The Brewers have announced that they’ve signed righty Jared Hughes to a one-year deal. Hughes will receive $950K plus a possible $250K in incentives based on games pitched, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets. Hughes is arbitration eligible for the last time next winter, meaning the Brewers have the ability to control him for two years. He is represented by SSG Baseball.
Hughes came available when the NL Central rival Pirates released him Thursday. Adding Hughes would give the currently shorthanded Brewers a full 25-man roster. The club is under the limit after demoting fellow relievers Rob Scahill and Tyler Cravy on Saturday.
In the 31-year-old Hughes, the Brewers would land a pitcher who has gotten positive results in the majors, having logged a 2.82 ERA and a 61 percent ground-ball rate in 309 1/3 innings. Hughes has done that in spite of a subpar K/9 (5.5), and he’s coming off a season in which his BB/9 increased from the mid-twos over the previous two years to 3.34. He also generated fewer swinging strikes than ever, though his 9.6 percent rate in 2016 wasn’t a significant drop from his 10.3 percent career mark. Nevertheless, he managed a 3.03 ERA over 59 1/3 frames and, based on his history of preventing runs, could give the Brewers an effective option alongside former Pirates teammate Neftali Feliz and Corey Knebel, among others.
Mark Feinsand of MLB.com was first to tweet that Hughes and the Brewers were nearing a deal. FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal first tweeted that a deal had been struck.