Brewers Reportedly Interested In Didi Gregorius
Even after acquiring middle infielder Luis Urias last month, the Brewers are showing interest in the top free-agent shortstop on the market, Didi Gregorius, Robert Murray was among those to report. The Reds and Phillies also appear to be in the hunt for the soon-to-be 30-year-old.
Last season was rough for Gregorius, who missed the first few months on account of Tommy John surgery in his right elbow and then struggled to replicate his past success when he returned. Nevertheless, this looks as if it’s setting up as a lucrative offseason for the longtime Yankee, a candidate for a high-paying multiyear contract. Assuming the Indians don’t trade Francisco Lindor, the Dodgers don’t deal Corey Seager, the Cubs don’t move Javier Baez and the Rockies don’t part with Trevor Story, it seems likely Gregorius will wind up as the best shortstop to change hands this winter.
Should the Brewers land Gregorius, it’s unclear how their infield would set up. As of now, the 22-year-old Urias – a former standout prospect with the Padres – is the in-house favorite to play short. But that could change if the Brewers sign Gregorius. The team looks set at second base, where Keston Hiura thrived as a rookie in 2019, but questions abound everywhere else in its infield. With the exception of Hiura, Milwaukee has either let go of or lost most of its prominent infielders from last season (shortstop Orlando Arcia‘s still in the mix, but he has been unproductive). Picking up Gregorius could alleviate the club’s issues to some extent.
Waiver Claims: Kinley, Rodriguez, Diplan
A spate of waiver claims have hit the wire this afternoon …
- The Rockies claimed righty Tyler Kinley from the Marlins. Righty Joe Harvey was designated for assignment to create 40-man space in Colorado. Kinley, a 28-year-old righty, carried an ugly 46:36 K/BB ratio in 49 1/3 MLB frames last year. But he also managed a 3.65 ERA on the year, generated a 12.9% swinging strike rate, and carried a mid-nineties heater. He was a Rule 5 pick by the Twins in 2018, so it’s clear that multiple clubs are intrigued by his raw potential. He has a pair of minor league options remaining, so he’s a sensible and affordable depth option for the Rockies, who opened the season by proclaiming a lack of payroll flexibility.
- The Brewers announced that they claimed infielder Ronny Rodriguez from the Tigers. The 27-year-old has struggled in two seasons with the Detroit organization, showing some power and defensive versatility but demonstrating some of the worst on-base skills in the league. Through an even 500 plate appearances at the MLB level, Rodriguez is a .221/.254/.396 batting line. He still has multiple option years remaining, so he can be shuttled between Triple-A and the Majors in both 2020 and 2021.
- Also departing the Tigers is right-hander Marcos Diplan, who was claimed by the Orioles, per a team announcement. He appeared in 38 games between the Double-A affiliates for the Twins and Brewers, totaling 68 2/3 innings of 4.85 ERA ball with 9.6 K/9 against 5.8 BB/9. Diplan was ranked among the Brewers’ 10 to 20 best prospects back in 2017 but has seen his stock dip in recent seasons as he’s begun to bounce around the waiver circuit. Notably, Diplan was has now been claimed by the Tigers and Orioles this winter — the teams with the No. 1 and No. 2 waiver priorities. He has a minor league option remaining.
Brewers Re-Sign Alex Claudio
The Brewers announced today that they have re-signed lefty Alex Claudio to a one-year deal. The MDR Sports Management client was non-tendered by Milwaukee last week but will return on a lesser deal than the projected $2.2MM he’d been projected to earn. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that he’ll earn $1.75MM on the new arrangement. Claudio will remain arbitration-eligible next winter as well.
Claudio, 28 next month, was acquired from the Rangers last winter in a trade that sent a Competitive Balance draft selection from Milwaukee to Texas. He was used largely as a specialist, as evidenced by totaling 62 innings despite appearing in a league-leading 83 games. Claudio notched a 4.06 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and a strong 57.9 percent ground-ball rate last season, holding opposing left-handed hitters to a .218/.301/.378 line through 137 plate appearances.
Claudio has consistently overwhelmed opposing lefties in his career, limiting them to a miserable .201/.245/.306 slash, but right-handers have typically had little trouble figuring him out. That was the case again in 2019 (.274/.357/.469), and it’ll be perhaps even more problematic for him next year when the league is expected to adopt a new rule that requires a pitcher to either face a minimum of three batters or finish an inning. Milwaukee was able to allow Claudio to face more left-handed batters than right-handed batters this past year (137 to 130), but that’s unlikely to be the case in 2020.
Brewers, Keon Broxton Agree To Minor League Deal
The Brewers have signed outfielder Keon Broxton to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training camp, per a team announcement.
