The Brewers are re-signing first baseman Jon Singleton to a minor league contract, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com (Twitter link). The 31-year-old will be in big league Spring Training as a non-roster invitee, McCalvy adds.
It’s a second straight season in the Milwaukee organization for Singleton, who hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since 2015. A member of Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects lists every year between 2011-14, the power-hitting first baseman signed a $10MM extension with the Astros in June 2014. That came in conjunction with his first big league promotion, a precursor to pre-MLB guarantees for players like Scott Kingery, Eloy Jiménez and Luis Robert. Houston’s hope was they’d found a middle-of-the-order presence for years to come, but the left-handed hitter didn’t meet the lofty expectations.
Over the next season and a half, Singleton sputtered to a .171/.290/.331 line in 114 MLB games. After playing the 2016-17 seasons in the high minors, he was released in May 2018. That came on the heels of a third career suspension following a failed test for a drug of abuse. As McCalvy chronicled in greater detail this past spring, Singleton has been open about his battle with marijuana addiction.
Singleton spent a few years out of the game but returned to professional baseball in Mexico last year. He spent the entire 2022 campaign with the Brew Crew’s top affiliate in Nashville, putting together a solid season. Through 581 plate appearances, he hit .219/.375/.434. His batting average isn’t eye-catching, but he connected on 24 home runs and drew walks in an incredible 20.1% of his trips to the dish. Even with an elevated 27.7% strikeout rate, he ranked 15th among 148 International League hitters (minimum 300 plate appearances) in on-base percentage and tied for seventh in long balls.
That wasn’t enough for Singleton to get a big league look, but it was sufficient for the Brewers to bring him back on another minor league deal. He’ll get a chance to compete for an MLB job next spring. Milwaukee can retain both of their 2022 first basemen, Rowdy Tellez and Keston Hiura. Like Singleton, Tellez is a left-handed hitter whose profile is carried by his power and plate discipline. He’s clearly above Singleton on the depth chart, although he’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $5.3MM salary in his second year of arbitration eligibility. That’s not an insignificant sum for a Brewers team with a huge arbitration class, and as MLBTR’s Maury Ahram explored earlier this month, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Milwaukee fields trade offers on Tellez this offseason.
Maybe there was some potential truth to that Tellez-trade-candidate idea after all. Even if Twitter didn’t say so.
If this is their grand plan for first base it’s going to be a looooong 2023
I mean it IS a minor league deal, just like last year. But I wouldn’t put it past them to roll with him and ship Tellez out. Gotta save those pennies ya know.
So he had a Marijuana addiction and goes to play in Mexico? That would be like an alcoholic going to work for Coors.
Another young person brought down by the chronic.
Time to get rid of any pot laws. There’s nothing I can’t do high. Anyone who gets stupid high will just pass out before doing anything crazy
No doubt. It’s known not to be addictive at all, and most athletes use it and certainly playground ballers use while playing (and playing well).
If this guy isn’t any good at baseball–which appears to be the case–it’s not because he smokes weed.
Whether legal or not, Mary Jane seems to have had a negative effect on the baseball performance of one, Jon Singleton.
There’s nothing I can’t do high.
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No problem with your knee surgeon opening you up while smoking a joint? My perspective on my use of drugs, including alcohol, is that I wanted to get high. I wanted to feel different. Or from a financial perspective, I not paying good money for anything that will leave me feeling the same way after I use it.
Except that addict has millions paid by houston
Its not like he got a job as a roadie or anything….
It’s moves like this that really inspire confidence for the Milwaukee fan base. 365 days from now Singleton will be hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy.
Heck of a filmmaker.
He’s becoming a real trail blazer.
Everyone deserves a fifth chance. Just kidding. Hope things work out for him this time around.
“Marijuana addiction”? That’s not a real thing.
You can get addicted to anything.
“Marijuana is not a drug. I used to s**k d**k for coke”
Science says you can’t to weed.
There is no physical addiction, but there is always mental addiction.
@JoeB,
Agreed. I understand orange skin bronzer is bigly addictive.
It absolutely is a real thing.
Absolutely wrong. You must not subscribe to the NORML page on FB.
@spyke
Getting your information from Norml isn’t exactly the most unbiased source. I’m all for marijuana legalization and and change in marijuana laws. But NORML is only going to post stuff that promotes there point of view. (Trust me Ive been an advocate for NORML for years. bit people have thrown there jobs away, effected there personal relationships because of cannabis. Its a very small amount but it does happen. Are you one of those people that says “weeds just a plant, man it’s not a drug.” Like Joe Brady says, you can get addicted to anything that changes the way you feel. To say that a small amount of people don’t struggle with being high all the time is ignorant
I’m 100% in favor of legalization. I won’t even go into the myriad of ways outlawing it hurts our country. But to think it won’t have negative percussions is silly. It’s like legalizing alcohol. The positives, imho, will out-weigh the negatives, but I wouldn’t pretend that there won’t be negatives.
It’s a very real thing, dingus. It’s not physically addicting like heroin and benzodiazpines, meaning you get sick and have dangerous withdrawal symptoms like seizures or being “dope sick”. But doing anything for long periods of time continually can make it to where you aren’t able to be happy and enjoy life without the substance. It’s just like how people get addicted to gambling, they love the feeling it gives them and will neglect priorities to get that feeling. Granted most people can smoke marijuana and be fine, but, there is a small percentage of people that use it to the point that it starts effecting how they go about there day. Technically, crystal meth isn’t PHYSICALLY ADDICTING by definition but try telling there aren’t people hooked on that lol.
