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Brewers Acquire Mitch White From Giants

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The Giants have traded right-hander Mitch White, who they designated for assignment earlier this week, to the Brewers for cash considerations. Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com relayed the information on X. Right-hander Corbin Martin was designated for assignment to open a roster spot for White, per Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on X.

White, 29, was acquired by the Giants from the Blue Jays a few weeks ago in a cash deal. He tossed 5 1/3 innings for San Francisco but allowed seven earned runs in that time. He had also allowed six earned runs in ten innings for the Jays earlier in the year, so he currently has a combined 7.63 earned run average on the year.

He is out of options and can’t be easily sent down to the minors, which is why he has been designated for assignment twice already this year. But despite the rough start to his season, there are reasons for the Brewers to be interested.

He was once a notable prospect with the Dodgers, with Baseball America ranking him one of their 20 best prospects in five straight years starting in 2017. He pitched 105 2/3 innings for the Dodgers from 2020 to 2022 with a 3.58 ERA, 22% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate.

But he hit a rough patch after being traded to the Jays in 2022. He had a 7.74 ERA in 43 innings for Toronto late that year. He wasn’t helped by a .368 batting average on balls in play or 54.3% strand rate, as his 3.76 FIP and 4.70 SIERA were far nicer in that time, but he still went into last year out of options and battling for a role.

He spent time on the injured list in 2023 and then posted poor results out of the bullpen for the Jays in 2023, getting outrighted off the roster. But once in Triple-A, he was stretched back out and finished the year strong. His last seven starts resulted in a 1.89 ERA in 33 1/3 innings, striking out 31.4% of batters faced.

The Jays added him back to their roster to keep him from reaching minor league free agency but, as mentioned, his results haven’t been great here in 2024. Still, there’s enough there for the Brewers to take a chance.

Perhaps he will take over a long relief role in the bullpen, as injuries have pushed Bryse Wilson from that job and into the rotation. White still has less than three years of service time and can be cheaply retained into the future if he keeps justifying his roster spot, though it’s also possible he could be designated for assignment for a third time this year.

Martin, 28, was claimed off waivers from the Diamondbacks last month. Both clubs kept him in the minors and he has a 7.20 ERA in ten innings between their two Triple-A clubs this year. He has ten strikeouts but 13 walks on the year.

The Brewers will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. Injuries have been a significant problem for Martin. He missed most of 2019 and all of 2020 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Then he required lat tendon surgery last year which prevented him from pitching at all in 2023. Though he was healthy enough to pitch in 2021 and 2022, the results weren’t great, with a 7.28 ERA in the majors and a 6.04 ERA in the minors.

He was once a notable prospect in the Astros’ system, going to Arizona in the Zack Greinke trade. He still can be optioned for the rest of this year and could perhaps attract the interest of another club who felt he could get back on track after shaking off some rust.

Brewers Promote Robert Gasser

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May 10: The Brewers have made it official, announced that they have selected Gasser’s contract today. They also recalled right-hander Janson Junk from Triple-A Nashville. In corresponding moves, right-hander Joel Payamps was placed on the bereavement list while righty Tobias Myers was optioned to Nashville. To open a 40-man spot for Gasser, righty JB Bukauskas was transferred to the 60-day IL. Bukauskas has been on the injured list for almost a month due to a lat strain and has not yet begun a rehab assignment.

May 9: The Brewers are expected to promote pitching prospect Robert Gasser to the majors, per Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The left-hander will be starting tomorrow’s game and making his major league debut. He’s not currently on the 40-man roster, so the Brewers will need to find a way to add him.

Gasser, 25 this month, was selected by the Padres in the 2021 draft. They grabbed him out of the University of Houston in Competitive Balance Round B, with the 71st overall pick. About a year later, he came to the Brewers via the 2022 deadline deal that sent Josh Hader to San Diego.

The Padres had him in High-A at the time of that trade, but the Brewers let him go to Double-A and Triple-A shortly thereafter. He finished 2022 with a combined 3.94 earned run average in 137 innings. He struck out 29.7% of batters faced while giving out walks at a 9% clip.

He spent all of last year with Triple-A Nashville, tossing 135 1/3 innings across 26 outings with a 3.79 ERA. He punched out 28% of the batters who came to the plate while giving out free passes just 8.4% of the time.

The lefty could have been in contention for a rotation spot to start the season but he was sidelined at the end of March due to a bone spur in his left elbow. He didn’t make his first Triple-A start of 2024 until April 24 and he has now taken the ball three times, throwing four frames each time out. He hasn’t been super sharp, with six walks and four homers allowed in his 12 innings, but has struck out 17.

Despite his name, Gasser doesn’t overpower hitters, mostly sitting in the 89-93 miles per hour range with his fastball. But he has a four-seamer, a two-seamer, a cutter, a slider and a changeup, allowing him to keep hitters off balance. Baseball America ranked him the club’s #5 prospect coming into the year while FanGraphs had him at #8 and Keith Law of The Athletic at #7.  MLB Pipeline currently has him in the #5 slot.

