The Braves have avoided arbitration with lefty Rex Brothers, according to David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It is a non-guaranteed deal, per the report.
MLBTR had not considered Brothers as an arb-eligible player owing to a club option, but O’Brien says the team was able to tender him a contract after declining that option. The end result will seemingly be somewhat similar, as Brothers will receive a split contract that pays him at a $1.1MM rate for time spent in the majors and a $450K rate for time spent in the minors, per ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (via Twitter). (That’s an unusually healthy payday on the minor-league side, it’s worth noting.)
Brothers is still optionable for the coming season, as Olney notes, which helps explain his appeal. He’s also still fairly youthful — he’ll turn 30 in a few weeks — and showed an average 95.8 mph fastball in the majors last year, representing a bounce back to his early-career heat after he experienced some shoulder woes. Similarly, Brothers managed a 13.3% whiff rate that hearkened back to his 2011-13 levels, when Brothers was a healthy and effective reliever for the Rockies.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether Brothers will be able to stay healthy and continue to avoid the free passes that have plagued him in recent seasons. He averaged 4.6 BB/9 to go with a healthy 12.6 K/9 in 23 2/3 innings in 2017. That’s not exactly a desirable walk tally, but is at least in the same range he once worked in better years. Brothers did also cough up 7.23 earned runs per nine on the season, though that’s likely due in large part to some sequencing misfortune and a few too many run-ins with righty hitters. He mowed down southpaw swingers, though, as he has done for much of his career.
Thank god it’s non guaranteed
Amen to that
If only Snit knew what platoon splits are…..
Sounds like you should be the manager…
Give AA a call I’m sure he’ll take your call
I’ll do that as soon I roll off of Kate Upton. Besides, It’s all there in black and white. A sub 3 fip against LH and a 4 + fip vs RH yet he faced 23 more right handers than lefties.
I thought Kate Upton only slept with winners
Fatality!
So that removes you from the conversation then…
Did you watch the same team I did last year? They were flush out of relievers by mid August. They were running out who was whole at some points.
Alex making some nice moves early on.
The links to the players still aren’t working on mobile.
That’s been the case for a while
mine works fine on mobile
I can only click on certain players and it take me to the link, mostly it just doesn’t do anything
Problem seems to be with iPhones.
Minor league players DO link fine.
But any player with any MLB experience does not link.
Rex Brothers is an asset against lefty batters. I am hoping he wins job out of spring training and foresee his ERA in the low 3’s if stinker Snitker uses him correctly.
The deal the Braves need to make with the Rays is Matt Adams, Adonis Garcia and Johan Camargo for Evan Longoria, Brad Miller and Adeiny Hechevaria. Rays reduce payroll cost and get the LH power hitting 1B that they need. Braves get a third baseman upgrade and utility players for bench improvement.
The Rays would laugh at that deal!