Brewers Avoid Arbitration With Hoby Milner, Victor Caratini

The Brewers have avoided arbitration with a pair of players before tomorrow’s deadline for sides to exchange salary figures. Reliever Hoby Milner and the club have settled at $1.025MM, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (Twitter link). Catcher Víctor Caratini and the team are in agreement on a $2.8MM salary, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (on Twitter).

Milner inked a minor league contract with Milwaukee over the 2020-21 offseason. The Brewers selected him onto the big league roster that May and he’s held a spot over the past year and a half. The southpaw made 67 appearances last season, working to a 3.76 ERA through 64 2/3 innings. Milner induced grounders at a quality 48.9% clip with a solid 23.5% strikeout percentage and minuscule 5.5% walk rate.

A Texas product, Milner has also pitched with the Phillies, Rays and Angels. He owns a 4.31 ERA over 142 career frames, holding 20 leads while primarily working as a situational left-hander. He topped the three year service threshold last season and reached arbitration for the first time. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected him for a $1.1MM salary. Turning 32 years old tomorrow, Milner remains under club control through 2025.

Caratini was acquired from the Padres in Spring Training. The switch-hitting catcher played in 96 games as part of a timeshare with Omar Narváez. Caratini got out to a hot start but had a brutal second half, and he finished the season with a .199/.300/.342 line through 314 plate appearances. He hit nine home runs and posted decent strikeout and walk numbers but was plagued by a .228 batting average on balls in play. With Narváez now in Queens, Milwaukee acquired William Contreras to take the primary catching job.

A former 2nd-round draftee of the Cubs, Caratini has over five years of MLB service. He’ll hit free agency for the first time in advance of his age-30 season next winter. His $2.8MM salary for his final arbitration year is an exact match with Swartz’s projection.