- Brewers GM David Stearns announced in an end-of-season press conference that the team will retain its entire coaching staff for 2018.
Brewers Rumors
Brewers' Impending FAs Discuss Plans
The Brewers’ impending free agents – infielders Neil Walker and Eric Sogard, reliever Anthony Swarzak and starter Matt Garza – spoke about their futures Sunday with Adam McCalvy of MLB.com and other reporters. Walker, the most noteworthy of the bunch, suggested that he’s keen on testing the open market in the offseason, though the August trade acquisitions did note that Milwaukee “is the type of team I’m going to be looking at. One that’s ready to win now and one that I can help.” Sogard and Swarzak made it clear they’d like to return to the Brewers, meanwhile, with the latter saying: “There’s still room to get better, and hopefully everybody in Brewers Nation gets to see a better Anthony Swarzak next year, because I want to stay here. I want to make another push here.”
While there’s clearly more baseball ahead of Walker, Sogard and Swarzak, the elder statesman of the group, Garza, admitted that his career could be at an end. The soon-to-be 34-year-old Garza acknowledged that he has struggled over the past couple seasons and said he’s “not expecting much” in the way of offers during the winter. Garza is wrapping up the four-year, $50MM contract he inked with the Brewers prior to the 2014 campaign. The righty made 96 appearances (93 starts) as a Brewer and logged a 4.65 ERA/4.38 FIP with the team.
Matt Garza Does Not Have 2018 Option, Will Become Free Agent
Contrary to what had previously been known about Matt Garza’s contract, the Brewers no longer have a 2018 option on the right-hander, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets. The option was voided after he crossed a games pitched threshold. Without the option, Garza is set to hit free agency this winter as his four-year, $50MM contract comes to an end.
Garza’s contract had a vesting option for 2018 that would have automatically exercised at $13MM if he had 110 starts from 2014-17 and under certain other conditions. He had only started 93 games in that time frame, however. The vesting option would have become a $1M club option if Garza had spent over 130 days on the disabled list in any season from 2014 through 2017, but he did not. It was previously thought that, in the absence of the $13MM vesting option or the $1M team option, the Brewers would have a $5MM team option, but evidently that isn’t the case.
It didn’t appear especially likely that the Brewers would exercise Garza’s option even at the reduced $5MM price. Jimmy Nelson is already set to miss the start of the 2018 season, and not having an option on Garza further reduces the club’s flexibility, but it still appears likely that the Brewers would have looked elsewhere for starting pitching help or relied on other internal options even if they could have kept Garza at $5MM.
After a strong first season in Milwaukee, Garza has struggled, and this year he’s posted a 4.94 ERA, 6.2 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 while missing time to groin and leg issues. He also struggled down the stretch and was removed from the Brewers’ rotation weeks ago. That’s not exactly a world-beating performance, particularly when considered in the broader context of a third straight underwhelming season — since 2015, Garza has a 5.10 ERA, 6.2 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 over 365 innings. The Brewers also might generally prefer to go with younger pitchers.
Nathan Kirby Pitching In Instructional League
- Brewers left-handed pitching prospect Nathan Kirby, who hasn’t pitched in two years due to a pair of elbow surgeries, is back on the mound in the team’s instructional league, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The former University of Virginia ace was at one point a projected top five pick in the 2015 draft but slipped to the Brewers at No. 40 overall that year due to injury concerns. Tommy John surgery cost Kirby the 2016 season, and he had a second elbow procedure earlier this year. While it’s hardly the start to his pro career that Kirby had envisioned, he’s not yet 24 years of age, so there’s certainly time for him to get back on track.
Jeremy Jeffress Hopes To Return To Brewers
- Brewers reliever Jeremy Jeffress talks about his rehab process and desire to remain in Milwaukee in an interview with Todd Rosiak of The Journal Sentinel. Jeffress expresses hope that the Brewers will tender him this coming offseason, gives some explanation behind his struggles in Texas, and talks about being traded to the Royals early in his career. Jeffress has seen his walk rate spike dramatically since being traded to the Rangers at the deadline last season; he’s walked 4.74 batters per nine innings since that trade. However, his 67% ground ball rate so far in the second half of 2017 is intriguing and certainly valuable if he can sustain something close to it.
Brewers Notes: Braun, Quintana, Hader
- Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun wouldn’t have been minded going to the Dodgers had the teams’ talks last summer led to a trade, per Rosenthal. Now, Braun’s happier than ever in Milwaukee, which has unexpectedly turned into a playoff contender this season. “I do love it here. If I didn’t, I probably would have been out of here a long time ago,” Braun told Rosenthal. Playing his age-33 season, in which injuries have limited him to 394 plate appearances, Braun has slashed .274/.345/.503 – somewhat modest production by his standards. With $57MM left on his contract, including a $4MM buyout in 2021, he’d be a difficult player for the low-payroll Brewers to move even if they wanted to part with him. Braun also has a full no-trade clause and 10-and-5 rights, further decreasing the likelihood of a trade.
