As you know, the hot stove is very quiet. It’s not a stove anymore. It’s like a sleeping baby at this point. This morning, we awoke to the news that Milwaukee Brewers are still looking at Jake Arrieta, but also according to former general manager Jim Bowden, they’re looking at Kansas City Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas with the intention to trade Travis Shaw if they were to sign to the third baseman. Why this isn’t surprising and also why we shouldn’t get too invested in the story.

David Sterns is the new Ted Thompson in the sense that they will look at everybody and everything. Sterns is trying to figure out a way to make his roster better without giving up prospects from the sound of it. That’s a tough task to do. Therefore, they put some feelers in the direction of Moustakas. It’s an interesting place to go considering the former second overall pick carries some risk. He hit a career-high 38 home runs last season but his stats overall for his career have been pretty uneven. He had some really strong years, and others that are worth forgetting. Another issue with Moose is he had more than 10 errors in each season besides 2016 where he missed almost the entire year with injury.

The part about dealing Shaw is puzzling and disappointing to say the least. I get that baseball is business, but he’s genuinely a fan favorite on this team. Sterns likely thinks we saw Shaw’s ceiling last season, and they’re trying to get as much for him as possible. That said, Bowden is historically known for throwing shit to the wall. Due to him not being a journalist, he plays fast and loose more than most baseball ‘insiders.’ Unless we start to hear the same from a Ken Rosenthal or Jon Morosi, we can look at this in the distance versus trying to accept it as fact.

Charlie.