- Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel provides a host of updates on some injured Brewers (all links to Twitter). Veteran lefty Wade Miley, who signed a minor league deal last month, is playing catch but likely a month away from returning from the groin injury that sidelined him. Both Miley and lefty Boone Logan, who is dealing with a triceps injury, are hoping to begin throwing off a mound next week. Ace Jimmy Nelson, meanwhile, is hoping to throw from a mound by the end of the month. As for catcher Stephen Vogt, he hopes to throw by the end of the week after recently being cleared by doctors, but he’s still a few weeks from returning. When he does, the Brewers will have to make a call on what to do with Vogt and Jett Bandy, as both are out of minor league options and behind Manny Pina on the depth chart.
Brewers Rumors
Brewers Sign Andres Blanco
The Brewers have agreed to a minors deal with infielder Andres Blanco, according to a club announcement. He’ll head to Triple-A to take the team’s open third base job there.
Blanco, who’ll soon turn 34, had been cut loose by the Giants at the tail end of Spring Training. He was limited during camp by injury and never got much of a shot at a fairly crowded utility infield competition in San Francisco.
Between 2014 and 2016, Blanco provided the Phillies with a surprising .274/.337/.457 cumulative batting line. But he ran into a wall in 2017, ending the year with an ugly .192/.257/.292 output in his 144 trips to the plate.
Brewers GM Shoots Down Ryan Braun-Matt Kemp Trade Rumor
A trade rumor centering on Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun and Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp made the rounds Saturday evening on social media, but “there’s nothing to it,” according to Milwaukee general manager David Stearns. While the executive told Adam McCalvy of MLB.com and other reporters that he doesn’t normally respond to rumors, he felt the need to shoot this one down publicly. “You guys know my policy, I don’t like commenting on this type of stuff,” he said. “But given that I don’t want this to be any sort of distraction, I’ll say when I first read it, I thought maybe someone was making an early April Fool’s joke.” The Dodgers reportedly showed serious interest in Braun in the past, but “there’s nothing clearly relevant” this time around, per Stearns.
- It could be a month before Red Sox reliever Tyler Thornburg joins the team’s bullpen, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told WEEI on Saturday (via Ian Browne of MLB.com). Thornburg remains on the comeback trail from the thoracic outlet syndrome surgery he underwent last June. The 29-year-old, whom the Red Sox acquired from the Brewers in a December 2016 deal that also involved third baseman Travis Shaw, still hasn’t pitched in a meaningful game for Boston.
Brewers Sign Dan Jennings, Move Jimmy Nelson To 60-Day DL
FRIDAY: The deal has been announced. Milwaukee opened a 40-man spot by shifting righty Jimmy Nelson to the 60-day DL. That will mean he can’t debut until the end of May, though he was not expected back before then anyway.
First baseman/DH Ji-Man Choi — whose eye-opening spring surprisingly earned him a MLB roster spot — was optioned to create room on the active roster.
WEDNESDAY: The Brewers are in agreement with left-hander Dan Jennings, pending a physical, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). I’m told it’s a Major League pact for the veteran southpaw.
The ACES client was released by the Rays earlier this week, and Tom Haudicourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel suggested earlier tonight that the Brew Crew was pursuing an external pitching addition that could carry 25-man roster implications (Twitter links). Specifically, Haudicourt implied that Ji-Man Choi, who won a spot on the Brewers’ Opening Day roster but has an option remaining, could be sent to Triple-A early in the season once this deal is finalized.
Jennings, 31 next month, was somewhat surprisingly cut loose by the Rays earlier this week. He’d agreed to a $2.375MM salary with Tampa Bay earlier this winter, avoiding arbitration, and the Rays’ decision to cut him loose means they’ll be on the hook for about $584K of that sum (45 days’ termination pay). He’ll pocket that sum in addition to the guarantee to which he agreed on his new deal with the Brewers.
The decision to cut Jennings had been speculated upon but was nonetheless somewhat of an eye-opener, as the veteran southpaw posted a strong 3.45 ERA with 7.3 K/9, 4.5 BB/9 and a 59.8 percent ground-ball rate in 62 2/3 frames between the White Sox and Rays last season. Opposing lefties hit just .213/.323/.306 in 128 plate appearances against Jennings. Moreover, the Rays traded at least a somewhat notable prospect, first baseman Casey Gillaspie, in order to acquire Jennings.