The Brewers have been dealing with various moving parts in their rotation since late last year. Brandon Woodruff required shoulder surgery and is going to miss most or perhaps all of the 2024 season. Corbin Burnes was traded to the Orioles in the offseason. Since the season started, Wade Miley required Tommy John surgery while DL Hall and Jakob Junis have also landed on the injured list.

On top of those injuries, Freddy Peralta is going miss one turn through the rotation. He was given a five-game suspension for his part in the fracas between the Brewers and Rays about a week ago. He initially appealed that suspension and took the ball against the Cubs on Sunday, before he began serving the suspension on Monday.

Gasser’s promotion might be a temporary one to cover for Peralta. But at least for now, he’ll jump into the rotation next to Bryse Wilson, Colin Rea, Joe Ross and Tobias Myers. Myers has a 6.23 ERA through three starts and could perhaps be sent down instead of Gasser, especially if things go poorly when he takes the ball against the Cardinals tonight.

Even if Gasser does get optioned after just one outing, opportunities could open up later in the year. Ross will likely hit a workload limit at some point since he hardly pitched over the previous two seasons while recovering from his second career Tommy John surgery. More generally, pitchers injuries are fairly inevitable, though Milwaukee should also have Hall and Junis coming off the IL later in the year.

Time will tell how much time Gasser spends in the majors in 2024. But for now, it’s an exciting day for the young southpaw, who will take the ball tomorrow at American Family Field against the division-rival Cardinals.

Former Top Outfield Prospect Monte Harrison To Play College Football At Arkansas

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Former second-round pick and top outfield prospect Monte Harrison hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2022 and apparently isn’t pursuing a return to the big leagues at this point. Rather, he’s now committed to the University of Arkansas’ football team as a walk-on wide receiver, as first reported by Richard Davenport of WholeHogSports.com.

Harrison, who’ll be 29 next fall, will be the oldest player in college football when the season gets underway. A three-sport star at his Missouri high school, he’d committed to play football for Nebraska before the Brewers selected him in the second round of the 2014 MLB draft (No. 50 overall) and offered a $1.8MM signing bonus. Harrison opted to forgo his NCAA commitment and turn pro in baseball.

Royce Boehm, Harrison’s high school coach, tells Mitch Sherman of The Athletic that even at the time he was being selected in the second round of the MLB draft, “My whole thought back then was that he’s an NFL player, but he was stuck on baseball.” Sherman spoke to Boehm and University of Nebraska baseball coach Will Bolt about Harrison’s long-shot football bid and freakish athleticism.

Though Harrison came to professional baseball with plenty of pedigree, drew ample top prospect fanfare and ultimately reached the majors, his MLB career certainly did pan out as he’d hoped. After Harrison coupled his preternatural athleticism with a .272/.350/.481 line between two Class-A levels in 2017, he emerged as a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport. Then 21 years of age, Harrison was one of the key pieces sent from the Brewers to the Marlins in the Christian Yelich blockbuster that significantly altered the trajectory of both franchises.

Yelich broke out with an MVP showing in his first season in Milwaukee, finished second in NL MVP voting his second year there, and signed a franchise-record $215MM contract ($188.5MM in new money) that runs through the 2028 season. The Marlins saw all of the prospects acquired in that trade — Harrison, Lewis Brinson, Isan Diaz and Jordan Yamamoto — struggle immensely in Miami. None of the four are with the organization anymore.

Harrison played parts of two seasons with the Fish (2020-21) and had a nine-game cup of coffee with the 2022 Angels as well. He tallied just 76 major league plate appearances across those three seasons and batted .176/.253/.294 with a 48.7% strikeout rate. His bat never fully broke through even at the Triple-A level, where he slashed .238/.322/.398 with a 36.5% strikeout rate in parts of four seasons (1179 plate appearances). His speed was still on display, however, as he swiped 90 bags in 105 tries (85.7% success rate). Overall, Harrison stole 210 minor league bases and was caught only 39 times — an excellent 84.3% success rate.

Even though his baseball career has fizzled out, Harrison still checks in at an imposing 6’3″ and 220 pounds. An eventual NFL emergence is an obvious long shot, but Harrison’s journey will be a fun story to track in the months ahead as he fights to keep his professional sports dream alive.

Brewers Select Kevin Herget

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The Brewers announced they’ve selected right-hander Kevin Herget onto the MLB roster in advance of tonight’s game in Kansas City. Janson Junk was optioned to Triple-A Nashville in a corresponding move. To create space on the 40-man roster, Milwaukee transferred Jakob Junis from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list.

Milwaukee also announced that starter Freddy Peralta will begin serving his five-game suspension tonight. The right-hander received the ban after MLB determined he intentionally threw at Rays outfielder Jose Siri last week. Players suspended for on-field rules violations cannot be replaced on the roster. The Brewers will play with 25 men for the next few days.

Herget returns to American Family Field for his second stint of the season. Milwaukee signed him to a minor league deal in Spring Training and selected his contract two weeks into April. They designated him for assignment a few days later and passed him though waivers. The 33-year-old accepted the minor league assignment and is back after making six more appearances in Nashville. Five of those were scoreless. Herget has had one nightmare outing where he was tagged for five runs in an inning and a third. Otherwise, he has kept opponents off the board this season.

