Contrary to what had previously been known about Matt Garza’s contract, the Brewers no longer have a 2018 option on the right-hander, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets. The option was voided after he crossed a games pitched threshold. Without the option, Garza is set to hit free agency this winter as his four-year, $50MM contract comes to an end.
Garza’s contract had a vesting option for 2018 that would have automatically exercised at $13MM if he had 110 starts from 2014-17 and under certain other conditions. He had only started 93 games in that time frame, however. The vesting option would have become a $1M club option if Garza had spent over 130 days on the disabled list in any season from 2014 through 2017, but he did not. It was previously thought that, in the absence of the $13MM vesting option or the $1M team option, the Brewers would have a $5MM team option, but evidently that isn’t the case.
It didn’t appear especially likely that the Brewers would exercise Garza’s option even at the reduced $5MM price. Jimmy Nelson is already set to miss the start of the 2018 season, and not having an option on Garza further reduces the club’s flexibility, but it still appears likely that the Brewers would have looked elsewhere for starting pitching help or relied on other internal options even if they could have kept Garza at $5MM.
After a strong first season in Milwaukee, Garza has struggled, and this year he’s posted a 4.94 ERA, 6.2 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 while missing time to groin and leg issues. He also struggled down the stretch and was removed from the Brewers’ rotation weeks ago. That’s not exactly a world-beating performance, particularly when considered in the broader context of a third straight underwhelming season — since 2015, Garza has a 5.10 ERA, 6.2 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 over 365 innings. The Brewers also might generally prefer to go with younger pitchers.
He’s been a nightmare
One of worst signings for brewers in the past 20 years…..absolutely terrible for us.
Wow are you sure don’t forget Jeff Suppan lol
we signed a relief pitcher who pitched like 1 year of his 3 year contract for us. Can’t remember his name
Prince Fielder says hello!
???
Prince fielder was a great player in Milwaukee…
Feliz
David Riske, Eric Gagne, Braden Looper, just to name
a few pitchers. Positions players the list starts and ends with Hammonds with Stubbs and Berry thrown in.
Your comment makes zero sense. Fielder went to free agency the first year he was eligible. He never signed any sort of extension with the Brewers. His contract was always extremely affordable for his production level.
riske, thank you
David Riske
Suppan and wolf are also on that list.
I wouldn’t put Wolf on that list. He was pretty productive in his first two seasons and blanked the Cards in his only NLCS start. That 3rd year was brutal however, which was pretty reminiscent of Lohse’s career as a Brewer. But unlike Garza, Suppan, Wolf, and Lohse never quit on the treat.
At least Suppan could throw to first base.
Haha! It’s funny-the Angels offered him a contract, but he was on vacation, & got pissy cause he refused to take a break and speak with the them! Angels backed out!
Meaningless to debate now but there’s no way he wouldn’t be kept at 5 mil. Some team would want him at that rate.
There’s no way Garza would have remained a Brewer. They didn’t use him down the stretch, as a starter or reliever. They would have taken the $5 mil they saved and spent it on a good bullpen arm.
The guy is a stiff at any price. No idea why the Brewers would want to bring Garza back.
Please let this be the last we see of Garza in a Brewers uniform.
Garza is done with Milw, at any price.
yayayayayayayayayaaaasss!
I always wondered how Suppan could be so good with St. Louis, but totally forget how to pitch when he arrived in Milwaukee. Then I learned about “pitch framing”. There is a big difference pitching to Yadier Molina and then having to pitch to Johnny Estrada! Defense is another issue. 2006 Cardinals had GG 3B Scott Rolen, David Eckstein and CF Jim Edmonds. 2007 Brewers had Braun’s 26 errors at 3B, Rickie Weeks, and CF Bill Hall.