The Brewers will not pick up Braden Looper's $6.5 million option for next year, Tom Haudricort of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is reporting. They'll have to buy his deal out for $1 million, and it's all being done in the name of financial flexibility for the team to pursue more pitching on this winter's free agent market, according to GM Doug Melvin. That's an understandable stance since Looper wasn't great in Milwaukee in 2009 (he won 14 games, but had a 5.22 ERA and poor peripherals) but it really leaves the Brewers with Yovani Gallardo, Manny Parra, Jeff Suppan, and probably Dave Bush (he's seen by some as a non-tender candidate now that he's entering his last year of arbitration and will likely be due a raise on his $4 million 2009 salary, but that seems unlikely with Looper's salary off the books) as starting pitchers right now. Melvin better have some plan in mind or things are only going to get worse for the Brewers' pitching staff.
Of course, the offseason is young and so its a bit early to judge, but so far the Brewers have already used their best trade chip (J.J. Hardy) in a move that didn't obtain any pitching, so free agency seems to be their best route to remedying the problem that kept them out of the NL Central race in 2009.
The question now is whether or not that plan will yield more fruit than it did last winter. The Brewers tried hard to keep CC Sabathia in Milwaukee, but couldn't match the Yankees' enormous offer and instead they ended up with Looper. It seems like a long-shot for them to keep up with the bidding for John Lackey, so they'll probably shoot for picking up two guys in hopes to build a deeper rotation behind Yovani Gallardo.
So which two guys on this list would help the Brewers out? Jarrod Washburn and Joel Piniero? Maybe take a flier Carl Pavano hoping that health and the National League perk his numbers up? Or is it too late already for the Brewers?
