Brewers Rumors: Crew Among “Finalists” For Nelson Cruz, Per Report

The Nelson Cruz market is moving quickly and could be coming to a conclusion soon, The latest round of Brewers rumors has the Crew among the “finalists” in the bids for Cruz’s services.

The longtime slugging DH has an expanded market this offseason due to National League teams now having a position available for him. The Brewers are attempting to use that to their advantage and sign Cruz.

Jon Heyman reports that the Brewers are finalists.

There are five teams that make the list as finalists and the Brewers are one of them. All five are National League teams but there are some AL teams hanging around as well.

Despite being finalists for Nelson Cruz, the Brewers still face tough odds to sign the veteran slugger in free agency.

Mark Feinsand reported that the Dodgers and Padres were the two favorites to sign Cruz, meaning that the Brewers are more of an interesting fallback option. Stearns does his best work lurking in the shadows, and perhaps the tide can turn to the Crew’s favor.

Both the Dodgers and Padres can push payroll a lot easier than the Brewers can. They also already have overcrowded roster situations with their position players. Cruz, may have to be more of a part-time DH with those clubs. With Milwaukee, well he’ll be penciled into that lineup every single day if he wants to be.

At last update, we knew that there were eight teams interested in Nelson Cruz. So it appears Cruz has narrowed down his search by a couple of teams. This is the first time we’re seeing the Braves and Nationals mentioned among this search, but the Brewers, Dodgers, and Padres were previously known suitors for Cruz.

Hector Gomez later added this report that the Brewers have a good chance of reaching a deal with him and it appears to be down to a final three teams, of which the Brewers are a part of.

Cruz would bring a productive bat and a lot of home runs wherever he goes. It could be Milwaukee, it could be elsewhere, but he’d be an excellent option for Milwaukee in 2022 to instantly boost this offense. He may not be a long term solution, but they really don’t need him to be. You don’t need a long-term DH solution and that doesn’t sound like a way Stearns would operate anyways.

Cruz is likely looking at another one year deal at a similar price tag to his salary last season of $13MM. That’s well within the Brewers ability to pay and there’s no such thing as a bad one year deal.

The market is seemingly moving fast, and we could get a conclusion on the Nelson Cruz pursuit soon. Stay tuned.