they had to play him for an extended period of time—and there is probably some sort of developmental value in that for the club’s young pitchers. However, he is a career backup approaching the back half of his career who will probably be 32 or 33 by the time the Brewers are good again, and that’s an optimistic scenario.

The conclusion of this, then, is that a Lucroy trade does not mean that the Brewers absolutely have to trade Maldonado as well. He’s shown that he can be moderately successful in the big leagues, albeit in short stints, and even if he were to be a disaster, the Brewers are not at the point of the win curve where his performance would matter. Major-league-quality backup catchers do have legitimate value, though, and the Brewers would be wise to explore the possibility of trading him should the opportunity present itself. Given Stearns’ activity this offseason, I expect he won’t hesitate to do that.

The Best Sausage Race Highlight of the Year

I’ll bet you can pinpoint the exact moment where Polish’s dreams of a comeback win are dashed against the rocks:

(original source vine from Andy MacDonald)

Athletic shorts come with a drawstring for a reason, kids. Most of us are fortunate enough to never learn that reason first-hand. Some of us learn it the hard way, in front of an entire stadium of people. Kudos to Polish for staying on his feet through the ordeal, at least. I know it doesn’t feel like much consolation, now, but trust me — you’re very, very grateful that you didn’t topple over and become a viral sensation.

Most Unpleasant Bump in the Road

As the first pitch flew for Opening Day 2015, the Brewers were given playoff odds of approximately 14 percent. Anyone saying that the team “would” make the playoffs was clearly huffing glue, but “could” was a far more common refrain — and with Adam Lind bolstering the offense of a team that missed the postseason by a hair in 2014, playoff baseball in Milwaukee was not a totally unreasonable hope.

Then, April came, and the cold boot of failure kicked those optimistic fans — and the team itself — squarely in the teeth.

The team started the season 2-13, dropping those playoff odds down to one percent just three short weeks into things. That’s a one percent chance of success with over 90 percent of games left to be played, for those keeping track. Milwaukee finished out the month of April with a .217 winning percentage to show for their efforts, and an estimated .5 percent chance of playing postseason baseball. It was clear to anyone who was watching that the team was getting tremendously unlucky, and the law of averages dictated that things would level out by October — but within one month, Milwaukee was already chasing a seven-game deficit for the second Wild Card spot.

The rest of the season, the team played like a .500 ballclub — or very close to it — but that putrid April set the tone for things and extinguished any short-term hope that the franchise held. Not to mention, it served as the final nail in the coffin of Ron Roenicke’s tenure with the franchise. While the entire season was quite unpleasant, April was the worst month, and it wasn’t even particularly close.

Underwhelming Prospect of the Year

First off, it needs to be said that it is not Monte Harrison’s fault that he slipped on a patch of wet grass and gruesomely mangled his ankle. Freak injuries are a part of the game that cannot be avoided.

Video of the Monte Harrison injury: pic.twitter.com/iQeDsQ86mQ — Julianne Dellorso (@jdellMTN) July 22, 2015

(Note: video is SFW. They didn’t catch the actual injury, just Harrison’s reaction.)

The problem is, Harrison’s injury marked a premature end to an already disappointing season for the 2014 second-round pick. Praised as a potential superstar from the draft, Harrison impressed in rookie ball last season. Encouraged by his 32 steals in 50 games and .404 OBP, the front office gave the twenty-year-old an aggressive assignment to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers early on in the year.

Sometimes, a young player responds to precocious placement like that by elevating his game to a level neither the player nor organization thought possible. Other times, he’ll look like a pants-wetting high-school freshman thrown to the wolves in a varsity game. Harrison’s performance in Appleton was decidedly more of the latter. He slashed just .148/.246/.247, got erased on 40 percent of his stolen-base attempts and was more than a win below replacement level overall in just two short months. He was raw, he was badly overwhelmed, and the results were too ugly to watch.

BP’s Nick Faleris noted Harrison’s “underdeveloped pitch recognition” as a major weakness while talking about the team’s Top 10 prospects before the season, and A-ball pitchers feasted on this weakness. How else do you explain a .400 OBP-player suffering such a painfully precipitous drop in their ability to not make outs?

To their credit, Milwaukee recognized the folly in overpromoting Harrison and sent him back down to Helena. Then, as if a switch was flipped, Harrison started performing again. His slash line jumped up to .299/.410/.474, and he was successful on fourteen of sixteen stolen base attempts in just twenty-eight games. Then, Harrison’s ankle gave out.

