Left-hander Eric Lauer has passed through waivers unclaimed and been outrighted by the Brewers to Triple-A Nashville, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Lauer has more than three years of service time, which gives him the right to reject this outright and elect free agency.
Lauer, now 28, once seemed like a solid part of the pitching staff in Milwaukee. Over 2021 and 2022, he tossed 277 1/3 innings for the Brewers with a 3.47 earned run average. He stuck out 23.8% of batters faced in that time while issuing walks at a 8.7% clip.
He and the club agreed to an arbitration salary of $5.075MM for 2023 and he opened the year in the club’s rotation. Unfortunately, he struggled to get on track this year, posting a 5.48 ERA through his first nine appearances. He landed on the injured list in late May due to an impingement in his non-throwing shoulder and the club optioned him to the minors once he was healthy enough to be activated. His 5.04 ERA in the minors this year wasn’t much better but he got recalled at the end of September to make an appearance after the club had already clinched the division. He allowed eight earned runs in four innings, ballooning his ERA for the season to 6.56.
Lauer could have been retained for 2024 via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a slight raise to a salary of $5.2MM next year. But after his poor results in 2023 and the fact that he’ll be out of options next year, it seems the Brewers weren’t willing to have him back at that price point.
Assuming Lauer elects free agency, he will head to the open market and be free to pursue contracts will all 30 clubs. His frustrating 2023 season will obviously hurt him but he can point to his strong results in the two previous campaigns as he looks for his next gig.
Gotta imagine he gets a cheap one-year deal from someone either way.
Not too long ago, this guy was a starting rotation trade target for Texas. He actually had decent value then. Things sure do change quickly.
Didn’t his brother Matt get canned from that Yesterday or Today show or whatever for “inappopriate” touching of like a dozen co-workers? I have no clue when it comes to celebrity stuff so I might have borked up some details.
I heard about that guy. It’s quite sad how he got fired over such nonsense.
What’s going on with those Rangers? Up 2-0 and now it’s 2-2. The only hope it seems that they have is that the Astros are terrible at home—39-42 during the regular season and 1-3 so far this postseason.
They have road field advantage here. Texas is just streak like crazy and Bochy won’t man up and hit Semien 8th or 9th since he has been slumping and is probably one of the worst guys for leading off. He swings way too aggressively for a guy with fewer than 30 homeruns each of his last 161 and 162 game seasons. He needs to be told to take 3-0 with 2 outs when Seager is next. Instead, the fool swings away like IKF is hitting next.
No kidding. Everybody should just be allowed to touch anyone anywhere anytime they please. What ever happened to our freedoms? And the same thing goes for Christmas!!
> Nobody should be allowed to touch
> anyone.
Fixed it.
Social distancing isn’t just for COVID. It’s probably legally advised, too.
@Seager and Hemlock
There are no quotes needed because there were over a dozen allegations made against him from coworkers, of which NBC’s investigations found to be legitimate. Imagine DEFENDING Matt Lauer. Matt Lauer barely even defended himself. I keep running into the biggest losers in the comment section here as of late and it’s really pathetic.
Matt Lauer is lucky he isn’t in prison.
Seager has the worst takes in the history of this website
Bochy won’t man up? It’s the post season!! You do realize the man has been to 4 different WS in his career as manage right? Winning 3 of them he knows what he’s doing and things will be fine for the rangers
Matt Lauer is 65, almost 66, he is Eric Lauers father, Eric was his youngest child, get the facts straight.
Sounds gonna contend next year.
No surprise here. Brewers got more mileage out of him I expected at least.
Starts in the pirates rotation in 2024 no doubt
Back to his sub 4 era ways
I am afraid of that. They are looking to bring in some pitching and he fits them perfectly unless they are doing things differently. I’d expect him to be good for a few weeks, then get shelled for a month, then go down with injury.
Good reclamation candidate
Bring him home, Guardians!
local kid makes good
Left handed. He’ll get another shot, but please Preller, don’t bring him back to San Diego.
Assuming a reunion with Wacha, Lugo and Martinez is in the works, at a minimum Padres would need 2 depth guys. With no lefties in the rotation I don’t see a problem with a minimum + incentives or minor league opt out deal with EL.
Would rather have Montgomery and Yamamoto but if TOR guys aren’t signed will need 2-3 project / rebound guys hoping 1 pans out for at least 1/2 season.
He’s going to get a one-year prove it deal. 2023 was an injury year, so he might bounce back after recovering fully. He was effective in 2022 so he’s not so far removed from being good.
2023 was not so much physical injuries but he had mental issues. He spent most of the time in az trying to throw and working with mental health professionals. Milwaukee kept everything close to the vest. He spent so much time there he now has an extra year of arbitration.
Did not know about his mental health issues he had. That’s very considerate of the Brewers to not air that out in the open. I hope he gets better, the mental health is always harder to recover from than a physical injury. Thank you for providing that information.
He was pretty good not too long ago
The perfect type of player for the Royals to pick up
Hook had him throwing his cutter a lot more and his slider a lot less. Though I didn’t see enough to say anything definitive with confidence, I wonder if his cutter was the reason he struggled to get first-pitch strikes.
Anyway, it’s easy to see him rebounding next season.
2016 MLB – Drafted ahead of Pete Alonso and Bo Bichette; he also beat them to an MLB roster, as Lauer was the first in his draft class to appear in the Majors….