The Brewers were down a man in their outfield after exchanging Trent Grisham in a pre-Thanksgiving swap with the Padres. For Broxton, this signing will represent a welcome homecoming after a headache of a 2019. It was roughly eleven months ago that the Brewers traded Broxton to the Mets for Adam Hill, Felix Valerio and Bobby Wahl, beginning the outfielder on a three-team odyssey that would see Broxton flame out in New York, Baltimore, and Seattle. All told on the season, the 29-year-old hit .167/.242/.275 with six homers in 228 plate appearances across three organizations.
That said, Broxton isn’t far removed looking like a totally viable big league piece with Milwaukee. Between 2016 and 2017, Broxton slashed .227/.318/.424 (94 wRC+) with 29 homers and 44 steals in 707 plate appearances. Of course, that roughly average production, though buttressed with power and speed, was always haunted by a seriously spooky strikeout rate. Broxton K’d at a 37.2 percent clip during that time with the Brewers, with that rate ballooning to a near-unthinkable 41.2 percent since the beginning of 2018. Still, Broxton did rate as a solid defensive regular across all three outfield spots in ’19, with 3 Defensive Runs Saved and a 2.2 UZR in over 500 innings on the grass.
White Sox, Blue Jays, Brewers, Twins Among Runners-Up For Jordan Lyles
Before Jordan Lyles signed his two-year, $16MM deal to join the Texas Rangers rotation, there was no shortage of interest in the big righty. Though we don’t know which (if any) of these teams made official offers, we do know that the White Sox, Blue Jays, Brewers and Twins were among the teams with interest, per MLB Network Insider Jon Heyman (via Twitter). Without financial specifics, it’s presumptuous to assume much in regards to the interest level of these four clubs, but the size of the contract inked by Lyles at least hints at a low-scale bidding war for the back-end rotation arm.
The Brewers interest is not surprising, given they acquired Lyles around the deadline in each of the past two seasons and he pitched to a 2.45 ERA (4.42 FIP) to close out 2019. Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel points out that the Brewers have now lost the bidding on each of their free agent targets thus far (except Justin Grimm!), suggesting either limited payroll flexibility or disciplined judiciousness on the part of GM David Stearns. Of course, Lyles signed for more than most would have guessed, and Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas signed for a combined 8-years, $137MM, a stratum the Brewers were hardly expected to reach. On the plus side, should the Rangers scuffle and Brewers stay in the race, we could see the rare baseball trade turkey, when a team successfully strikes for the same player at the deadline for three consecutive seasons.
The Twins and White Sox are two of the more eager starting pitching hunters this offseason, so their inclusion on this list is no surprise either. Both teams are likely to sign a couple of veteran free agents before the winter is out. As for the Blue Jays, they have less urgency given their timeline, though Lyles certainly fits the mold of the type of free agent they are likely to target.
Brewers Sign Justin Grimm
The Brewers have signed right-hander Justin Grimm to a minor league contract, as per the club’s Twitter account. Grimm’s deal contains an invitation to the Brewers’ big league Spring Training camp.
Grimm bounced between the Indians, Dodgers, and Reds last season without appearing in the majors for any of the three teams, breaking a string of seven consecutive seasons of MLB action for the 31-year-old. Grimm pitched in 21 games (17 1/3 innings) for the Royals and Mariners in 2018, posting an ungainly 10.38 ERA while issuing 14 walks against only 11 strikeouts.
Best known for his days in the Cubs bullpen, Grimm had a 3.82 ERA over 235 2/3 innings for Chicago from 2013-17, including a 1.99 ERA in 2015. His performance tailed off in 2017, however, and between his 2018 struggles and even a lack of success at the Triple-A level in 2019, Grimm will need a big spring to win himself a job on Milwaukee’s Opening Day roster.
Brewers Acquire Omar Narvaez
11:00am: The Brewers have formally announced the trade.
“Omar has established himself as one of the best offensive catchers in the game,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said in a press release. “We believe his bat will give us an impactful left-handed presence in our lineup.”
9:20am: The Brewers look to have found their replacement for Yasmani Grandal, as they’ve reportedly struck a trade to acquire Omar Narvaez from the Mariners in exchange for minor league right-hander Adam Hill and a Competitive Balance draft pick. The Brewers’ pick this year lands in Round B this year and is currently slotted in at No. 71 overall, although draft forfeitures for free agents who rejected qualifying offers could nudge that selection up a few spots.
Narvaez is one of the few backstops in baseball that can come close to matching Grandal with the bat. And he’ll cost a whole lot less, bringing three seasons of control that begin with a projected arbitration cost of just $2.9MM. That’s not to say the Brewers won’t miss the outgoing Grandal. He’s a premium defender, especially in the pitch-framing department. Narvaez is considered a work in progress with the glove. He graded as one of the game’s worst framers in 2018 but did make strides to average levels last year.
