Brewer News for December 16th, 2013

Brewers’ manager Ron Roenicke remained relatively quiet at the Winter Meetings last week. Mandatory Credit: David Manning-USA TODAY Sports

Hello again everyone and welcome to the Monday morning edition of Brewer News. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the news from the past week and reviewing what all happened in the world of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Winter Meetings

During the Winter Meetings this past week, the Brewers didn’t do much of anything. They saw free-agent first baseman Corey Hart make a deal with the Seattle Mariners for $6MM with incentives to raise the total to $13MM. The Brewers’ offer would have given Hart a total of $8MM with incentives. Other players the Brewers were interested in, such as Logan Morrison and James Loney, signed with other teams.

However, the Brewers are still continuing to talk to the New York Mets about first baseman Ike Davis. The Mets originally wanted the Brewers’ Tyler Thornburg, but Milwaukee rejected the offered. It’s unknown if the Brewers are going to make a deal with the Mets for Davis or stay in-house at the position.

Bullpen wise, the team’s addition of Will Smith may not be the only move they’ll make. It was reported last week that the Brew Crew had shown an interest in former Chicago Cubs’ closer Carlos Marmol, but talks since then have not progressed.

Rule 5 Draft

Last Thursday, the Rule 5 Draft took place with the Brewers’ selecting three players. The biggest player they selected was Wei-Chung Wang, a 21-year-old Taiwanese pitcher who was in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization. Wang will have to be on the 25-man roster come Opening Day and for the remainder 2014 unless the Brewers would want to forfeit him back to Pittsburgh.

The team also picked up third baseman Vinnie Catricala and outfielder Kevin Mattison. Both players are expected to begin the 2014 season in Triple-A Nashville. No Brewers were selected however so the team did not lose any players.

Dominican Winter League

For the Tigres del Licey in the past week, Brewers’ Juan Francisco and Alfredo Figaro were able to see some playing time. Francisco went 5-for-24 (.208) with one RBI and six strikeouts in the past week while Alfredo Figaro pitched 1 1/3 innings and gave up one run while striking out two. Ariel Pena and Sean Halton have not played since mid-November.

Jason Rogers (Toros del Este) was 1-for-7 with an RBI in two games played last week and Elian Herrera (Estrellas de Oriente) was 4-for-20 with a double and one RBI.

Around Reviewing the Brew

In the past week, the staff looked at various news tidbits from the Winter Meetings and projected more prospects. Co-editor Justin Schultz wrote his Five Things I Know I Think for December. Senior staff writer Lou Olsen looked at the inductee for this year’s Hall of Brewers We Won’t Miss. Staff writer David Grant talked about former Brewer Pete Vuckovich and his facial hair.