He’ll now join a Brewers bullpen that saw its left-handed depth take a hit with an injury to fellow veteran Boone Logan, who looks likely to miss six or more weeks with a strained triceps muscle.. As an added bonus, Jennings enters the year just a single day shy of five years of MLB service. Because of that, the Brewers will be able to control him through the 2019 season via arbitration as opposed to just the 2018 season.
All told, Jennings will bring to the Brewers a veteran arm with a career 2.90 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and a 55.2 percent ground-ball rate to a Brewers’ bullpen that also features closer Corey Knebel and setup men Jeremy Jeffress, Josh Hader, Matt Albers and Jacob Barnes.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Notable Roster Decisions: Wednesday
The latest noteworthy roster decisions across Major League Baseball as Opening Day draws ever closer…
- The Brewers announced that they’ve selected the contract of Ji-Man Choi, who’ll make their Opening Day roster. (Sung Min Kim of Fangraphs and River Ave. Blues first tweeted that Choi had made the roster.) That means both Choi and the out-of-options Jesus Aguilar will make a roster which also includes first base options Eric Thames and Ryan Braun. However, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel points out (via Twitter), the composition is likely to change quickly — possibly as soon as Friday. Choi has an option remaining, Haudricourt notes. More interestingly, Haudricourt adds that the Brew Crew is pursuing an external pitching addition, and if said move goes through, then Choi could quickly be optioned to Colorado Springs to clear a 25-man roster spot. Also of particular note for the Brewers is that Wade Miley was reassigned to minor league camp and won’t be making the club.
Earlier Decisions & Moves
- The White Sox have selected the contract of left-hander Hector Santiago, giving them a full 40-man roster, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times was among those to report on Twitter. In other moves, the club sent southpaw Carlos Rodon (left shoulder rehabilitation) and catcher Kevan Smith (left ankle sprain) to the 10-day disabled list, retroactive to March 26. Santiago will now officially begin his second major league stint as a member of the White Sox, with whom he started his career in 2011 and stayed with through 2013. Santiago was successful during that span, but his career has trended downward lately – particularly last season as a Twin – which prevented him from landing a major league contract over the winter. The minors deal the 30-year-old signed with Chicago includes a $2MM salary in the bigs, which he’s now in position to earn. Santiago’s a longtime starter, but he’ll open 2018 in the Sox’s bullpen.
- The Dodgers have optioned outfielder Andrew Toles, as Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter link). Toles’ demotion means Joc Pederson is likely to be the Dodgers’ Opening Day left fielder, DiGiovanna notes. Toles had been part of a crowded corner outfield battle during spring action alongside Pederson, Matt Kemp, Enrique Hernandez, Alex Verdugo and the just-jettisoned Trayce Thompson. The fact that Toles had options remaining – unlike the expensive, apparently immovable Kemp – probably didn’t do him any favors in his bid to make the Dodgers. The 25-year-old Toles has been successful in Los Angeles since debuting in 2016, having batted .294/.341/.483 with 2.1 fWAR n 217 plate appearances. He missed all but 31 games last season, though, after suffering a torn ACL in May.
- Outfielders Gregor Blanco and Gorkys Hernandez will open the season with the Giants, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. The Giants signed Blanco, 34, to a minors pact back in January. Per that deal, he’ll earn a $1MM salary in the majors and have a chance at $500K in incentives in San Francisco, with which he previously played from 2012-16 and won a pair of World Series. Hernandez is out of options, so he was also in a do-or-die position this spring. The 30-year-old rose to the challenge, though he’ll surely need to improve on last season’s showing (.255/.327/.326 line with no home runs in 348 PAs) to keep his roster spot for all of 2018.