This is not to suggest that Harrison will end up as a bust or that this year means anything in the grander scheme of things. But an ankle injury to a speedy outfielder is never good to see, especially from a player who already suffered one developmental setback. Before the 2015 season, Harrison was graded as Milwaukee’s fifth-best prospect. After it, BP highlighted him in “A look at 10 prospects who failed to meet expectations.” He’s going to need to do a good bit of redeeming himself during his second go-round in Appleton if he wants to ascend to that position once again.

Most Mutually Beneficial Trade

We’re big, big fans of Adam Lind here at BP Milwaukee. When the franchise decided to plug him in as the solution to the first base woes that have persisted since Prince Fielder was purchased away, it was a smart and well-reasoned decision. That the team only had to give up Marco Estrada — a pitcher who opposing hitters used as a launching pad in 2014 — was the icing on the cake.

Lind, of course, delivered on his end of the bargain. He finished out 2015 with 20 home runs on a rate right in line with his career averages, and his .360 OBP was even better than expected. His 1.9 WAR was right on par with the 2014 season that saw him run out of Toronto, but he also did that without his glove being hidden by the DH rule. Offensively, Lind produced the second-best VORP of his career.

But the Toronto Blue Jays were much, much better than expected — and Marco Estrada played no small part in this. Not only did he temper the bout of gopheritis that had plagued him during his final Milwaukee season, he cut his ERA, WHIP, and hit rate all significantly. While critics are quick to point to his depressed BABIP against as the reason for this change, our own J.P. Breen did a good job demonstrating how Estrada is actually the type of pitcher capable of exercising more control than most over BABIP.

The best deals see both teams walk away better off than they started, and this was certainly one of those occasions.

Worst Transaction of the Year

What transpired on July 29, 2015 might just transcend the “year” and go down in history as one of the worst transactions of all time, for multiple reasons. That was the night that the Brewers agreed to send Carlos Gomez to the New York Mets in exchange for Zack Wheeler and Wilmer Flores, pending medical reviews.

As we all know, it was those last three words — overlooked by most as Twitter melted down from the excitement of the deadline season’s first big deal — that came to define the move when it was all said and done. The Mets allegedly found something wrong with Gomez’s hip and backed out.

On this cue, all hell broke loose.

Flores, playing shortstop for the Mets at the time, was left in their current game as the deal was not yet finalized. This led to the iconically tragic experience of watching a player find out, in front of the entire world, that the organization he had been with for eight years was getting rid of him — by way of a Tweet broadcast on a video screen. As the New York fans gave him a standing ovation, Flores broke down into tears.

Meanwhile, Scott Boras — Gomez’s agent — was denying the hip issue and bad-mouthing the Mets to the press, which led to the Mets bad-mouthing Boras in turn. And in all of this commotion Gomez, Wheeler, and Flores were left to wonder just who in the f— they would be playing for the next morning.

But that logistical failing is not the only reason this deal was so historically bad. The next day, both the Mets and Brewers set out to finish what they started, and the original trade paled in comparison to the moves both teams eventually made.

The Brewers, of course, dealt Gomez for a platter of highly-touted prospects from Houston. Flores and Wheeler are both very good, very special players. But they are also two players who will not turn a sub-.500 team into a playoff contender, especially not in the NL Central. Meanwhile, the Mets went out and struck a deal for Yoenis Cespedes, who has been so good that there’s talk of him garnering NL MVP votes after spending only two months in the league, while Gomez has struggled since landing in Houston.

Like the Lind/Estrada deal, everyone emerged from this ordeal better off. Unlike that prior agreement, however, that’s because this one fell through, only to create even greater mutual opportunities. And in the meantime, we all learned a valuable lesson about the power of social media and the humanity of ballplayers. They’re assets to be traded, but they’re also humans with real feelings and loyalties. Maybe someday we can figure out how to balance the two viewpoints.

Least Valuable Pitcher

Once upon a time, the Milwaukee Brewers signed a veteran free-agent pitcher. This pitcher had been a journeyman back-end starter for years before Dave Duncan and the St. Louis Cardinals turned him into a thirtysomething resurgence. For two seasons, the Brewers got a decent return on their investment, and their new starter even buoyed one contending team. But during the third year of his tenure in Milwaukee, the turd hit the fan.

I’m speaking, of course, about Kyle Lohse. Or it could be Jeff Suppan, actually — they both fit. But hey, who’s counting? Suppan’s 2009 season produced exactly -1 WAR; Lohse’s 2015 campaign was worth -1.1. Fortunately, that is where the similarities end. While Suppan’s contract contained a fourth year, Lohse will be an unrestricted free agent this off-season.