Meth is absolutely physically addicting.
The gambling comparison is also absolutely wrong because there is a physical component to that: adrenaline. It’s no different than extreme sports or people who are con artists. The thrill produces REAL chemicals that are addicting, just from within.
Weed is not physically addictive at all and is perhaps as mild a psychological one as thumb sucking.
Meth is “technically” not physically addicting. A physically addicting drug causes physically causes a physical dependence. Meth is all a a psychological dependence. your just using to chase that rush it causes and to not be so tired it’s all in the phenomenon of craving. Where aas a person trying to quit alcohol, opiates,benzodiazpines, or coming off things like even anti-convulsants are physical. In a physical dependence a persons body gets use to having a chemical and absolutely NEEDS it. Not having it can be literally dangerous. You can die from alcohol and benzodiazpine withdrawal if you aren’t tapered properly. And yeah gambling is an adrenaline spike, it’s a different chemical reaction in your brain then THC but what I was saying was it causes a psychological sense of pleasure that a very small percentage of people depend on and keep chasing. That is what I was saying. Oh and coming off meth is a cake walk compared to alcohol and benzodiazpine withdrawal. You can literally sleep it off for two weeks on the couch. You won’t need to go somewhere and taper off meth for health risks. Another key thing I said is a very SMALL amount of people get addicted to weed. It’s not common, but it can happen after people use it constantly for days. Look man I’ve done every almost every drug out there when I was young and stupid. I have personal experience with this stuff bro. Marijuana was never a problem for me but it does happen. And it’s not “like sucking your thumb.” Sucking your thumb doesn’t change the way you feel or get you high.
Marijuana was never a problem for me but it does happen.
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I use to be in contact with a guy that kept a very detailed on-line log of when he gave up pot. He said, at various times, that when he gave it up, it only then when he realized how sloggy (made-up term) his thinking process had become. And he mentioned how mentally tough it was for him to withdraw.
I tried it when I was a kid, but mostly because others were toking, but it was never my thing.
But no one ever takes a drug, including coffee, unless it affects your thinking and behavior. And anything that makes you feel better, is going to have some withdrawal effects. Giving up my 12 cups of coffee a day was probably the worst pain I ever felt.
probably has a high exit velocity. Him and jason Heyward #1 baseball player on that stat among with mario mendoza.
Worse extension: Jon Singleton or Scott Kingery? Kingery accomplished slightly more, but was also paid a lot more. I guess Evan White should be mentioned also.
Evan White has to be the worst of them all
Worse extension: Jon Singleton or Scott Kingery?
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Kingery was worse. Substance abuse aside, there were no reasons to think Singleton wouldn’t succeed. He didn’t have a high ceiling, and he played 1B, but he figured to hit okay.
Kingery had a 58/13 K/W in AAA, (~ 4.5:1), and that was at age 23, when prospects start aging out of AAA. The 126/24 K/W as a rookie is largely unsustainable, but should not have come as a surprise.
Jon Singleton should have buzzed the Pirates before signing. A better fit.
What makes you think he didn’t?
Pirates would have signed him.
They couldn’t yet. I don’t think teams are allowed to sign free agents other than their own until after the WS.
Not even a minor league player to a minor league contract?
Not 100% sure to be honest. But I haven’t seen any signings mentioned on this site other than extensions with original teams.
I don’t know. The Pirates just signed Josh Broughton to a Minor League deal the other day.
I saw Singleton play this season. He was surprisingly quick around first base on defense and in good shape. He’s a big guy, and strictly a three-outcome type of hitter.
“littering and…littering and…littering and?”
31? Still chasing the elusive dream. Oh, he’s been a pro that pissed away a $10MM deal?!?
Good luck, Smoky!
Odds are, if there was an addiction issue, that $10m ($7 after taxes and his agent’s cut) was squandered years ago.
Marijuana addiction? Dumbest excuse ever
Get some will power
Hey he had a decent numbers this year, git in great shape and stay out of trouble. There are plenty of teams that he could help. I hope he is a late bloomer. I’m proud of himself. Yeah he pissed it all away and has been successful in rebuilding his life so far. I wish him the best and he keeps getting better in all aspects. If he can help us then more power to the Brewers. Keep it up Arnold in building this team. We gotta be 60 players deep to get through 162 games. Which we didn’t even have a 40 man roster that was capable
Should Rizzo opt out from his Yankees deal this winter, Tellez might be a good lower-cost replacement. Ideal for Hal Wilpon’s budget plan.
He’s AAA depth. First base is a position the Brewers don’t have much depth.
My favorite Jon Singleton stat: He has 420 career MLB plate appearances.
Need a AAA first baseman. Incredible how Milwaukee hasn’t developed 1 1b since drafting Prince Fielder. For all the bad defense players just put at 1b, there is literally no one drafted who has started at 1b full time by Milwaukee.
That is the problem with the franchise. They do not draft well or development players well. Corey Ray is the latest first round draft choice to go bust. Next up, Keston Huira