- Speaking of potential Brewers trades, they weren’t willing to deal rookie left-hander Josh Hader in a package for White Sox southpaw Jose Quintana back in July, Rosenthal reports. The Sox ended up sending Quintana to one of the Brewers’ NL Central rivals, the Cubs, for a return including outfielder Eloy Jimenez and right-hander Dylan Cease. Milwaukee might not have topped that in the White Sox’s eyes even if it offered outfielder Lewis Brinson and righty Luis Ortiz, as the South Siders were bent on landing Jimenez, Rosenthal suggests. As for Hader, the 23-year-old has turned in 44 relief innings of 1.64 ERA ball, with 12.48 K/9 against 4.3 BB/9, making him one of the Brewers’ best players this season.
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Jimmy Nelson Underwent Labrum Procedure, Will Miss Time In 2018
The shoulder procedure performed today on Brewers righty Jimmy Nelson ended up being somewhat more extensive than had been hoped. While there was optimism that surgeons would not find a need to repair Nelson’s labrum, they did end up needing to do some tissue work, GM David Stearns told reporters including MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy (via Twitter).
As a result, it is now expected that Nelson will miss “a chunk” of the 2018 season, per Stearns. Just how long the key righty will be sidelined isn’t yet known and will surely depend upon his rehab progress. Regardless, Milwaukee will need to plan on alternatives to fill the rotation to start the year.
Losing Nelson for any chunk of time constitutes a blow for the Brewers, putting a damper on an otherwise exciting season. The club has plenty of intriguing young pitchers, and could still decide to retain Matt Garza for depth, but Nelson had emerged as a force and can’t realistically be replaced. It’s possible that the Brewers will still mostly look to internal options to fill out the staff early next season, though it’s also conceivable that the injury could spur Stearns to look into ways to bolster the rotation over the offseason.
Unfortunately, the news also clouds Nelson’s long-term outlook. Labrum tears are among the most worrying injuries that a pitcher can suffer, as we discussed recently with regard to Angels right-hander Alex Meyer — who is expected to miss a full year of action. There is perhaps some added optimism here, McCalvy notes on Twitter, because the injury occurred to a different area of the labrum than is typically the case for tears caused by throwing.
Despite the unfortunate news, Nelson should take home a significant first-time arbitration salary after topping 170 innings in each of the past three seasons — and carrying a 3.49 ERA with 199 strikeouts in 2017. Of course, time missed in the season to come will reduce his ability to earn in the future, though at this point the focus will be on simply getting the 28-year-old back to full health.
Haudricourt: Brewers' Resurgence Arrived More Quickly Than Anticipated
The Brewers’ rebuilding efforts have worked more quickly than most outside experts predicted, and GM David Stearns credits the team’s resilience, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes. “Really, last year, while we maybe had a month or two that was disappointing, we never went on those prolonged losing streaks,” says Stearns. “That speaks to what has been a theme of this year – the resilience of this team. We talk about that a lot. A lot of the credit for that goes to the character of our players, and the culture and energy that Craig (Counsell) and his staff have instilled, going back to Spring Training of last year.” Of course, as Haudricourt notes, the Brewers’ success this year does not guarantee they won’t take a step backward in 2018. Stearns, though, has been careful to avoid specific season wins goals, either on the low end or the high end, and focus instead on assembling a talented group of players who can be competitive for the next several seasons. Here’s more from the NL.
Lewis Brinson Unlikely To Return In 2018
- There’s little more than an “outside” shot for Brewers outfielder Lewis Brinson to make it back to health in time to impact the current season, per GM David Stearns (via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, on Twitter). He has been down with a hamstring strain. The 23-year-old struggled upon reaching the majors for the first time this year, but had put up a monster season at Triple-A — where he batted .331/.400/.562 across 340 plate appearances. Brinson will surely be a big part of Milwaukee’s plans next year even if he can’t make it back on the field in 2017.
Jimmy Nelson To Undergo Shoulder Surgery
It was already known that Brewers starter Jimmy Nelson would miss the remainder of the season with a shoulder injury, representing a big loss. What wasn’t clear, though, was whether he’d require surgery. Now, it’s clear that Nelson will indeed go under the knife, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports (Twitter links).
It won’t be known just how serious the injury is — and what kind of repair work is needed — until the surgeons access the joint. That said, it seems Nelson has received at least some cause for optimism; the right-hander suggested he has been told that his labrum may not be in need of significant work.
Clearly, we don’t yet know what to expect coming out of the surgery and won’t until it’s already over. In all likelihood, though, the less that’s done to the labrum, the less recovery time Nelson will need — and the less cause for concern there’ll be for his long-term outlook.
Needless to say, both Nelson and the team will be hoping for the best when he heads in for the procedure next Tuesday. The 28-year-old had elevated his game quite a bit in 2017, emerging along with Chase Anderson to form a solid top-of-the-rotation duo. Through 175 1/3 innings before his injury, Nelson posted a 3.49 ERA with 10.2 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 along with a 50.3% groundball rate.
Fortunately for Nelson, he was able to put up those numbers before the unfortunate injury, which occurred on the basepaths. With that excellent recent work and over 600 total MLB innings on his ledger, Nelson should be handsomely rewarded in his first trip through the arbitration process.
