Andrew Kennedy was a member of the Brewers organization for over eleven years after having been acquired as a minor leaguer in a multi-player deal with the Philadelphia Mud Hens on May 24th of 1966.
This was his 10th year of being in a Brewer uniform for at least part of a season and over the years he has been one of the front office's favorite players and also became quite popular with local fans.
Andrew has always hit, spraying line drives around the field and into the gaps, and over the past four seasons he never finished with a batting average below .330. But even given that, his value as measured in WAR has never been that great as he is an average fielder at best (trending now towards a liability), at age 30 his already not great speed is deteriorating even more and he's very prone to hitting into double plays, he rarely will draw a walk, and he has little power. His numbers this season are well below average for him (though a lower BABIP may indicate some amount of poor luck) and at this stage he is on track to finish the season with 0.1 WAR.
At the end of this season the team had an option to buy-out his contract, which pays him 130K per year, and there was a good chance they would have done just that. But with the emergence of young Val Guzman as a solid alternative in left field, the feeling was that it was time to part company with Andrew and get some value in the process. In getting John Flores, who played parts of three seasons with the Brewers at the beginning of his big league career, they get a power-hitting right-handed bat to complement the left-handed Guzman and one who, it appears, will be content to play second fiddle to the speedy and defensively gifted youngster. The biggest loser in this trade might be AAA outfielder Casey Bromwell, who it was expected might back-up Guzman in the future.
The Brewers also got a minor league left-handed reliever with marginal potential but who should at least provide a bit of depth to the bullpen options going forward. (I am a bit mystified though how this young man out of Princeton is of low intelligence.)
