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Brewers To Sign Jorge Alfaro To Minor League Deal

By Darragh McDonald | January 16, 2025 at 5:45pm CDT

The Brewers and catcher Jorge Alfaro are in agreement on a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The backstop is represented by CAA Sports.

Alfaro, 32 in June, was once a top 1oo prospect. His power was considered his best trait and he has occasionally showed flashes of tapping into it during his big league career but he has largely undercut that with his lack of plate discipline or contact skills.

To this point, he has appeared in 496 major league games and stepped to the plate 1,710 times. Only 4.2% of those ended with Alfaro taking a walk while 34% of them resulted in a strikeout. Both of those numbers are well worse than typical league averages. He did launch 48 home runs in there but his .253/.302/.393 batting line leads to a wRC+ of 86.

That’s actually not awful production for a catcher, as backstops are usually about 10% below league par. In 2024, all MLB catchers combined to hit .234/.300/.378 for a 91 wRC+. But Alfaro was largely considered a bat-first prospect and that’s been borne out in the big leagues. Baseball Prospectus has graded him as a decent framer, close to average with the running game and subpar in terms of blocking. Statcast has liked his work with the running game but hasn’t been fond of his framing nor blocking. FanGraphs has been pretty down on his work apart from a nice bump in 2018. That middling glovework would perhaps be acceptable with big offensive numbers but Alfaro hasn’t been able to provide that.

The Brewers have a strong reputation for improving a catcher’s defense, so perhaps they can give Alfaro a bit of a bump there. Alfaro might have a bit of rust, since he essentially missed the 2024 season. He signed a minor league deal with the Cubs but was released just before Opening Day and didn’t sign anywhere else. For what it’s worth, he has been playing winter ball this offseason and performing well. In 12 games for Tigres del Licey of the Dominican Professional Baseball League, he hit .303/.361/.455. He had seven strikeouts in 36 plate appearances, a rate of 19.4%.

There are currently three catchers on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster. William Contreras, whose defensive metrics improved after coming over from Atlanta, is the clear number one. Eric Haase currently projects as the backup. His career numbers are fairly similar to Alfaro, in that he’s hit some home runs but has poor walk rates, strikeout rates and defensive grades. Jeferson Quero is one of the top prospects in the league but may not be a short-term option. He started 2024 at the Triple-A level but required shoulder surgery after just one game and missed the rest of the year.

Since Quero is just 22 years old, has just one game of Triple-A experience and missed essentially a full season, the Brewers will probably not want to push him too hard to start 2025. As such, Alfaro might slot in as #3 on the club’s depth chart right now behind Contreras and Haase, though further moves could obviously change that. He’ll give the club some experienced non-roster depth who could step onto the roster if an injury creates a need. If that comes to pass, he is out of options, which is also true of Haase.

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Milwaukee Brewers Transactions Jorge Alfaro

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View Comments (17)
Post a Comment

17 Comments

  1. Reynaldo's

    6 months ago

    So weird that the Padres invited him to throw out a first pitch during the playoffs last year.
    You never see that with a still active player who doesn’t play for you anymore.

    5
    Reply
    • Rsox

      6 months ago

      I guess they saw writing on the wall that wasn’t there?

      Reply
  2. swanhenge

    6 months ago

    Jorge always gets a job.

    2
    Reply
  3. Bobby smac9

    6 months ago

    Cutting costs are the new norm.

    1
    Reply
  4. Boz32

    6 months ago

    Former Future Phillies Legend

    1
    Reply
    • YourDreamGM

      6 months ago

      Got em JTR

      Reply
      • Cat Mando

        6 months ago

        Yep with Will Stewart & Sixto Sánchez and some said JTR is great but we are trading away the future. That didn’t age well.

        1
        Reply
  5. sascoach2003

    6 months ago

    Run continues on backup catchers…

    Reply
    • Fever Pitch Guy

      6 months ago

      sas – Yes because competent catchers are like gold these days.

      Only my team doesn’t realize that.

      4
      Reply
    • YourDreamGM

      6 months ago

      Think that runs been over for awhile. These are spring training catchers hope we don’t have to ever use them.

      Reply
  6. Bart Harley Jarvis

    6 months ago

    It’s disappointing his BBR profile photo doesn’t show off his beautiful flow. Just sayin’.

    2
    Reply
  7. Pads Fans

    6 months ago

    Plays bad defense and can’t hit either. I remember him as a Padre in 2022. He hit an occasional dramatic HR and mostly was bad otherwise.

    2
    Reply
    • mlbnyyfan

      6 months ago

      Do the Yankees have a back up after trading Trevino???

      2
      Reply
      • Acoss1331

        6 months ago

        Jomboy mentioned it during an episode a few weeks back, some catcher from the Reds that they got in the Jose Trevino trade. Alex Jackson, Alan Jackson? Sorry can’t remember the name, but he’s the right-handed replacement for now.

        1
        Reply
        • CravenMoorehead

          6 months ago

          Alex Jackson. Originally a 1st round pick that never reached his full potential.

          Not to be confused with Alan the country music superstar who had a magnificent mustache and was on those Kmart clothes ads in the day.

          2
          Reply
  8. James Midway

    6 months ago

    He did not hit well for the Padres but had a knack for walk-offs. That’s why Padres fans love him. I hope he does well there in MIL.

    1
    Reply
  9. Brew88

    6 months ago

    LFGSD

    Reply

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