The Giants have signed right-handed reliever John Brebbia to a major league deal worth $800K for next season, Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group reports. It’s fully guaranteed, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.
Brebbia came available when the Cardinals non-tendered him earlier this month. They would have owed him a projected $800K in arbitration had they kept Brebbia, but after he missed all of last season because of Tommy John surgery, the Cardinals decided to go in another direction. He could be a member of the Giants for the next three seasons, as he’s under arbitration control through 2023.
Because he went under the knife in late June, Brebbia will not be able to help the Giants for at least the first couple months of next season – if it starts on time or anywhere close, that is. But the Giants are nonetheless taking a low-risk chance on a pitcher who posted terrific numbers out of the Cardinals’ bullpen from 2017-19. Brebbia, now 30 years old, combined for 175 innings of 3.14 ERA/3.39 FIP ball with 10.18 K/9 and 2.79 BB/9 during that span. Despite a paltry 28 percent groundball rate, Brebbia has allowed just 0.98 home runs per nine during his career.
isnt he injured?
That’s what the article says.
It didn’t when Darkside posted his comment.
Fair enough.
it was more rhetorical. my point is i have a hard time seeing him being any sort of factor with his timeline.
3 or 4 years of team control for a guy who’s been productive in his career.
Giants are clearly rebuilding and he could be a trade asset if he recovers and pitches like he did.
Worth a shot.
They had a similar guy like this in Sam Dyson.
Low cost acquisition and turned into a decent trade piece.
yeah, forgot the arb for some reason
Yeah Cardinals been Cutting all kinds of players and been get zip in return. Management been doing good it seems
He looks pretty good based on stats from the olden days like ERA and strikeouts but those stats are old now. I am going to look up some sabermetric stats like WARs and FIPs to see what the algorithms say about him. BRB
Good beard.
Tbh thats all that matters
Funny, @Von –
I have the exact opposite take.
He’s good if he’s healthy.
I assume he’ll be under team control through at least 2022 or 2023. Otherwise a one-year deal would make no sense.
Correct. He is still arbitration eligible, for multiple seasons I believe.
true, i overlooked that. forehead.
Always thought this guy was a bit underrated, and his name is kind of fun to say. Another good depth signing for the Giants.
Seems like a good clubhoue guy to have around. All the interviews I’ve seen on “Cardinals Insider” when asked who the funniest member on the team was, Brebbia was who everyone picked.
If he can return healthy, this could be a really great signing. Pretty underrated relief pitcher the last few years.
Daddy no likey.
Nope. Cards should have kept him.
Brebbia is controllable for 2 more seasons, so this is mostly – maybe entirely – a move for ’22 & ’23.
Looks like a savvy roll of the dice, to me.
One of more reliable relievers for the Cardinals the past couple seasons Giants are getting a good arm if he can get to forum before TJ
Never really cared for him. Good luck
I like this move for a retooling team. Signed now but probably with an eye towards 2022.
Giants will put this kid on the 60 day DL as soon as they can to clear a spot on the 40 man roster. He’ll probably stay there most of the year.
Yep. Zero risk move.
Brebbia will pitch for them this year for sure.. Hes already throwing.. Big mistake by the cards.. He pitched in high leverage situations and was great.. Cards used him like a rented mule and he still was great until the elbow finaly gave. Sweet deal for the giants..
i find that hard to believe if he had the surgery in June
Brebbia had his surgery june 1 of 2020. several pitchers have returned in just over 12 months.as the whole process has.improved in recent years.
Generally speaking, TJS rehab in now taking *longer*. The timeline used to always be given as 12-14 months. Now it’s typically noted to be a 14-16 months long rehab.
My guess is that you are looking at all the TJS guys in their entirety. If you keep your search results to the last 5 years i don’t think you’ll find any pitchers that returned in less than 14 months.
Ducky Buckin Fent:
Cueto last pitched before TJS on 7/28/18, and then pitched on 9/10/19 on his return. That is less than 14 months.
Sure is, @tad2b13.
Really recent, too.
Welp, I’m starting to question the validity of that mail order medical degree of mine.
Good catch.
Agreed that all pitchers are different. here are some quick recoveries. from surgery to playing.
Strasberg sept 3 2010 to sept 6 2011
Smolts march 23 2000 to may 17 2001
Wainright feb 28 2011 to april 7 2012
DarkSide830::
It’s the type of throwing. After three months and up to six months after, rehab includes soft tossing 30 feet, no wind up, and progressing to 50 feet, 10-15 min. 2-3 times a week.
After six months, which is what it’s been, soft tossing on alternate days, 30 feet, 10-15 min, sessions; Progress to soft tossing with occasional straight throw at ½ speed, 60 feet, 20-25 min/session, 2-3 times a week.
I’m genuinely asking, @tad2b13 –
Have you done it? That’s really specific stuff. Or do you know someone who is?
Again this isn’t internet snark.
But your detailed post piqued my curiosity. For instance that it’s in minutes as opposed to number of pitches.
Thanks.
Ducky:
No, I have no first-hand experience. It’s just something I found interesting and did some research. Especially since it always seems to be a point of disagreement. But I will add the caveat that every guy is different. It seems that 14 months is a fairly average, but then you have guys like Zack Wheeler, where it seemed like it took multiple seasons before he was effective after TJS.
Part of that is recalibration, generally you gain significant velocity for the first year or so and kind of need to re learn your mechanics, for some guys it is easier and for others not so much
Thanks.
You must have done some decent research.
I had Tommy John with Dr. Andrews, who is regarded as the best there is. I was pitching again in about 14 months, but it took 2 full years before I was throwing hard again. I was 16 when I had it though, so maybe that was a factor.
Noted.
Thanks for weighing in.
If he can rebound he’ll be a solid arm for the Giants pen at some point. Hated to lose him.
I like this deal. It sheds a little light on FZ’s timeline too. I think, contrary to an article in the Athletic about a month ago, the Giants are not trying to speed up their rebuild in an effort to compete in 2021. They seem to be looking to 2022-2023. Makes sense
To me!
It is probably like 2020, they aren’t planning on fielding a crap team but don’t expect to win the division on 2021 or anything either, just keep re strengthening the system and depth until some of the young guys break out
Good low risk, high upside deal.
Great signing. Look at this guy’s WHIP, his HR/per9. This is masterful.
The Pride of Elon…
Good deal for who? Giants docs have a good track record with tjs recovery.
I hated to see him go. He was very effective and I think under normal circumstances $800k would have been a reasonable risk to take. If he comes back he’ll be a bargain
Nice deal just to gain control over him even if he doesn’t pitch this year. The best is the difference between his Baseball Reference photo vs. the photo used for this article.
Zaidi’s, making that big move!
ROTFL
More small moves on the fringes of the 40-man roster. Nothing to really see here beyond a cheap coin flip that he recovers well and regains his past success. Middle to late innings reliever is fine upside but he’s 30 and not likely to be impact guy. So we continue to wait and wait and wait to witness the Zaidi magic. Kapler was mostly a disaster with inept handling of pitching staff. Other moves for a bunch of waivers guys or cheap vets have been mostly meh. Yaz is excellent find but lots of misses to go with a few reasonable bench/platoon types (Dickerson, Solano, etc). Not very inspiring but once the highly paid guys go, it’ll be time to put up or go away. After 2021 the budget opens up, several prospects should be ready, and then who knows…