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Melvin 'going for it' with Sabathia trade

Brewers GM 'going for it' with trade for CC

MILWAUKEE -- Three months from now, Doug Melvin might be known fondly as the general manager who ended the Brewers' 26-year postseason drought.

There's an equal chance that, three years from now, he'll be known not-so-fondly as the bum who traded away Matt LaPorta.

In the end, when Melvin pulled the trigger Sunday on a trade that sent LaPorta and three other prospects to the Indians for top-of-the-rotation starter CC Sabathia, the Brewers' baseball boss decided that the risk was worth the reward.

"We all want it to end," Melvin said of the Brewers' playoff drought, which stretches back to Game 7 of the 1982 World Series. "We're going for it. There's a lot of'82 Brewers team that won the American League pennant and went to a decisive Game 7 in the World Series.

If Sabathia can help deliver Milwaukee back to the postseason, Melvin's gamble will have paid off. Neither he nor Attanasio sounded exceedingly optimistic about the Brewers' chances of convincing Sabathia to stay beyond the rest of this season, and Sheets will be similarly tempted to test free agency.

"I'll worry about next year at the end of [this] season," Melvin said. "I know that you need pitching depth in the second half of the season. We're protected if somebody did have a minor setback.

"It was all about, 'now,' more so than next year."

Adam McCalvy is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League