Reliever Vinny Nittoli plans to trigger the opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Brewers, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC-2. The actual opt-out date is tomorrow and will give the Brewers 24 hours to add Nittoli to the big league roster, MLBTR has learned. If the Brewers choose not to select Nittoli to the roster, he’ll become a free agent.
The 34-year-old Nittoli pitched in the majors each season from 2021-24 but has totaled just 18 2/3 MLB frames in that time. He’s pitched to a sharp 2.41 ERA across those four seasons, which have been split between the Mariners, Phillies, Mets, A’s and Orioles. Nittoli has fanned 17.3% of his major league opponents against a 6.7% walk rate.
Nittoli has spent the 2025 season with the Brewers’ Triple-A club in Nashville, pitching to a 3.86 ERA with an impressive 28.9% strikeout rate and an 8.6% walk rate. The journeyman right-hander doesn’t throw hard, sitting just 88-90 mph with his go-to cutter, but he’s induced chases on pitches off the plate at a strong 35.1% clip and recorded an excellent 14.3% swinging-strike rate during his time in Nashville this season.
The Brewers already have a strong bullpen. Milwaukee relievers rank 18th in the majors with a 4.00 ERA, but that includes some early struggles by Joel Payamps, swingman Tyler Alexander and righty Elvin Rodriguez — none of whom are on the 40-man roster at this point. Each of Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby, Jared Koenig, Nick Mears, Grant Anderson and DL Hall has an ERA of 3.69 or better. Five of those seven are under 3.00 (including a 1.66 mark for Ashby). The Brewers’ bullpen has a flat 3.00 ERA over the past calendar month — second-lowest in MLB.
Given the strength of that group, there’s no urgent need to add Nittoli, who’s out of minor league options and would need to stick in the big league bullpen if he’s selected. If the Brewers don’t want to lose the depth, they could select Nittoli to the 40-man roster and option Tobias Myers back to Nashville. (Myers was just recalled a few days before the All-Star break and didn’t get into a game.) The rest of the ’pen is largely set, however, so the Brewers may wind up letting Nittoli explore opportunities elsewhere despite his solid results in Nashville.
The problem when you have a wealth of pitching like the Brewers. Would like to see them upgrade their bench using some of that pitching, but you don’t want to trade away too much controllable talent in case of injuries. Plus their bench has been awesome during this win streak. Going to be some tough decisions to make.
I think that the Brewers need to let him look to see what is out there. Brewers have enough young guys who actually need to be promoted up the line already being held back.Think he absolutely could help plenty of teams.
He just sounds like a South Philly guy to me; Phils should pick him up again.
There’s always the family store
He’s 34 and I believe has been with 13 different organizations in MLB – almost exclusively in the minors and at least one foreign team. He appears to be effective. Must have some off field issues.
A team so deep in pitching has no room for him. Where is Monty Hall – Let’s make a deal! Dodgers, Cubs, Mets , Yankees or maybe Red Sox?