The Brewers have optioned righties Corey Knebel and Zach Davies, per the MLB.com transactions page. (H/t MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy & Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; Twitter links.) Davies had been on a rehab assignment following an extended absence.
This move is notable enough for what it says about two of the team’s most important pitchers heading into the season. But it’s also an intriguing development with the revocable waiver trade deadline drawing near.
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Knebel was expected to anchor the Milwaukee pen, but carries a 5.08 ERA through 39 innings on the season. He has generated 12.7 K/9 against 4.4 BB/9 along with a 50.0% groundball rate, but has also been touched for home runs on 28.0% of the flyballs put in play against him. Knebel is sitting just under 97 mph with his average fastball, but has lost some of swinging-strike gains from 2017, with his 13.9% rate falling to 11.6% this year. His struggles have deepened of late, as he has coughed up eight earned runs in his past 6 1/3 innings.
As for Davies, who turned in solid campaigns from the rotation in each of the past two years, the 2018 season has been a rough one thus far. He only managed a 5.23 ERA through eight starts before hitting the shelf with shoulder troubles. Davies has actually taken more starts in the minors this year than in the majors, owing to a halting rehab course.
While Knebel will head to Triple-A to work out the kinks, Davies was formally assigned to the organization’s nearby Class A affiliate. The reason for the latter’s placement isn’t entirely clear, but it could be that the club thinks it may need to bring him back onto the MLB roster on short notice or that he’ll be getting some added rest time without re-starting another rehab stint. Or, perhaps this is just a holding spot for the time being while the next steps are hammered out.
Both pitchers will need to remain on optional assignment for at least ten days unless an active roster spot opens due to a DL placement. It’s at least worth noting that, to this point of the season, MLB players have only accrued 147 days of service. Knebel, a Super Two this year, will cross into the 3+ service class regardless of whether he returns to the MLB roster. Davies, though, entered the campaign with 2.020 service years on his ticker and is therefore still a few days shy of reaching arbitration eligibility in the coming offseason. He would still likely qualify as a Super Two, but that’d mean pushing back his eventual free agency by one season. Whether or not that’s a factor isn’t at all clear; it certainly could be that the organization plans to bring Davies back when rosters expand, if not sooner.
For the time being, there’s no known replacement for Knebel on the active roster. Milwaukee is off today. As Rosiak notes, he could be replaced by Joakim Soria, if he’s activated from the DL tomorrow. But the open roster spot could also be filled from the outside. Several starting pitchers are rumored to be on waivers or to have cleared waivers. It’s certainly possible — but by no means certain — that the Brewers are contemplating the acquisition of an outside arm.
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Well if the rumor that the Brewers are the team that claimed Matt Harvey are indeed true, this explains a lot.
Not even a fan of a team in the Central but the Brewers might have been the biggest losers of the deadline. Moustakas? Really?
What’s wrong with moustakas ?
He moved the regular and better 3B Shaw out of position to 2B and then traded for a 2B who had to be moved to SS. 2 ridiculous trades that if anything, made them worse. Especially when they needed pitching. Don’t give me that BS that they’re pitching stats were great, look at the guys on the team that have pitched out of their ***! It’s not sustainable and needed pitching help and refused to address it. What they did was make their defense worse and barely improved the offense. Milwaukee sucks, and really shot themselves in the foot this deadline.
What I don’t get is how their management can have such a good offseason and then screw up this bad at the deadline.
2 seasons in a row they were duds at the trade deadline.
Hey you know what buddy. I honestly will think the Brewers would be ahead in the offseason and go with Moose and Schoop at third and second respectively next year. Then you could trade Shaw for pitching or catching. These trades do not hurt the team as much as you think. They can help this team in the immediate time and future because by the time these guys become FA you should have Huira and Erceg ready for the majors. This isn’t a make or break year for the Brewers we are going to be very competitive for years to come. I think a guy like Shaw, Ray and maybe a Gatewood could get you a controlled ace. We didnt lose much when we got Schoop, Ortiz( yes may be good and may eat too much to be affective) and Villar( who management was fed up with him).
Acquiring good hitters was cheaper than acquiring good pitchers. So the Brewers went with good hitters and hoped their pitchers would bounce back.
Well… it hasn’t worked out that way, but that was the game plan. Can’t fault them too much.
There’s only so much viable pitching on the market. Not being able to get a deal done, doesn’t equal refusing to address it.
“Don’t give me that BS their pitching stats were great”. So what do we base it off of? Should we not use the numbers they put up the first 80% of the season?
I agree let’s not count stats they are BS! Get out of here with that.
Almost as bad as the signings my Cubs made this off season.
Yes. You absolutely can
.383 SLG since he got to Milwaukee in 90+ PAs. That’s supposedly what he does.
He is a one trick pony and he isn’t even elite at his one trick.
Brewers were desperate for starting pitching and watched Fiers, Pavano and JA Happ get picked up by other teams. Brewers actually had Fiers and knew what he could bring and still balked. They miss the playoffs and everyone will be asking how does the GM still have a job? Only other GM that did as bad of a job was the Dodgers not getting bullpen help.
I had no idea that Carl Pavano was being shopped
Well we ain’t making the playoffs again this year lol
Yes unfortunately
How are you going to say that while currently tied for a wild card spot and a little less than a month and a half left in the season. Their schedule doesn’t look bad either
Here we go everybody is going to assume because we got Matt Harvey but think it is only for Soria . I think it’s a good move to get Knebel some work. But I do like a lot of the guys that will come up on September first, Barnes, Wilkerson, Woodruff, Davies, Houser, Knebel, Hernandez, Thompson, and possibly Derby
If the Brewers claimed Harvey they’re in worse shape than I thought
I believe I heard/read that the Reds pulled Harvey back. We’ll know for certain Friday – Harvey is scheduled to pitch tomorrow.
Gio done deal. He, Chacin, Anderson/Peralta/Corbin/Haderade/JJ get us thru to NLCS
What. Are. You. Smoking.
First of all, who is this “Gio” player? More importantly, there has been NOTHING done with either one of the Reds players; so you must be the only person anywhere who knows that Harvey has been traded.
Yea, good luck getting to The NLDS with that rotation.
Gio to crew. He pulls a Cole. Going to a competitor can ignite a good player.
Have another beer…..
Made me laugh so much I had to comment
All brewers fans don’t funnel beers until we believe in our team.
Hahaha this one too
No big deal, Hader or Jeffress are way better than Knebel
Trades and claims not withstanding, sending both pitchers down gives them a chance to straighten them out without hurting the team.