SATURDAY: The deal is now official. Morales will receive $2.3MM plus up to $1.5MM in incentives if he makes the team, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets.
FRIDAY: The Brewers have struck a minor league pact with lefty Franklin Morales, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). He’ll receive an invitation to big league camp in the deal.
Morales had a quietly excellent season last year, logging 62 1/3 frames of 3.18 ERA pitching for the Royals. Notably, he logged 5.9 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9, both well below his usual blend of more strikeouts and walks. Morales also drew grounders on 49.5% of the balls put in play against him, well above his career average.
ERA estimators saw a solid effort, though they weren’t as enthused as his results would suggest. Morales tallied a 3.52 FIP, 3.99 xFIP, and 3.75 SIERA in 2015, each of which represented career bests. He was quite stingy against lefties, holding them to a cumulative .194/.250/.320 slash, though right-handers proved tougher outs (as they always have for Morales).
You do that well as a reliever and you can’t get a promised job? Rough
We don’t know the whole story here. True Morales numbers do look good on the surface, but he always has had problems vs RH hitters and KC didn’t use him a lot in high leverage situations, then we don’t know if the Boras factor came into play this off season or not, that is.. Boras started out in October-December demanding some wild 2-3y guaranteed deal at some equally (throwing out there) 4-5m yearly salary. He’s been known for that in the past, then end up having to settle for 1y, minor league, sign after the draft, players change agents.. Players retire cause can’t find a job etc…
I see Morales just as lefty bullpen insurance for when they inevitably trade Smith.