Brewers Trade For Corey Koskie

Wow. I didn't see that one coming! The Brewers traded middle reliever Brian Wolfe for Corey Koskie this evening. Koskie will make $5.25 million in 2006, $5.75 million in 2007, and he has a performance-based option for $6.5 million in 2008. Toronto will be picking up a sizable portion of that contact, however (probbaly around $3 million a year).

Here's what Aaron Gleeman had to say about Koskie:

"Koskie is extraordinarily injury prone and will probably cease being a quality player very suddenly, but even in a dismal first year with the Blue Jays he managed to hit .265/.365/.437 against right-handed pitching. That's very solid production at third base and significantly better than Batista can ever hope to do.

Koskie can only be counted on for about 100 games a year at this point and needs to be platooned against left-handed pitching. However, if used correctly he can still be a key contributor to a contender both offensively and defensively. Replacing Batista with him at this stage in the game -- when the Twins' lineup appears all but set heading into 2006 -- would be a major upgrade."

Check out the thread over at Brewerfan.net for more information. I'll be adding my take on this trade tomorrow. In the mean time, I'll leave you with some studying:

Koskie - Baseball Reference

Koskie - ESPN Player Page

Koskie - Fangraphs

Koskie - Hardball Times

UPDATE: It's being reported that the Brewers are only picking up $2 million of Koskie's contract for 2006 and 2007. Toronto would also split the $500,000 buyout in 2008 with the Brewers. If Koskie gets 600 AB in either 2006 or 2007, his option for 2008 is automatically picked up. Since he'll be sat against lefties, there's probably no chance of that occuring.

For $2 million a year, Koskie is an absolute steal. He's getting older (32) and he's had alot of injuries, but $2 million is nothing in the MLB these days. A platoon of Koskie and Hall at 3B could be pretty damn good.

Another impressive move by Melvin.