- Outfielder Matt Szczur and righty Jordan Lyles will be part of the Padres’ Opening Day roster, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com tweets. The out-of-options Szczur, 28, will continue to provide outfield depth in San Diego after coming over in a trade with the Cubs last summer. Lyles, meanwhile, spent a bit of time with the Padres in 2017 and then re-signed on a major league contract in the offseason. The deal also features a club option for 2019 for Lyles, who’ll begin the year in the Friars’ bullpen. Having pitched to a 5.43 ERA/4.55 FIP across 681 combined innings (182 appearances, 107 starts) with the Astros, Rockies and Padres, Lyles hasn’t lived up to the billing he had as a prospect. He’s still just 27, however.
- Catchers A.J. Ellis and Raffy Lopez will also be on the Padres’ roster, the team announced. Those two and starter Austin Hedges will give the Padres three backstops on their 25-man roster. Ellis, an established veteran backup, is now set to make $1.25MM after signing a minor league deal in the offseason. The 30-year-old Lopez, who brings just 83 PAs of MLB experience, also signed a minors pact over the winter.
- The Marlins will add catcher Bryan Holaday to their 40- and 25-man rosters, per Joe Frisaro of MLB.com. Holaday, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Marlins in the offseason. He’ll be one of three catchers on their season-opening roster, joining Tomas Telis (out of options) and Chad Wallach, son of bench coach Tim Wallach. It’s not an ideal setup for Miami, which won’t have standout starter J.T. Realmuto at the outset of the season. Realmuto is on the DL with a bone bruise.
- The Twins will roster outfielder Ryan LaMarre to open the year, Phil Miller of the Star Tribune tweets. LaMarre, an offseason minor league signee of the Twins, spent last year with the Triple-A affiliates of the Angels and Athletics, combining for a meager .628 OPS. He’s a lifetime .268/.335/.388 hitter at the Triple-A level (954 PAs) who has seen very brief MLB action with the Reds, Red Sox and A’s.
- The Tigers announced that they’ve selected infielder Niko Goodrum’s contract, which puts their 40-man roster at capacity. Goodrum, who signed a minors deal with Detroit in November, spent 2010-17 with the Minnesota organization and batted .250/.333/.379 in 2,796 minor league PAs. He saw minimal big league action with the club (18 PAs, all of which came last season).
- The Mariners made the DL placements of Erasmo Ramirez, Ben Gamel and David Phelps official, and they also announced that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Casey Lawrence, who will return to the team after spending parts of the 2017 campaign on Seattle’s big league roster. The M’s also optioned infielder/outfielder Taylor Motter to Triple-A Tacoma.
Brewers Notes: Santana, Attanasio, Pitching
Despite a lackluster Spring Training performance, Domingo Santana doesn’t believe he was distracted by the trade speculation that followed him all winter, the outfielder tells Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Though he said he didn’t worry about the rumors because they were out of his control, Santana admitted that “it would have been hard to get traded. I’m really attached to this group of people here. Even the staff, they have been really good to me since Day 1.” Since Santana didn’t get dealt, he now faces some type of reduction in playing time with Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain moving into everyday outfield roles and Ryan Braun also in the mix for left field or a first base timeshare with Eric Thames. It remains to be seen how the Brew Crew will juggle all of these players, though it also isn’t out of the question that a trade could still solve this logjam.
Some more from the Brewers’ camp…
- In an appearance on the “Power Alley” show on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (audio link), Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said that the team exhibited “a little bit of discipline in some of our signings” during the winter in order to save some resources for potential trade deadline pickups. “Some of the decisions we made in the offseason here were more keeping our powder dry for midseason acquisitions,” Attanasio said. The team will already go into 2018 with an estimated payroll of almost $93.5MM, as opposed to just over $70MM at the end of last season, with the Cain and Yelich salaries representing the biggest new outlays.
- It could be that the Brewers explore adding a pitcher at midseason, though in another piece from Haudricourt, Brewers GM David Stearns discussed how the Brew Crew simply weren’t comfortable spending at the levels necessary to land a major free agent arm like Yu Darvish, Jake Arrieta, or Alex Cobb. Stearns feels his team already has some good pitching on hand, which he realizes runs counter to criticism from pundits and fans that the Brewers still need rotation help. “We’re flying against what the common perception is of our team. We understand that. We’ve also done that a lot since I’ve been here,” Stearns said. “Look, we’re wrong plenty. But we’re as wrong on the conventional moves as we are on the unconventional moves. We have to do what we think is right and not necessarily do what convention says….We might not necessarily agree with conventional wisdom on some players. If someone is willing to pay more than you, then you’re not going to get the player. When we’re willing to be the high bidder, as we were with Lorenzo Cain, you get the player.”
