The Brewers have signed left-hander Fernando Abad to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Nashville.
Abad, 37, signed a minor league deal with the Rockies in the offseason and was selected to their big league roster twice, though both instances saw him get designated for assignment after a short period of time. He appeared in six games for the Rox with a 4.26 ERA. His 30 1/3 innings in Triple-A this year have resulted in a 3.86 ERA, with Abad striking out 27.8% of hitters while walking just 2.6%. But he allowed nine earned runs over his last five appearances and got released last week.
This is Abad’s 11th season seeing some time in the majors, having previously suited up for the Astros, Nationals, Athletics, Twins, Red Sox, Giants and Orioles prior to joining the Rockies this year. He has a 3.78 ERA over 406 appearances in that time, with a 19.3% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 41.7% ground ball rate.
The Brewers have operated for parts of this season with Hoby Milner as their only left-handed reliever, with various attempts to deploy a second lefty having gone poorly thus far. The club acquired Andrew Chafin prior to the deadline and has also given brief showings to Ethan Small, Clayton Andrews and Bennett Sousa. Amazingly, none of those four have an ERA south of 11.81 for the Brewers this year. Each case is a small sample of 5 1/3 innings or less, but it’s still a part of the roster that’s a bit shaky at the moment.
By bringing Abad aboard, the Brewers will add some veteran non-roster depth for their lefty relief mix. By joining the organization prior to September 1, he will be eligible to pitch for the Brewers in the postseason, if they were to qualify and he were to earn his way into a role. Rosters expand from 26 to 28 in September, which could perhaps open a spot for him, though he would need to be added to the 40-man roster.
Not a bad deal considering it’s a minor league deal.
MLB lifetime stats;
W- 9
L- 29
ERA 3.78
Proof that won / lost stats may not be that relevant
I don’t know – it seems like abad deal to me
Not Abad move at this point
Might not be abad signing
Not Abad career for not that great a pitcher!
Not Agood career either…
Abad always has a job waiting.
Meanwhile Brent Suter is having a fine season… just baffles me they let him go
His fastball was about 86 mph last year. He was either lights out or turn out the lights, with the latter being a too frequent occurrence for their liking I assume.
Oh, and he was going to cost more than a ham and cheese on rye this year.
MLB minimum at $720,000 or $3900 per day is one hell of a ham & cheese on rye, that said, the transaction page is littered with AAA pitchers who should not be in the MLB. I remember when the MLB was 16 teams (too few), but 30 really is greater than the amount of talent to go around. The boarder line guys keep getting chances to prove themselves.
By MLB standards it’s cheap. And it’s a figure of speech. But it’s probably about as much as the Brewers were willing to fork over to a soft tossing lefty they didn’t feel comfortable using regularly in high leverage situations.
And since you brought it up, Milwaukee LOVES those AAA boarder line guys.
Every team ‘loves’ the boarder line guys, because there is no alternative. There are more roster spots (13×30) than really quality, major league ready pitchers available.
Cheap by MLB standards is still 13 times the national average household income! Is like saying the National annual budget deficit is only a trillion dollars. It does not sound like much until you realize just how many zeros that is $1,000,000,000,000.
11 years and 8 teams later, he’s still living out of a suitcase.
Just came to read Abad pun or 6
$6 M in career earning. Not Abad at all.
Not Abad for a pitcher who has been released by 1/3 of the MLB teams. I wonder if he is going for the record held by Edwin Jackson – 14 teams. It takes Abad player to be released that many times or Abad GM to think the player will be enough better to not be Abad.
Ive never heard Abad joke in the comments section on any article about this guy.
Two penguins walked into a bar…
A horse walked into a bar, bartender asked, “Why the long face”
I’m really just waiting on some Wilmer Font news
Not too excited!