Haudricourt: Because there is crying in baseball, Brewers have Josh Hader as bullpen force

Had Wilmer Flores not cried on television, the Milwaukee Brewers probably wouldn’t have Josh Hader, the strikeout sensation who has been a force out of their bullpen this season.

On July 29, 2015, then-Brewers general manager Doug Melvin had an agreement with the New York Mets to trade centerfielder Carlos Gomez for pitcher Zack Wheeler and Flores, a multi-position infielder. Melvin, assistant Gord Ash and several of the team’s pro scouts went to a downtown Milwaukee steakhouse to celebrate the deal.

“We thought the deal was done,” Melvin said. “I was talking with (Mets general manager) Sandy (Alderson). Gord handled the medical reports with the Mets. I got a call from (Brewers medical director) Roger (Caplinger) that the Mets were OK with the medicals, so we went out to dinner.”

Word of the trade leaked while the Mets were playing a home game against the San Diego Padres, and when television cameras focused on Flores on the field, he was in tears upon hearing he had been traded.

The next thing Melvin knew, his cellphone was ringing with Alderson’s name showing on the caller ID.

“He told me, ‘Doug, we just don’t feel comfortable with the deal.’ I said, ‘You’re kidding. We thought it was all done.’ ”

Alderson told Melvin the Mets had concerns over a minor hip issue that showed up in Gomez’s medical report, though it had not prevented him from playing. The Brewers suspected someone above Alderson in the Mets hierarchy saw Flores crying on TV and made the emotional decision to call off the trade, using the medical report as an excuse.

“What bothered me more was that we knew Gomez was healthy,” Melvin said. “But that happens. There have been players who failed medicals with one team but passed with another. There could have been something else going on.

“Wheeler was coming off Tommy John surgery but we thought he would pitch the next year (Wheeler did not). We were trying to get players we thought were close to the big leagues. In my mind, I didn’t think we were in total rebuild mode. We didn’t lose 90 games three or four years in a row.”

Gomez would be a free agent after the 2016 season, and the Brewers thought it was the right time to move him after the team got off to an awful start that cost manager Ron Roenicke his job a month into the season. The team was on a charter flight from San Francisco to Milwaukee when news of the trade broke online, and Gomez and his teammates saw he had been traded to the Mets.

“When the team got back, we had to tell Gomez he wasn’t traded,” Melvin said. “I called (manager) Craig (Counsell) and told him to tell Gomez. I told the (scouts), ‘Let’s go home, get some sleep and see what we can do tomorrow, see if there’s a team interested in trading for Carlos.’

“I felt strongly we could make a deal before the game that next night (against the Cubs at Miller Park). We knew he was healthy. But these things can spread. People would start saying the trade was called off because he’s not healthy.”

The next morning, Melvin placed a call to Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow, who was looking for veteran outfield help as well as a starting pitcher.

“I told Jeff, ‘We’ll move Carlos. There’s nothing wrong with him. I think we can work out a deal. You’ve got players we like,’ ” Melvin said.

The sides quickly agreed on a deal for Gomez that would include Hader and outfielder Domingo Santana. Melvin asked about Brett Phillips, one of the top outfield prospects in the minors, and Luhnow said he wasn’t interested in trading him.

“I asked Jeff if I put (right-hander) Mike Fiers in the deal, could we get Phillips?” Melvin recalled. “He said yes, then I asked for a fourth player. We went back and forth on a bunch of names and ended up agreeing on (pitcher Adrian) Houser. Once we put Fiers in, that got Phillips in the deal. Originally, I wanted three players for Gomez, if they were prospects. With Fiers, I wanted four.

“Five different (Milwaukee) scouts saw Hader. Six different scouts saw Houser. Santana was in Triple-A, so we had seen him a lot. So, we had lots of opinions on these players. I don’t think we get that deal done if the scouts weren’t all here. We didn’t bring them in every year but we thought we’d be making some trades.

“The first trade (with the Mets) didn’t work out but this one is going to be much better.”

The Brewers had tried to pry Hader away from Baltimore in July 2013 in trade talks for closer Francisco Rodriguez but the Orioles wouldn’t do it, so Melvin took minor-league third baseman Nicky Delmonico instead.

Delmonico was released before the 2015 season while on suspension for violating the minor-league drug program, and now plays for the White Sox.

“(Hader) was a local guy from Maryland (drafted in 2012 in the 19th round) and they said they didn’t want to trade him,” Melvin said. “They ended up trading him to Houston for (pitcher) Bud Norris (eight days later).”

The day after the Gomez deal, Melvin sent outfielder Gerardo Parra to Baltimore for right-hander Zach Davies. They would be the last major moves for Melvin before he stepped aside after the season for new general manager David Stearns, but the trades went a long way toward getting the Brewers back on a competitive basis in what became a large-scale rebuild.

Santana quickly became the Brewers’ starting rightfielder and Davies has been one of the top starters in the rotation. Hader, a starting pitcher at the time he was acquired, made a strong debut as a reliever in 2017 and has remained in that role, with fantastic results.

Phillips has been up and down several times from the minors and was a contributor during the Brewers’ stretch run late last season. Houser was set back by Tommy John surgery but already made one appearance for the Brewers this season before returning to Class AA Biloxi.

“You wonder where we’d be without those trades,” Melvin said. “That was two pretty good days. I didn’t think we’d need a total rebuild after that. Jimmy Nelson was developing into a good pitcher. We had (Jean) Segura and Scooter (Gennett). We picked up Corey Knebel before that season. We had (shortstop Orlando) Arcia coming. There were some good, young players here.”

Traded twice by age 21, Hader wasn’t quite sure what to make of those developments, wondering if he was doing something wrong. Hader, Phillips and Houser all were playing at Class AA Corpus Christi when they got the news of the trade with Milwaukee.

“You know it’s a business and things are going to happen,” he said. “The first trade kind of got me by surprise. I hadn’t even played a full season yet.

“The second time, we had an idea because there were rumors, and stuff like that. But you never know until it’s official. I didn’t really think that much about (being traded again). Every opportunity I get to pitch is a blessing. As long as I still get that chance, that’s what counts.”

Melvin admitted to wondering why the Astros were willing to part with Hader so soon after acquiring him from the Orioles.

“It’s funny that he’s been traded twice,” Melvin said. “It makes you wonder why. Is there something we don’t know? Maybe they just figured he’d be a reliever.

“Even if people thought he was a reliever, he still had a chance to be a dominant reliever.”

And that’s exactly what Hader has been with the Brewers. After posting a 2.08 ERA in 35 appearances last season with 68 strikeouts in 47 2/3 innings, he kicked it up a notch this season, whiffing hitters at an eye-popping rate.

Entering the weekend, Hader had struck out 25 of the 41 hitters he faced while allowing just three hits in 11 2/3 innings. He already has posted a pair of two-inning saves, though Counsell opted not to put him strictly in the closer's role vacated when Knebel went on the DL with a hamstring injury.

The Brewers could have returned Hader to a starting role but they decided why mess with success? Baseball has become a bullpen game, so Hader’s contributions could be just as vital, if not more so, when Counsell picks his spots to use him later in games.

“We knew Hader had a good arm,” Melvin said. “Back then, relief pitchers weren’t viewed like they are today. But our analytics people liked him. We considered it a plus that he was a left-hander.

“Hader is just getting his career going but you like what you see. He has been having success. We have to reassess what success is for starters today. The game is changing. It depends on what you have. As long as you’re contending, (using Hader in relief) can be a good thing.”

Sometimes, crying in baseball can be a good thing as well.