Brewers Dealing With Excess Bats
- It seems increasingly unlikely that the Brewers will make a move to alleviate their evident logjam of bats. As Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports, that has left some eyebrows raised among the team’s players, some of whom still aren’t sure exactly how much playing time they’ll get once the season gets underway. It’s not exactly a new subject, of course, as the Milwaukee roster has been under a microscope all winter long. But it’s interesting to consider it from the player’s perspective, as Nightengale does. As third baseman Travis Shaw puts it: “Depth is a nice problem to have, but I’m sure it sucks individually for a couple of guys.” Meanwhile, skipper Craig Counsell says “there’ll be a lot of shuffling going on” early in the season, as MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports, but also notes that he anticipates some clarity to emerge as the season goes along.
Brewers Release Yovani Gallardo
The Brewers have released veteran righty Yovani Gallardo, according to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (via Twitter). He’ll be owed $500K under the partially guaranteed MLB contract he agreed to over the winter.
This move had been expected, as the club determined over the weekend that Gallardo would not be on the Opening Day roster. That made it all but certain that the reunion would be short-lived between Gallardo and the organization he pitched for from 2007 through 2014.
Still, there had been at least some belief that he might end up being moved in trade. Instead, Gallardo will head back onto the open market in search of a new organization.
Gallardo, 32, was long an effective rotation piece. But he has struggled badly over the past two seasons. Injury certainly played a role, and Gallardo lost about a full tick on his heater in 2016. But even in a 2017 season in which he recovered some of that lost velo and revived his swinging-strike rate to its highest level since 2011, Gallardo limped to a 5.72 ERA in 130 2/3 innings by surrendering a career-high 1.65 homers per nine.
While the recent signs aren’t all that promising, the Brewers obviously felt Gallardo was worth at least a partial commitment. He was not particularly effective this spring, allowing seven earned runs in 13 1/3 innings while recording a 12:8 K/BB ratio, but may yet find a MLB opportunity to open the season. If not, odds are that Gallardo will be an in-demand depth piece.
Ji-Man Choi Impressing In Brewers' Camp
- Ji-Man Choi has become a popular figure both on and off the field with the Brewers, Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes, as he has quickly won friends in the clubhouse and forced his way into consideration for a roster spot after a big spring. Choi entered the day with a whopping 1.253 OPS over 51 plate appearances in camp, and though the Brew Crew are pretty set with first base options, manager Craig Counsell and GM David Stearns haven’t closed the door on the possibility of Choi being with the team on Opening Day. Choi hasn’t hit much over 147 career Major League PA with the Angels and Yankees, though he has an impressive .305/.402/.497 slash line over 1943 plate appearances in the minors. His minor league contract with the Brewers carries an opt-out date of May 15 if Choi hasn’t already been promoted to the big leagues.
Brewers Set Rotation; Yovani Gallardo Won't Make Team
In the wake of Wade Miley’s multi-week injury, the Brewers have set their season-opening starting five, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relays. Brent Suter and Brandon Woodruff will fill out the rotation behind Chase Anderson, Zach Davies and Jhoulys Chacin, manager Craig Counsell announced Saturday. That spells bad news for offseason signing Yovani Gallardo, who won’t make the team, Haudricourt tweets. A highly successful Brewer from 2007-14, Gallardo rejoined the club for a non-guaranteed $2MM in December after spending time with the Rangers, Orioles and Mariners. The 32-year-old’s future is now in question. The Brewers could still trade Gallardo, according to general manager David Stearns. However, if no deal comes together by Monday, they’ll have to release him, per Haudricourt.
- The Brewers wouldn’t have had two open spots in their rotation if not for the right shoulder injury top starter Jimmy Nelson suffered late last year. Nelson continues to make progress in his recovery from September surgery and could start working from the mound again as early as mid-April, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com reports. Meanwhile, catcher Stephen Vogt – out since February with a shoulder issue of his own – is aiming to return to game action by May 1.