Milwaukee was counting on Lohse to provide a stable, positive presence on the mound. Instead, he posted a DRA of 5.56. Among pitchers with as many innings thrown as him, only Drew Hutchinson was worse. Lohse seemed to revert back to the Quad-A pitcher he was in Minnesota once upon a time, and his 1.46 WHIP was the worst mark he’s posted since 2006.

Compounding the problem was the fact that Wily Peralta or Matt Garza could have both won this award with absolutely zero controversy. In fact, I very nearly chose Garza and justified it with his petulant refusal to pitch out of the bullpen in September. Contrast that with Lohse, who accepted his demotion and actually pitched reasonably well after being removed from the rotation. Regardless, any time sixty percent of the rotation is made from some of the statistical worst starting pitchers in the league, it’s going to be a long season. As the statistics paint a picture in which Lohse is the most ineffective of the trio, he gets the prize.

The Tiger Woods Memorial Award for “Most Un-Slick Act of Cheating”

On May 21, the Brewers and Braves were tied 1-1 in the 7th inning, which meant it was Will Smith Time. Smith was, after closer Francisco Rodriguez, the Brewers’ go-to bullpen ace — the situation was perfect to deploy him. High leverage and late–that’s what Smith does best. What’s more, Atlanta was his hometown, and he wanted to impress the friends and family in attendance.

This made things all the more embarassing when Smith was ejected from the game before he could even record a single out. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez noticed something weird on Smith’s arm and alerted the umpires. The officials and TV cameras then confronted Smith and the not-even-hidden, shimmery spot on his arm. “Caught red-handed” feels way too forcefully punny here. Let’s just say they had him dead to rights.

Will Smith don’t gotta cuss in his raps to sell records. But he does need a little pine tar to make that curve snap. pic.twitter.com/7lgQFwBgyB

— Colin Anderle (@BaseballGuyCAA) May 22, 2015

The ejection paved the way for the Braves to jack up seven runs against the lesser parts of Milwaukee’s bullpen and win the once-close game easily. Smith was given a four-game suspension for his attempted chicanery. Perhaps most importantly, the legacy of Will Smith’s 2015 was tarnished. On paper, Smith was great this year — I’ll get more into detail here later on — and his past two seasons have earned him a well-deserved reputation as one of baseball’s elite setup men. But that all comes with a big ol’ footnote now. Getting caught cheating is bad enough. Getting caught cheating stupidly is a thousand times worse.

Least Valuable Player

Martin Maldonado was one of the beneath-the-surface success stories that almost propelled the 2014 Brewers to the playoffs. The former non-prospect turned in a competent, half-win season behind the dish and allowed the team to rest Jonathan Lucroy or play him at first base without suffering for it. Almost out of nowhere, Maldonado went from Quad-A player to legitimate backup.

With Maldonado behind Lucroy, catcher was considered a strong point for Milwaukee coming into the 2015 campaign. But in the midst of that horrendous 2-13 start, Lucroy went on the disabled list with a fractured toe. He would battle injuries all season, and Maldonado was pressed into more regular action than ever — 256 plate appearances in 79 games, to be precise.

Unfortunately, that capably productive player from 2014 was nowhere to be found. This year’s version of Maldonado regressed in every facet of the game. His entire slash line went down, he hit the same number of home runs in approximately twice as many chances, and his True Average flirted with the Mendoza line all season. Maldonado wasn’t quite as bad as having a second pitcher in the lineup, but he did accumulate north of 250 plate appearances and fail to post a .600 OPS. That’s really, really bad.

Behind the plate, the story was no brighter. By the advanced metrics, 2015 was Maldonado’s worst defensive year as a pro across the board. Whether measured by framing, blocking, or receiving, Maldonado was a significantly poorer backstop than his career numbers would indicate. Though he was behind the plate approximately twice as much as he was in any prior season, Maldonado added just 32 extra strikes through framing. Contrast that to his prior three seasons — 53, 56, 53. Again, these numbers were accumulated in half the time. Maldonado was a plus-WAR defensive player in each of the prior three seasons. In 2015, that streak was cut short.

Maldonado even managed to post his worst season as a baserunner, too. He stole one base in 2012, was thrown out during a second attempt that season, then decided that maybe base-stealing wasn’t very much his thing. Those were his only two stolen base attempts before he was thrown out by the Cubs’ Miguel Montero this past May. Maybe he saw another catcher with the initials MM, and needed to establish dominance? Whatever it was, it’s not something that anybody wants any more of.

When Lucroy got hurt it was assumed that the team was in trouble, but Maldonado’s transformation into a donkey made the loss sting even more than it should have.

Pleasant Surprise of the Year

Domingo Santana’s 2014 Major League season might go down as the worst in modern history. Santana made seventeen plate appearances, walked once, didn’t register a single hit, and struck out fourteen times.

