Haudricourt: Brewers did their homework on Thames

Eric Thames first appeared on the personal radar screen of David Stearns in September 2013 when Houston claimed the underperforming outfielder off waivers from Baltimore.

Stearns was the Astros’ assistant general manager at the time but never got to see Thames play in person. Seeking a dramatic change of scenery as well as a better payday, Thames requested his release three months later to sign with the NC Dinos of the Korean Baseball Organization.

When Stearns became general manager of the rebuilding Milwaukee Brewers in October 2015 and began exploring ways to acquire talent, he thought once again about Thames. Now playing first base, Thames put together an incredible second season in the KBO, earning most valuable player honors. He compiled video-game numbers: .381 batting average, 42 doubles, 47 home runs, 140 runs batted in, 103 walks, 130 runs scored and only 91 strikeouts.

Stearns reached out to Thames’ agent, Adam Karon, who informed him that his client was contractually bound to return to Korea. The Brewers’ baseball boss filed that away in his mental Rolodex and later that off-season signed Chris Carter to a one-year deal to be his first baseman.

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Carter lived up to his reputation as an all-or-nothing slugger in 2016, tying for the National League lead with 41 homers but also topping the circuit with 206 strikeouts. Carter figured to get a huge raise from his $2.5 million salary through arbitration and Stearns sought a more complete player at a better price, so he made the unprecedented move of releasing a reigning home run champ.

By then, Stearns had decided Thames was his man. He would provide more balance as a left-handed hitter and was not nearly as one-dimensional as Carter. The Brewers had no scout in Southeast Asia at the time and therefore took the unusual step of watching his performances in Korea solely via videotape.

“The KBO is fairly well televised so there was plenty of video we could access to perform our subjective evaluations,” said Stearns, who since hired former pitcher Bryan Bullington to spearhead the Brewers’ scouting in Southeast Asia.

“I’m not going to go into the specifics of who made what recommendations (from inside the organization). But we had people from various departments within our baseball operations review video in fairly great detail. Ultimately, there was enough confidence for us to pursue him.

“As we talked to his representatives early in the off-season, it became clear he had interest in coming back to the States. He also had interest in playing in Japan and was open to either of those. It was fairly clear that he was not going to remain in Korea, that he was going to get more lucrative offers elsewhere.”

In plowing through the extensive video library of Thames’ at-bats, two things were immediately evident to the Brewers. First, he had changed his swing path in Korea, flattening it out instead of upper-cutting everything. Second, he greatly improved his plate discipline, laying off breaking balls out of the strike zone.

In his first foray in the major leagues with Toronto and Seattle in 2011-‘12, Thames routinely chased bad pitches, getting himself out far too often. When he got to the KBO, he discovered that breaking balls were the norm, leaving him to figure it out or fail badly.

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“He became a little more contact conscious,” Stearns said. “He has a slightly flatter path through the (hitting) zone than he did previously in the United States. He went from a guy who had a shallower path through the zone, perhaps was trying to hit home runs, to someone who kept his bat in the zone longer. The result of that was harder contact and organically hitting for more power.

“He’s a very different hitter now than he was three or four years ago. The other part of it is his strike zone judgment has advanced tremendously. He gives himself a chance because he swings at strikes. That makes your job easier as a hitter. He does a nice job of laying off pitches outside of the zone.”

No one ever will know if Thames would have made similar adjustments had he kept playing in the United States. Hitters often mature and make adjustments to survive or otherwise find their careers short-lived.

“The vast majority of major-league hitters go through evolutions during their careers,” Stearns said. “They learn about themselves. They learn what works and what doesn’t work, what feels right for them.

“It’s really a constant evolution for most guys until they find what fits. Eric was fortunate to find something that fits for him. And he competes on every pitch. That’s part of it.”

And, so, the Brewers’ courtship of Thames swung into action. On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, Thames traveled alone from his home in Las Vegas to Milwaukee for the baseball version of a first date.

Stearns had Thames sit down at Miller Park with assistant Matt Arnold and hitting coach Darnell Coles (manager Craig Counsell was out of town). He was chauffeured around the city to get a feel for the local terrain, was wined and dined at one of the city’s best steakhouses, and even accompanied Stearns to a Bucks game at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, where then-healthy Jabari Parker led the way to a close victory over Orlando.

“He wanted to make sure he was comfortable with us and we wanted to make sure we were comfortable with him,” Stearns said. “Eric had been away from major-league baseball for an extended period of time. He didn’t know really what the Milwaukee Brewers stood for at this point. He didn’t know much about our organization.

“We wanted to make sure he understood what we are doing here and how he could be a major part of it. What our prospects for the future were. And make sure he understood our commitment to winning here was real. It was a mutual get-to-know process.

“We came away from that meeting confident he could handle the pressures of major-league baseball, and were confident that his motivations for returning were genuine. I think he came away from the meeting thinking this is an organization he wanted to play for, and that he believed where we were going.”

The Brewers quickly decided to offer Thames a contract but had to assign a monetary value that made sense. Thames made less than $4 million in his three years in Korea, but the Brewers presented an offer that reached that figure in the first year alone and guaranteed $16 million over three years with a fourth-year club option that could make the deal worth $22.5 million.

“There are players who have come here from Korea,” said Stearns, citing Jung-Ho Kang, Byung-Ho Park and Hyun-Soo Kim. “That provided some (financial) boundaries. But this was a player from the States returning from Korea.

“Obviously, the interest from clubs in Japan helped drive the value of the player. Then it’s how we valued the player, what we were comfortable giving him, provided the circumstances and risks and rewards. In any free-agent negotiation, there are a number of factors in play. Really, in that regard, this one was no different.”

The Brewers were aware other major-league clubs, including Oakland and Tampa Bay, were showing interest in Thames. So they crafted their proposal post haste and sent it to Karon. A deal was struck and Thames was introduced to local media at Miller Park on Nov. 29.

Despite Thames’ eye-popping numbers in Korea, including 124 home runs in 388 games, the move qualified as out-of-the-box thinking by the Brewers, not to mention considerable risk. The quality of play in the KBO has been compared to Class AA baseball, perhaps Class AAA on the good days.

It was a one-of-a-kind pursuit but Stearns did not consider it crazy-town thinking.

“I think every potential free-agent acquisition has some idiosyncrasies to it, from a process perspective,” he said. “Each one has its own twists and turns. We were doing something and Eric was doing something in which there wasn’t a clear road map. We had to plot our own course. So far, it has worked out pretty good.”

To say the least.

Thames became the talk of baseball by going on a five-game home-run binge on the Brewers’ first road trip, not to mention a slew of other hits and walks. He set several “firsts” for players beginning their careers with the club and drew national attention that no one saw coming, certainly not this soon.

While enjoying the early burst from the gate by Thames, Stearns and his staff are trying not to get too giddy. Now that Thames has the full attention of opponents, they are sure to look deeper into what makes him tick. They will change how they pitch to him, and it will be up to Thames to make reciprocal moves.

“It likely is not going to be this good for six months,” Stearns said. “I don’t know how many players in major-league history have put up these types of numbers over a complete season. It’s very rarified air.

“We recognize the league is going to adjust in some respects. But we also think that Eric has the capability of making adjustments himself. He has proven that over the last couple of years. He has adjusted to new challenges and environments.”

And is doing so once again, faster than anyone could have imagined.