Report: Brewers Spent A Measly $1 To Re-Acquire John Axford

A candy bar, a greeting card, a scratch-off lottery ticket, a soda from McDonald’s, and John Axford. These are all things that can cost you just one dollar to acquire. That’s what the Brewers did, at least for the last thing on that list.

While it may seem sometimes that the Brewers only go bargain shopping and that David Stearns is trying to shop at the Dollar Tree all the time, that’s not always the case. But on Monday, it is. Stearns went to the dollar store and paid literally one dollar to acquire a reliever.

According to a report from ESPN, the “cash considerations” the Brewers sent to the Blue Jays to acquire John Axford was just one dollar.

Now, this move will end up costing the Brewers more than just one dollar as Axford will be earning league minimum throughout the rest of the season, but nevertheless this is a shrewd move.

It’s not often that you see players moved for such a little return. The Blue Jays essentially gifted Axford to the Brewers. The one dollar return is only enough to buy the GM or owner a soda from McDonald’s, and even after sales tax, they’re going to have to kick in a few cents of their own.

There’s been stories of players being traded for a bucket of baseballs or a dozen baseball bats. Although that may sound more degrading than being traded for cash considerations, being sent out for one dollar might be worse. One dollar might not buy a team a single baseball and it certainly wouldn’t buy them a whole bat. It can’t even buy broken bats as firewood.

While a reacquisition of Axford wasn’t cost-inhibitive for the Crew, he’ll play an important role as he fills in out in the bullpen as incumbent closer Josh Hader hits the Covid IL. Hader is the 4th Brewers reliever to be on the Covid IL, joining Hunter Strickland, Jake Cousins, and Jandel Gustave.

Hader is obviously the most important and high profile of that group. Although Axford does have experience in the closer’s role, it’s unlikely he’s going to be able to jump right back into save opportunities immediately while Hader is on the IL. Devin Williams is likely to get some chances, as will Brad Boxberger and other veteran arms.

Regardless, it’ll be fun to see Axford back in a Brewers uniform, and it only cost them one dollar to do it.