Still, the 23-year-old Dominican brought prodigious power and tremendous raw athleticism to the table, helping to make the swing-and-miss tendency a little more palatable. The biggest problem for Santana was the fact that the Astros already had George Springer in place — but the Brewers saw the value Springer was bringing to Houston’s lineup, and decided that adding a similar player would be a good idea. Santana’s warts were evident to anyone watching, but he was also the most Major-League-ready player in the haul that the team got back for Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers.

Santana’s performance in Milwaukee comes with a massive small-sample-size caution, but if the young outfielder can continue to post an OPS in the .766 range, he will stick as a Major League starter. If he can become a better contact hitter and work to improve in the outfield, Santana has the ceiling of a multi-year All-Star and dark-horse MVP candidate. At the end of the day, it’ll come down to how badly he wants it. There’s plenty of good and a sizable amount of bad with Santana — Ryan Romano breaks it all down — but overall, the team has to be thrilled with how his first taste of Milwaukee baseball went.

Bittersweet Moment of the Year

Mike Fiers had been an Astro for approximately three weeks when, on August 21st, he threw a no-hitter against the Dodgers. Fiers spaced out three walks and struck out ten Los Angeles hitters, needing a total of 134 pitches to finish the no-hitter. It was the first no-hitter for an Astro since Darryl Kile in 1993. Meanwhile, the 0nly no-hitter for the Brewers was thrown in 1987.

The reaction from fans couldn’t have possibly been more mixed. Most were happy for the former player, and tried to optimistically paint it as a bright spot in a dark season. A sizable portion lamented that the Brewers had missed out on their second no-hitter by such a narrow margin — a spurious claim, but when your season starts 2-13 you can be forgiven for tossing logic out the window. There was even overlap, as people simultaneously expressed both of these sentiments.

Meanwhile, on that exact same day, Domingo Santana hit his third home run in a Milwaukee uniform as the Brewers beat the Nationals 10-3. Kyle Lohse didn’t throw a no-hitter — now that would have been something — but he did work three innings for his first career save. All in all, that made things a little less bitter and a little more sweet.

Minor League Player of the Year

In recent years, much has been written about Milwaukee’s organizational fondness for the jump to Double-A ball as a barometer of a player’s abilities. High-A to Double-A is considered the second-biggest gap in the system after Triple-A to the majors, so it’s a sensible policy to follow.

Orlando Arcia firmly established himself as the shortstop of the future for Milwaukee in 2014, hitting .289 and stealing 32 bases at High-A. This season marked the big test — and Arcia passed it easily. Dealing with the toughest pre-majors promotion a player has to conquer, Arcia hit .300 for the first time in his young career, doubled his home run output from four to eight, and still provided the kind of dynamic defense that has fueled his prospect reputation.

Both Scooter Gennett and Jean Segura have developed into capable middle infielders, but the presence of Arcia could force one or both of them out of Milwaukee sooner rather than later. Arcia continues to improve at every level he plays, and he’s one hot streak away from forcing his way onto the big league roster.

Best Transaction of the Year

If you’d rather this be the Jonathan Broxton trade, or the Aramis Ramirez trade, well, I wouldn’t fault you in the slightest. Those two moves are slam dunks where the Brewers traded something they would have been losing anyways — or didn’t really want in the first place — for something that might pan out in the long run. Those are great moves to make. But they are rarely great moves.

When New York scuttled the Carlos Gomez deal, that could have been a crushing blow for Milwaukee’s rebuilding effort. But the team regrouped, and inexplicably landed an even bigger haul than they had gotten just a day earlier. They had to include Fiers — and his eventual no-hitter — to do it, but the payoff has so far been more than worth what it cost.

Santana is the only player of the group to see Major League action so far, but he has looked nothing like the tire fire that he was in 2014. Brett Phillips and Josh Hader are both players that I’ve profiled extensively. They’ll be up in 2016 or ’17, and both stand to play key roles in the team that Milwaukee hopes will eventually bring home a championship.

Meanwhile, Gomez’s value has already taken a hit. Not only did the Mets allegedly find a hip problem, but he also missed extensive time in September with a torn muscle in his ribcage. Still, the Astros have to be thrilled. Their rental star delivered a key home run in the Wild Card play-in game. Like I said before, the best trades are the ones where everybody wins.

Silver Lining of the Year

It could be worse. It could always be worse. This season was tough to swallow for Brewer fans, but the pendulum is at least swinging back up if you look at the past couple of months. The same cannot be said about our division mates in Cincinatti.

