Hazy Sorta Maybe

Apparently the Brewers have, indeed, upped the offer to Sabathia … but official word is lacking, thus vague stories are posted. Again, discussions between Sabathia, his agents, and GMs (Brewers, Yankees, whomever) are proceeding in a professional manner.

I think a player opt-out clause, even after two or three years, is a fairly enticing deal for both parties. Obviously if Sabathia decides to go his own way, he'll still have prime bargaining power because he'll still be at his peak. For the Brewers, they get two or three of Sabathia's best years and are able to devote those years to "go for it." As a benefit, there is a reasonable correlation (.17) between the percentage of innings pitched by the bullpen and the team's bullpen era … so with workhorse Sabathia and other hogging innings, the more effective the bullpen will be (the outlier on the far right were the Cleveland Indians, who benefitted by Cliff Lee and Sabathia sucking up innings and Wickman and company in the bullpen):

Obviously you don't want to buy Sabathia based merely on this little stat, but it's a nice side benefit that the Brewers realized last season. Bullpens are fickle no matter how much money you spend on them, the only sure thing is that they perform better if they aren't overworked.

Now, "going for it" with a huge offer to Sabathia is a risk especially if you consider the small market Brewers be stuck with a giant contract to a pitcher while not contending for the playoffs. But "going for it" in the next three years allows the Brewers to forgo some of their long term future and sweeping in unannounced on a currently available player, like FakeTeams ruminates here. I'd even throw Gwynn in that haul for the Padres, they're going need as much goodwill with the fans as possible.

(Edit: Borowoski, not Wickman. I have my portly reliever confused)