The Brewers and Austin Nola are in agreement on a minor league deal, according to MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. The deal includes an invite to big league Spring Training next month.
Nola, 34, struggled terribly in 2023 with a disastrous slash line of .146/.260/.192 in 154 trips to the plate before he was optioned to Triple-A in mid-July, allowing the Padres to utilize a catching tandem of Gary Sanchez and Luis Campusano for the remainder of the season. Nola discussed his offensive woes back in September, revealing that he had been diagnosed with oculomotor dysfunction, an issue that impacts the brain’s ability to coordinate eye movement and comes with symptoms such as fogginess and headaches. Nola’s worrisome performance led San Diego to non-tender him back in November, sending him to the open market where he has now been snatched up by Milwaukee.
While it’s not clear how Nola’s health has evolved over the past few months or what impact it will have on his performance going forward, it’s not hard to imagine Nola returning to form offensively if healthy. After all, Nola entered the 2023 campaign with a solid .263/.336/.395 slash line for his career, good for a 105 wRC+, and above average offense behind the plate is fairly difficult to come by, particularly when paired with roughly average defense behind the plate. On the other hand, much of that strong offense and solid defense came early in Nola’s career as he slashed an impressive .280/.351/.476 in 377 trips to the plate in a Mariners uniform.
After being traded to the Padres in seven-player deal that sent Ty France and Andres Munoz (among others) to Seattle, Nola’s offense dipped considerably as he put up essentially league average numbers down the stretch in 2020 before slashing just .258/.327/.344 in 166 games with the Padres from 2021-22. Nola’s defense also took a tumble during his time with San Diego, as Statcast suggests he was worth a whopping -12 runs behind the plate in 2022 alone. It’s fair to wonder if there’s much room for improvement in Nola’s defense going forward, as catchers in their early-to-mid thirties often suffer significant struggles due to the wear and tear that comes with years behind the plate.
Even with the many red flags in Nola’s profile, it’s easy to see why the Brewers would have interest in taking a low-cost flier on the veteran’s services. After all, Victor Caratini departed for the Astros in free agency last month, leaving All Star catcher William Contreras without a clear back up behind the plate. The club recently landed Eric Haase for that role, but it’s easy to see how Nola could step into that role if he manages to prove himself healthy and recover some of his previous offensive ability when Spring Training rolls around in late February. Otherwise, Nola can work on regaining his past form at the Triple-A level with the Brewers while acting as non-roster depth for the club in the event of an injury.
Arnold is on Nola, haase, Clarke, Hudson. Who needs a couple mlb caliber bats when you can go on the cheap with leftovers
Like this is something new? Brewers been shopping at Dollar Tree and salvage yards since forever.
Great signing!
The ex-Padres bounce will make an All Star out of him.
Brewers triple-a is Nashville. Excellent stadium and facilities. Not a bad landing spot.
He had a good post season in 22 and was raking in spring of 23. Then some dude that should be bagging groceries and not pitching hit him in the face and he had a really rough time since.
Michael Fulmer, a cubs pitcher. I saw that ST game. Scary.
Agreed I felt bad for Nola. That is not easy to come back from.
When he moves two index fingers perpendicular to his face he doesn’t see a hot dog anymore, he sees a kaleidoscope, and that’s not a good thing when trying to track a sweeper or cut fastball. Poor guy, I had high hopes for him once.
He’ll be good for 81 games caught this season. May be the Friday night margaritas, but one of the best guys I’ve ever had the pleasure to coach, along with his brother
Anyone know if Jefferson Quero (sp??) a top five prospect in the Brewer system and catcher, is liable to be MLB ready next year? I think defensively he’s MLB ready.
From what I’ve heard, they’d like to give him another year in the minors to work on framing/learning pitchers. Probably 2025 unless he can’t be ignored…
Perhaps Nola could be Dylan Ceases personally catcher. Wouldn’t that be an unexpected move by the Brewers to replace Woody with Cease. We certainly have the prospects to make it happen!