Danny Coulombe Opts Out Of Brewers Contract

Left-hander Danny Coulombe has exercised a release clause within his minor league deal with the Brewers and is now a free agent, the team announced (Twitter link).  Coulombe signed with Milwaukee back in July, a few weeks after being released from a previous minors contract with the Yankees.

For the entire 2019 season, Coulombe has a cumulative 4.79 ERA over 35 2/3 relief innings at the Triple-A level, also missing a month on the injured list while with New York’s Triple-A affiliate.  Despite a 15.1 K/9, Coulombe has been badly hurt by home runs, allowing nine long balls over his limited number of innings.  (His walk rate also ballooned to 6.0 BB/9 when with the Yankees, though that number shrunk to a far more respectable 1.4 BB/9 over 13 frames in the Brewers’ farm system.)  Home runs had generally not been much of a problem for Coulombe prior to last season, when his HR/9 spiked to 1.9 over 23 2/3 innings on the Athletics’ big league roster.

Between the homer issues and a lack of need for left-handed relief in the Brewers’ pen (Alex Claudio and Drew Pomeranz are on hand, not to mention closer Josh Hader), it’s safe to infer that Coulombe knew he wasn’t going to be called up when rosters expand on September 1, so he has left the Brewers in search of another opportunity elsewhere.  There’s perhaps room for him to catch on with a team as a lefty specialist, as Coulombe has held Triple-A left-handed hitters to just a .580 OPS this season, to go along with his solid work (.631 OPS in 287 PA) against lefty swingers at the Major League level.

Coulombe has yet to appear in the majors this season after amassing 153 appearances for the Dodgers and A’s from 2014-2018.  He has a career 4.27 ERA, 8.4 K/9, and 2.20 K/BB rate over 143 1/3 IP in the Show, including a workhorse year for Oakland in 2017 that saw him appear in 72 games.