Brewers Designate Tommy Milone For Assignment

The Brewers announced that they’ve designated left-hander Tommy Milone for assignment and selected the contract of right-hander Rob Scahill from Triple-A Colorado Springs.

Milone, 30, opened the season as the lone left-hander on the Brewers’ roster, and his departure will give Milwaukee an all-right-handed staff (h/t: MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy, on Twitter). The former Nationals, Athletics and Twins hurler has been a fairly regular contributor in the Majors in each of the past five big league seasons, but Minnesota elected to outright him following the 2016 season rather than give him a raise on last year’s $4.5MM salary.

The soft-tossing Milone got quality results in the Oakland and Minnesota rotations from 2012-15, averaging 25 starts per season to go along with a 3.98 ERA, 6.5 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9. However, he slipped to a 5.71 ERA last year in Minnesota and ultimately lost his rotation spot. Milone’s ERA has continued to balloon in Milwaukee, where he’s logged a 6.43 mark through his first 21 frames, though his outstanding 16-to-2 K/BB ratio lends some optimism for a turnaround.

Milone is on a very affordable one-year deal that came with a mere $1.25MM base salary. Of that modest sum, just $1.05MM remains, so he’d make for a reasonable pickup should any club with rotation injuries wish to make a claim on waivers (or a minor trade). That said, Milone’s ceiling as a back-of-the-rotation starter, his recent struggles and the remaining cash on his deal could allow him to pass through waivers. At that point, he’d have the right to refuse a minor league assignment in favor of free agency, although as a player with fewer than five years of Major League service time, doing so would mean forfeiting the remaining money on his contract. As such, if has passes through waivers unclaimed, it seems likely that he’d remain in the organization and hope to work his way back to the Major League roster.