Now that we've had a few days to digest the Felipe Lopez trade (Jim of Bernie's Crew does an excellent breakdown of it here), it makes sense to think about what, if anything, Doug Melvin might do next. Before making that trade, one could question just what Melvin's state of mind towards the team might be. Melvin has said that a big part of the reason why he traded for CC Sabathia was that the team was playing well at the time and CC was not acquired to "save" the team, but to help it take the next step.The Brewers obviously aren't playing that well this year at the trade deadline, so is it reasonable to assume that he won't be as willing to make a move like that this season? Does that eliminate the possibility of trading for Roy Halladay?

Melvin has repeatedly hinted around that he doesn't want to move Alcides Escobar or Mat Gamel, which would really limit his options on the trade market. Honestly, it may well take both of them to acquire Halladay from the Jays, and probably even more. If something could be worked out as far as guaranteeing that Halladay won't demand a trade at the end of this year, the Brewers would have him for this season and next at a reasonable dollar figure. Given that none of Prince Fielder, JJ Hardy, Rickie Weeks and Corey Hart are locked in beyond 2011 at this point, there is a strong case to be made for trying to take a shot with what they have right now, knowing that a rebuild will be needed after Halladay walks after the 2010 season. It will just be up to Melvin at that point to assess if the future cost of losing those prospects can be justified by Halladay and the rest of the team in the next season and a half.

As Tom Haudricourt pointed out in the link about Halladay being able to demand a trade, it seems unlikely that Melvin will be willing to make that sort of sacrifice. That may be right, but Jim's assessment over at Bernie's Crew that it is "doubtful" that "Melvin will address the starting rotation via a trade" before the deadline seems problematic. The issue is that by acquiring Lopez, Melvin has shown he is willing to give up second or third tier talent to improve the club this year.  Why would he stop at this point when there are other options available on the market in the next 10 days? The Diamondbacks have a couple 3/4 starter types in Doug Davis and Jon Garland available at the right price, and Seattle would move Jarrod Washburn or Erik Bedard for the right offer. Those are just the most obvious guys available.

It's the last of those that seems most interesting, largely because Bedard has (by far) the highest ceiling of any of the four players. In 80 innings this year, Bedard has a 2.70 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and an 84:30 K:BB ratio playing in the American League. The main concern is that he's already missed time with a shoulder injury this year and is still working himself back into form. He also has some issues pitching deep into games, though those would probably be somewhat lessened by moving to the National League.

So how could something like that be worked out to both give Seattle value and protect the Brewers in the case of injury?  You structure the deal similar to the way the Brewers structured their deal with Cleveland for Sabathia last year. Part of the deal contingent on the "success" of the trade. For Sabathia it was making the playoffs, but for Bedard it would probably involve a certain number of starts. You have the teams agree on several players of varying value to be in the trade. If Bedard reaches the magic number of starts, Seattle gets to pick the player from the pool. If he fails to make that number of starts, Melvin picks the player. Given the relationship between Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik and Doug Melvin, it's not hard to see something like this being workable if all sides are willing to play the game. It likely gives Jack Z. a chance to land a better prospect than he would get in a straight trade, because any team trading for Bedard has to be concerned about the injury situation. It protects Melvin from giving up elite talent to land a guy who then ends up on the DL.

Regardless, it seems unlikely that Melvin is done dealing at this point, and the starting rotation is clearly the biggest area of need on this team as it stands today. Expect something to be done to try to help out the rotation between now and the 31st.

[EDIT: It was brought to my attention that the Mariners are currently only 4 games back in the AL West. Unless they fall a little further back before the deadline, a major "sell" move like this would probably be unfeasable for a new GM trying to win over a fansbase. That makes the trade somewhat less likely.]

[EDIT #2: Talked with Jim a bit and I wanted to clarify what he meant in regards to the Brewers aquiring another starter via trade. What he meant was that he believed it wasn't likely they would trade for one before Burns next start, not that they wouldn't trade for one period.]