Brewers Trade Johnny Estrada, Sign Jason Kendall

Within a day, the Brewers have completely changed their catching situation. Yesterday they went and flipped Johnny Estrada to the Mets for reliever Guillermo Mota. They followed that up today by signing free-agent Jason Kendall to an undisclosed deal to take over for Estrada.

Estrada for Kendall is a pretty lateral swap behind the plate, I think. They're both pretty terrible hitters at this point in their careers and just generally past their primes. I suppose the net benefit of this is that the Brewers pick up Mota, if you can call that a benefit. Mota was pretty terrible last year after coming back from his steroid suspension. Still, he's another arm in the bullpen for the Brewers, which they may need if they can't keep Francisco Cordero, who figures to be one of the hottest properties on the free agent market this year.

Honestly, I thought the Brewers would've tried harder to replace Estrada with someone that could hit. Kendall was traded from Oakland to the Cubs last year and promptly lost his job to the completely unproven Geovany Soto. He did hit better with the Cubs than he did with the A's, but that doesn't mean his .270/.362/.356 line is good. If Ned Yost bats him at the top of the order, we'll know he's officially gone insane.