The Brewers announced today that they have re-signed lefty Alex Claudio to a one-year deal. The MDR Sports Management client was non-tendered by Milwaukee last week but will return on a lesser deal than the projected $2.2MM he’d been projected to earn. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that he’ll earn $1.75MM on the new arrangement. Claudio will remain arbitration-eligible next winter as well.
Claudio, 28 next month, was acquired from the Rangers last winter in a trade that sent a Competitive Balance draft selection from Milwaukee to Texas. He was used largely as a specialist, as evidenced by totaling 62 innings despite appearing in a league-leading 83 games. Claudio notched a 4.06 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and a strong 57.9 percent ground-ball rate last season, holding opposing left-handed hitters to a .218/.301/.378 line through 137 plate appearances.
Claudio has consistently overwhelmed opposing lefties in his career, limiting them to a miserable .201/.245/.306 slash, but right-handers have typically had little trouble figuring him out. That was the case again in 2019 (.274/.357/.469), and it’ll be perhaps even more problematic for him next year when the league is expected to adopt a new rule that requires a pitcher to either face a minimum of three batters or finish an inning. Milwaukee was able to allow Claudio to face more left-handed batters than right-handed batters this past year (137 to 130), but that’s unlikely to be the case in 2020.
this will likely be a bargain if he is used anywhere near the levels he was last year.
Not really, since his value as a classic LOOGY is significantly cut by the new rule requiring him to face 3 batters or finish a half inning. That’s probably why the Brewers non-tendered him in order to cut his projected arbitration earnings in the first place.
What is a half inning?
Bottom half or top half, I guess.
SERIOUSLY? Okay…. there is the top half of an inning, and the bottom half of an inning. One where the team pitches, and one where the team hits…simple.
Sorry for asking. I don’t really have time to read the rule book anymore to see what’s new. So if there is a pitcher getting shelled the team must keep that pitcher in for 3 outs? Well, I guess tv loves scoring.
3 batters, not 3 outs.
Not three outs, three batters. If a pitcher comes in and give up two home-runs, he can intentionally walk the third man, and be taken out. BUT it can be to the end of the inning also, whether that be 1,2, or 3 batters. The point is just to not have so many pitching changes, and to speed up the game some.
Thanks. That makes more sense
Protect and serve, thats our motto. lol
Apparently it is not guaranteed rule yet because now they are thinking about not even having it. It turns out that in reality it will only save 45 seconds a game
i mean, i just dont buy him being as pure a loogy as some say. the guy averages about 3.2 batters faced an outing regardless, and although you have about 1/3 reaching, it seems like there really isnt as huge an issue as there seems to be. additionally there is obviously a big split between his splits, but his vs righty splits aren’t really as terrible as some loogys are, and his vs lefty splits and durability make up for these imperfections a bit.
glad hes back. Im assuming they got him even cheaper for what he wanted, since he was non tendered.
First move of the winter meeting.
Nice
Can’t wait to see him implode at county stadium
That would be something special as they tore that stadium down almost 2 decades ago.
Ha!!!
;0p
wow they cut him to save under half a million? should’ve just gone to arbitration with him then.
Why? Now they have clarity for that bullpen spot and they don’t risk that the arbitrator will award the player his arb number.
it wasnt a lock he was resigning for them, (see Guerra) and having to conceded such a measly number in arbitration really shouldnt be a problem for any team.
Arbitration probably isn’t a good idea in his case (as a LOOGY), although I’m curious as to how an arbitration panel would look at a argument of expected lesser production going forward due to a rule change. Probably the only comparable situation since the spitball (and a few other things) was outlawed nearly a century ago is when the mound was lowered for the 1969 season, but alas, arbitration didn’t start until the year after that.
He’s pretty much a LOOGY, so I hope With the new rule change, I hope he pitches better against right handed hitters this year.
They might just save him for when there are two outs and a lefty coming up. Even more of a specialist than he was last year.
Wish the rangers could’ve gotten him again, we need a few strong arms back, even though our bullpen is okay as is.
easily the biggest news of the day…lol
With the new rules, is it legal to have a second pitcher in the game say at 3b, then swap him with the one on the mound between batters, without a mound visit/official pitching change (also not allowing warm up pitches either)?
Cuz if they can get away with it, I can see Counsell using this strategy every game.
Intresting, but I am not sure. I know this is referring to what the rays did last year, but I even forget if they counted those as “real pitching changes”. Anywho, it changes strategy if you can.
I’m pretty sure it still counts as a pitching change.
Isn’t the rule change mainly to try and speed up games? If so, and swapping 2 guys already on the field takes no extra time (since there’s still going to be 30+ seconds between batters anyway, since the rule to try and force hitters to not take a day and a half to walk to the plate, or between pitches didn’t really work) it theoretically won’t slow the game down.
Plus, with all the shifting the brewers already do, they can kinda hide a guy (and its not like we currently have a clear option at 3b anyway..).
Whether or not it actually follows the intent of the new rule, the letter of the rule including the basic definition of “pitching change” still needs to be followed. You can’t always legislate for every individual situation that may occur, and this isn’t some kind of huge problem that needs a specific patch.
Claudio Throws too slow, was hammered often when it counted. Brewers needed Lyles or Poneranz back. Unfortunately our Crew are the Dollar Store of MLB when it comes to signing players. Very unexciting signing.
Both thise guys were significantly overpaid, based on small sample sizes of success. You probably would have flipped a nut if Stearns had paid either of them even close to what they actually got.
You seem to get stupider with every passing post, Karl.
They were wise to let both guys go at the money they ended up getting.