The Reds as a whole were an unmitigated disaster zone in 2015. Manager Bryan Price started the season historically bad — with his humiliating, expletive-laced tirade against beat writer C. Trent Rosecrans — and then ended it in the same fashion, as he watched his team quit on him and finished 1-14 to slip below the Brewers in the standings.

Meanwhile, the Reds cleared out talented big-league players as well — Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake chief among them — but failed to net anything approaching the return that the Brewers saw for Gomez, Fiers, and company. While Milwaukee figures to now have one of the more talented minor league systems in all of baseball, the Reds are still pinning their hopes to a miracle one-year turnaround. Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips are both expensive, getting older, and can’t seem to agree on what approach works at the plate. And with Cueto and Leake both jettisoned, the de facto ace of the staff is Anthony DeSclafani. DeSclafani is a control pitcher who BP seems to think likely for a spontaneous combustion at some point in his career, as evidenced by his closest comparisons in the Similarity Index: Dillon Gee, Tommy Milone, Wade LeBlanc, and Jeff Locke among others. It’s hardly a confidence-inspiring list.

The National League Central is already going to be a difficult nut to crack for the Brewers’ eventual finished product. The premature demise of Votto, Phillips, and the rest of Cincinatti can only be seen as a good thing from this vantage point. They’re one less heavyweight to worry about. So here’s to you, Reds. May you retain Bryan Price in perpetuity.

Most Valuable Pitcher

When the Brewers traded Nori Aoki for Will Smith prior to the 2014 season, they did so with the intention of moving Smith back to the starting rotation. Kansas City had converted him into a reliever, and in doing so, they had turned him from a Quad-A pitcher into a valuable roster piece. For some inexplicable reason, Doug Melvin saw this as a fine reason to try Smith out as a starter again.

Fortunately, that experiment never saw the light of day — ironically enough, due to the ill-fated signing of Matt Garza. When Milwaukee inked Garza to a contract, it bumped Smith from the projected starting rotation. The team focused on finding a fit for him in the bullpen, instead, and the rest was history.

Pine tar aside, Smith’s 2015 season might have flown under the radar of almost every casual observer. But the advanced metrics reveal the truth. Deployed in relief, this guy is one of the most effective pitchers in the game, bar none. Among relievers who threw at least 40 innings for their teams, Smith’s 12.9 strikeouts per 9 innings is sixth-best in the Majors. His 1.4 WAR was tied with Jimmy Nelson for tops among players who finished the season with the team.

It might seem a bit unorthodox to give this award to a relief pitcher, but this is 2015, the Year of the Elite Bullpen. Plus, as we’ve established, 60 percent of the starting rotation pitched like animated garbage. Smith, on the other hand, wasn’t garbage. He was filthy.

Most Valuable Player

Even in the current climate of rebuilding, the only player thought to be immune from trade is Ryan Braun. Braun’s suspension for performance-enhancing drugs — and his childish antics in playing the blame-game after the fact — were a black eye on the organization and have made him a pariah throughout much of baseball. That’s before you get to his advancing age, declining health, and mammoth contract. Nobody else wants to deal with him, much less give up valuable young players for the privilege of dealing with him.

However, the Brewers and fans are desperately hoping that Braun can put it back together. He will be 32 years old next year — old, but not ancient. Still young enough to have trade value, if his name wasn’t a four-letter word around the league. A few quietly productive seasons will start to dampen that effect, though.

Braun’s 2015 season was certainly encouraging in that regard. On the one hand, while he led the team in WAR, he posted a comparable number to 2014’s total. He was far from being the 5-6 win player of his prime.

But that’s due in large part to Braun’s defensive implosion. Since being moved off of third base in 2008, Braun has consistently been a defensive positive. In 2015, though, that stopped, and the Hebrew Hammer was approximately ten runs worse than average in the field.

Offensively, though, Braun posted superstar numbers again. His slugging percentage and home runs were down, suggesting at this point that his numbers from 2009-2012 might not have exactly been organic, but he’s also growing into a more patient hitter as he ages. He has yet to lose the ability to put bat to ball. Braun stole 24 bases in 2015, too, getting caught only four times.

In the offensive facet of the game, there might not be a player more well-rounded than Ryan Braun, and that holds true even at his advanced age and with his dimished power capability. Whichever team finally decides to put together a fair offer for him will be getting a great deal out of it. And if the Brewers hold onto him instead, he could absolutely still be contributing when the team puts a contender on the field.

Ryan Braun’s 2015 season wasn’t good enough to contend for the league MVP award. But the 2015 Brewers are far from the class of the league — and in this small pond, Braun is more than fish enough to take home the hardware.