The Brewers have designated Opening Day-starter Jhoulys Chacin for assignment, Robert Murray of The Athletic reports. IF/OF Cory Spangenberg has also been selected from Triple-A San Antonio, per the team.
Chacin, 31, had hit the IL with a lat-strain a week ago after a dreadful 2019 campaign. The righty, who started some of the biggest games for the Central-winning Crew last season, pitched to a 5.79 ERA/5.69 FIP in the final year of a two-year, $15.5MM deal signed prior to the 2018 season. Chacin’s strikeout rate was actually the highest of his career, but his longstanding command woes re-appeared and he was unable to keep the ball in the park, the one trait at which he excelled so masterfully last season.
Chacin’s 3.50 ERA in ’18 was mostly a mirage – his .250 BABIP, the second-lowest mark in the NL, wasn’t going to be sustained, nor was a 0.84 HR/9 in Milwaukee’s puny Miller Park. Once an extreme sinkerballer in his Coors Field days, Chacin in recent seasons has become heavily reliant on a hard-to-identify slider, a pitch NL hitters have finally begun to figure out. The righty’s grounder rate, at 37.4%, was a career low, and he wasn’t able to throw enough strikes to compensate. Chacin’ll certainly be an intriguing buy-low option for many contenders, a number of which may have designs on inserting the hurler into some sort of righty-heavy relief role.
Spangenberg, now 28, had spent all of ’19 at San Antonio. The longtime Padre has posted some of the league’s highest strikeout rates in recent seasons, and doesn’t much appear to have mollified the issue in AAA, with a K rate still hovering near 30%. Still, he possesses an intriguing power/versaility combo off at the bench, and could conceivably fill in at a number of positions for the Crew down the stretch.
Wow what happened to him he used to be decent
What a fall from grace. Brew Crews best starter last year
He was good last year
what? thought they had the best rotation in the central???
Yea, the best rotation on the division, behind the Cubs, Cards, Reds, and Pirates
Who ever said that? It was the bullpen that people expected to be good
Seems like the kind of guy the Brewers should be putting claims on.
Um…
whooooooosh
Awful year and a couple stints in IL after being really solid the last 2 years.
Is he waiver claim material? Or maybe a team signs him to league minimum after Brewers release him?
Latter.
It’s hard to understand why the Brewers FO hasn’t tried harder at acquiring front line starters. Instead, they seem content with trying to throw more offense at the roster, in hopes of out-clubbing opponents.
Who were we supposed to get? We’re a small market team. Should we have signed Keuchel? Because he’s worked out REALLY well for the Braves so far!!!
Can we now admit that the Brewers should have ponied up for Derek Johnson the pitching coach now.
From what I understand, he wanted to leave. 1 thing for sure was going “home” to Cincy. Seems like there was something about philosophical differences as well, but not so much that Milwaukee wasn’t willing to retain him. In a nutshell, leaving was his choice, not about $ or the f.o. not wanting him around.
I can absolutely understand his want to return home. Could never blame him for that. I guess I understand that both contracts were equal as far as money. I just felt they should have been willing to make it very hard for him to even consider leaving. All in all I had great respect for what he did for a lot of pitchers
What happens to Grisham? Why doesn’t he play, a waste to call him up. Is he a real prospect? Or just another quad A type.
He’s only 22 and a former 1st rounder, so he’s hardly a AAAA. But his MiLB stats are pretty horrendous prior to this season, so who knows.
Ok it’s only been what 2 games since he started and he quite frankly has looked pretty decent. I think he is here to stay. I look for him to get more at bats in left field after Braun gets more comfortable at firstbase. Plus next year you wont have Thames around next year.
Thank GOD
So the Brewers are dropping a starting pitcher in favor of a K prone power bat; isn’t that precisely the opposite of what they need? Stupid Brewers.
Go get em Spangy!
Welcome to the Phillies.
Had a better year than Matt Harvey at considerably less money.
Let that sink in.
Spangy might be what the Brewers need at SS. Defensively, he’s no Arcia, but he should provide better offense since that bar is set pretty low.
Big thing for Spangy is to stay healthy. Had sporadic shots with the Padres but just when it seemed he was putting things together, he’d get hurt and miss time.
Maybe he can do for the Brewers what Scooter did for the Reds after the Brewers released him? Spangy was a former #1 pick. At the very least, he’s versatile. You can plug him in anywhere in the infield and also in LF if need be and he’ll give you a solid performance.
Finally, I still think St. Louis wins the NL Central. They always seem to get hot late.