The Brewers have struck a deal with righty Jeremy Jeffress, as MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy first reported (Twitter link). While the contract will promise the second-time arb-eligible reliever just one more season worth of salary, it also comes with two club options, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The 30-year-old Jeffress will play for $1.75MM in 2017, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports tweets. The options are valued at $3.175MM and $4.3MM. He’ll also have up to $2.2MM in available incentives for each year of the deal, tied to innings pitched and games finished, McCalvy tweets.
Jeffress had projected to command $2.6MM in his second season of arbitration eligibility. Instead, he’ll take a fairly interesting contract that will allow him to continue pitching with Milwaukee while giving up control over one potential free agent campaign.
There have been some ups and downs through the years for Jeffress, who emerged as the team’s closer with a strong 2016 season before being shipped at the deadline to the Rangers. Things did not go well in Texas, as Jeffress was arrested for driving while intoxicated and struggled out of the gates in 2017.
Still, Jeffress rebounded upon being shipped back to Milwaukee, turning in 24 2/3 innings of 3.65 ERA pitching with 8.0 K/9 and 5.5 BB/9. He has also managed to induce grounders at a 60% clip, giving cause to think he could still be a quality contributor.
Safe to assume you meant “The 30-year-old Jeffress will play for $1.75MM in 2018…”? instead of 2017
No, Jeff did not mean that. It’s well documented that the Brewers intend to utilize Doc Brown’s time machine and get an extra year of development in…
I’ll be shocked if the brewers exercise both of those options….but here’s hoping