Though Narvaez is unquestionably a nice addition, there are some risks here for the Milwaukee organization. His .278/.353/.460 slash and 22 long balls from 2019 came despite a decidedly chilly 85.4 mph average exit velocity and 27.5% hard-hit rate. Narvaez can draw a walk, with an 11.3% career rate, but could slip back towards league-average in overall offensive productivity if he can’t sustain the power output.
One other factor here: Most of the damage done by the left-handed-hitting Narvaez last year came against right-handed pitching. The Brewers will presumably task Manny Pina with a larger role than he was allotted last year with Grandal around.
As for the Mariners, this is only the latest in a long line of roster swaps. Consider its place in this strand of the voluminous trade history of Seattle Jerry Dipoto. Narvaez arrived last fall in the swap that sent reliever Alex Colome to the White Sox. Colome had only just landed in Seattle along with Denard Span in a creative mid-2018 arrangement. Now, after one productive year with the M’s and despite several seasons of affordable control remaining, the 27-year-old Narvaez is heading out the door. He stands to be replaced by 28-year-old Tom Murphy, who was himself picked up in a late-spring deal earlier in 2019.
Murphy’s own booming breakout in Seattle last year presumably helped nudge the Mariners into a move here. There’s also a solid prospect on the way in Cal Raleigh, though he’s not necessarily ready for prime time and isn’t a sure thing. The Mariners will presumably now set out looking for a second piece of a new backstop tandem. Since the right-handed-hitting Murphy made his mark almost exclusively against left-handed-hitting pitching last year — he carried a whopping 450-point OPS spread — it stands to reason that the team will prefer to find a player who (like the outgoing Narvaez) profiles as a strong option against opposing righty pitching.
In Hill, the Mariners will acquire a 2018 fourth-rounder who’s already been traded once since being drafted out of the University of South Carolina. The Mets selected Hill with the 110th overall pick in 2018 but traded him to the Brewers in exchange for Keon Broxton last January less than a year after that pick. (Ironically, Broxton landed in Seattle on a waiver claim long after the Mets had cut him.)
Hill spent the 2019 season with Milwaukee’s affiliate in the Class-A Midwest League, tallying 121 2/3 innings of 3.92 ERA ball with 8.1 K/9, 4.1 BB/9, 0.89 HR/9 and a 44.4 percent ground-ball rate in 23 starts (plus another three relief outings). Hill is 6’6″ and listed at 225 pounds, so he has plenty of size to stick as a starter, though reports from FanGraphs and MLB.com note that his questionable command could drop him into a bullpen role despite the potential for three average or better pitches (fastball, slider, changeup). He was ranked in the back half of the Brewers’ top 30 prospects and should fall into similar standing within a rapidly improving Mariners farm system.
Seattle will also pick up an additional pick in the 2020 draft as well as the slot money that accompanies that selection. Draft slot values for next year aren’t yet known, but picks in that general vicinity slotted in around $900K in value last year, so it’s likely the M’s are adding close to a million dollars to next year’s draft pool. Seattle gave up two fairly expensive seasons of Colome to acquire four years of Narvaez in the first place, and they’ve parlayed that deal into a productive year from Narvaez, a decent pitching prospect and some additional capital in the upcoming draft. It’s not an overwhelming return, but the end result moves the needle on the Mariners’ rebuild forward a bit.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that the two sides were close to a deal (via Twitter). Greg Johns of MLB.com reported the Mariners’ return and that the deal had been completed (via Twitter).
Latest On Brewers’ Offseason Plans
Having already trimmed a laundry list of notable players from their 40-man roster — some through free agency, others via trade, yet more through non-tender — the Brewers now face a wide open remaining offseason. Just what course it’ll take isn’t really evident from the outside; no doubt it’s also something of a mystery from within.
It emerged recently that the Brewers are actively engaged in trade discussions regarding ace reliever Josh Hader. It’s not a given he’ll be dealt, but that’s now a distinct (and somewhat surprising) possibility for a repeat postseason team.
Hader isn’t the only veteran who has been bandied about in talks. The club is also amenable to discussing center fielder Lorenzo Cain, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reports. Market demand for center fielders remains strong; perhaps the Brewers see an opening to moving some of the remaining money owed Cain.
Unlike Hader, Cain isn’t a positive-value asset at this stage. He turned in a big first season in Milwaukee after his surprise signing but stumbled in 2019. His contract calls for $51MM more in the next three campaigns — a big bill for a player coming off of an 83 wRC+ effort and demonstrating reduced foot speed (by measure of Statcast). But defensive metrics still love Cain’s glove and there’s reason to hope he can bounce back offensively.
Moving Cain would open yet more payroll space, but the end goal here isn’t yet quite evident. Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that the prevailing expectation around the game is for the Brewers to pare back payroll after opening the 2019 season at a franchise-high $122.5MM. While that may be what others teams are thinking in the wake of the team’s recent moves and trade talk, however, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel suggested in his latest podcast (audio link) that there’s no directive to cut payroll and that the team will likely spend to address some notable holes on the roster (corner infield, catcher, starting pitching). The extent to which they’ll spend, of course, can’t be known; the Brewers appeared headed for a modest payroll in 2019 until late opportunities to add Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas on short-term deals surfaced unexpectedly.
At a minimum, there’s now ample flexibility for GM David Stearns to work with. Haudricourt covered the comments on the matter yesterday from Stearns. (Links to Twitter.) The club’s top baseball ops exec acknowledged the money-saving effects of the moves but didn’t really commit himself to one course of action or another, beyond making clear that the team “intend[s] on being competitive once again next year.”
Stearns cautioned fans not to judge the roster based upon its present status, saying he anticipates “invest[ing] in players throughout the course of the offseason.” And at least some of the open payroll space will be put to use. “I’d say that payroll flexibility helps, and isn’t a bad thing as we evaluate potential acquisitions throughout the offseason,” says Stearns. “It’s helpful to have payroll room.”
Players Avoiding Arbitration: 12/3/19
In the course of yesterday’s arbitration whirlwind, we covered quite a few players who reached agreements in advance of the non-tender deadline. But several others also struck deals last night (all projected salaries from MLBTR & contributor Matt Swartz) …
- Righty Anthony Bass has agreed with the Blue Jays at $1.5MM, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). Recently plucked from the waiver wire, Bass had projected to earn $1.7MM. The 32-year-old is coming off a season in which he threw 48 innings of 3.56 ERA ball with 8.1 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9. It was his most extensive MLB action since 2015.
- Ben Gamel‘s deal with the Brewers includes a $1.4MM salary as well as a $2.55MM club option for the 2021 season, also per Nightengale (Twitter link). The option functions as an earning ceiling for the outfielder. Gamel had projected at $1.6MM, so he’ll come in under that amount while giving up some upside in the event of a breakout. But the priority is surely to gain another opportunity at playing time. Gamel has hovered in range of league-average with the bat over the past several years but slipped to a .248/.337/.373 slash in 356 plate appearances last year in Milwaukee.
- The Twins have agreed to a deal with righty Matt Wisler, the club announced. The salary isn’t yet known, but it’ll be guaranteed. Given that Wisler is out of options, he’s now rather clearly in line to take a spot in the Minnesota bullpen. The recent waiver claimee projected at $1.0MM. Anything in that range could be a bargain rate for a player that carried a sparkling 63:16 K/BB ratio in 51 1/3 relief innings last year. Of course, Wisler was also tagged for 32 earned runs and ten homers, so he’ll have to figure out how to avoid the long ball.
- Infielder Donovan Solano has a $1.375MM deal with the Giants, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). That tops his $1.2MM projection, so obviously the club felt there was some risk that he’d be able to command a greater salary in the course of the arb process. Soon to turn 32 years of age, Solano produced one of the game’s least-expected breakouts in 2019. Long a light-hitting utilityman who struggled to establish himself fully in the bigs, Solano turned in 228 plate appearances of .330/.360/.456 hitting last year in San Francisco.
Latest On Travis Shaw
It wasn’t long ago third baseman Travis Shaw was one of the Brewers’ most valuable players. He combined for 7.1 fWAR during his first two years with the club from 2017-18, and the Brew Crew surely expected similar results this past season. Instead, Shaw endured a nightmarish campaign, leading the Brewers to non-tender him in advance of the deadline on Monday.
Had the Brewers kept Shaw, they’d have been in line to pay him a projected $4.7MM for his penultimate year of arbitration. It turns out that the Brewers did make an effort to keep Shaw before cutting him, according to president of baseball operations/general manager David Stearns (via Adam McCalvy of MLB.com). However, the two sides couldn’t reach an arbitration-avoiding agreement.
With the losses of Shaw and Mike Moustakas, who agreed to sign with the division-rival Reds on Monday, the Brewers are now in a state of flux at third base. But they’d have been hard-pressed to consider Shaw their solution at the hot corner even if they’d have kept him. After all, the 29-year-old did slump to a horrific .157/.281/.270 line with seven home runs and a measly a .113 ISO in 270 plate appearances this season – some of which he spent in the minors.
It’s anyone’s guess where the small-market Brewers will go from here at third, but in regards to Shaw, Stearns said (via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel): “We did our best, looked at Travis’ prior performance, his performance this year. We talked with Travis and his representation about his beliefs and how he thinks everything is going.”
Meantime, Shaw’s agent told Haudricourt that “we think Travis needs a change of scenery. No hard feelings about it. We’re sorry it didn’t work out. It’s a risk Travis is willing to take.” Shaw has already drawn interest from elsewhere, per Haudricourt.