The Brewers never called upon Herget during his first stay in the big leagues, so he’s still looking to make his team debut. He has pitched for the Rays and Reds over the past two years. In 31 1/3 innings, he owns a 5.74 ERA with a well below-average 12.4% strikeout rate. Herget has allowed 4.23 earned runs per nine across parts of seven seasons in Triple-A. His 22.8% strikeout percentage at the top minor league level is closer to average. He also consistently throws strikes, walking fewer than 7% of Triple-A opponents and only 4.4% of batters faced in his limited MLB work.

Junis has been out since April 3, when he landed on the IL with a shoulder impingement. The 60-day minimum is retroactive to the time of his initial placement on the injured list. He’ll be out of action until at least the start of June. Junis’ rehab hit a scary setback when he was struck in the head by a fly-ball during batting practice a couple weeks ago.

The righty was taken to a hospital for further evaluation but thankfully indicated a few days later that he didn’t suffer any serious injuries. He has been lightly throwing recently but will still need to build his pitch count and embark on a minor league rehab assignment. Junis started the season in the rotation after signing a $7MM free agent deal over the offseason. The Brewers have suggested he might work out of the bullpen once he’s ready to return.

NL Central Notes: Brewers, Middleton, Friedl

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The Brewers announced a handful of roster moves prior to this afternoon’s game against the Cubs, most notably of which saw the club place outfielder Joey Wiemer on the 10-day injured list with left knee discomfort. Infielder Andruw Monasterio was called up to replace Wiemer on the roster.

What once appeared to be a glut of outfield talent has quickly evaporated due to injuries in Milwaukee with Wiemer now joining Christian Yelich and Garrett Mitchell on the shelf. Wiemer had been scuffling at the time of his injury, with just four hits to his name in the majors this season, although those struggles came in a microscopic sample of just 24 trips to the plate. Between his career .269/.296/.492 slash line against southpaws and his strong glove in the outfield, Wiemer figured to be a strong fourth outfielder for the Brewers while Mitchell and Yelich were on the shelf.

Now, however, Wiemer is headed to the shelf without a return in sight. While Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relayed that the outfielder underwent an MRI that revealed no ligament damage, he added that Wiemer had “no idea” when he’d be able to return from the strained muscle in his left knee. Sal Frelick, Jackson Chourio and Blake Perkins figure to handle the outfield on a regular basis in Wiemer’s absence, though behind that group only Jake Bauers has played even an inning on the outfield grass this season of the players currently on the roster. Youngster Chris Roller currently stands as the Brewers’ most experienced outfielder on the 40-man roster, though he has yet to make his big league debut and has struggled to an 89 wRC+ at Triple-A this season.

More from around the NL Central…

  • Cardinals reliever Keynan Middleton appears to be making good progress in his bid to return from a forearm strain that sidelined him during Spring Training, as he told reporters (including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat) that he hasn’t felt any discomfort in his arm since receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in his elbow last month. Per Jones, Middleton expects to pitch off a mound twice more on Tuesday and Friday before heading out on a minor league rehab assignment if all goes well during those outings. The return of Middleton, who dominated down the stretch with the Yankees last year to a 1.88 ERA with a 30.4% strikeout rate, would bolster a St. Louis bullpen that ranks just middle-of-the-pack with a 3.81 ERA despite an excellent xFIP of 3.30 and a strong 25.6% strikeout rate.
  • Reds outfielder TJ Friedl is doing well in his recovery from a right wrist fracture suffered prior to the start of the season, with MLB.com’s Injury Tracker noting that manager David Bell told reporters yesterday that the 28-year-old is on a “fast track” toward returning to the big league club. Friedl began a rehab assignment earlier this week and, according to Bell, will return to the majors “whenever we feel he’s gotten enough at-bats” in the minor leagues. Friedl enjoyed something of a breakout season last year as he slashed an impressive .279/.352/.467 in 138 games as the club’s everyday center fielder and should provide a big boost to a Reds club that has relied on Stuart Fairchild and Bubba Thompson in center in his absence.

Willy Adames Is Putting 2023 Behind Him

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Brewers shortstop Willy Adames had a down year in 2023, relative to his own standards. But here in the early parts of the 2024 season, he’s looked more like the pre-2023 version of himself. Even better than that, in fact.

Adames has been fairly consistent in being above average at the plate. That has been mostly due to his power output and in spite of some high strikeout totals. He also steals a few bases and has been considered strong on defense at a premium position. The glovework was a bit more contested earlier in his career but the praise has become more unanimous over time.

He debuted with the Rays in 2018, getting into 85 games that year. He struck out in 29.4% of his plate appearances but also launched 10 home runs in that time. His .278/.348/.406 batting line translated to a 110 wRC+, indicating he was 10% above league average.

In his first full season in 2019, he got into 152 games and doubled his home run total to 20. However, since that was the “juiced ball” season and the grading curve was thrown off, he was actually considered slightly below average with a 99 wRC+. In the small sample of the shortened 2020 season, he hit another eight homers and slashed .259 .332 .481 for a wRC+ of 126. The next two full seasons saw him continue to strike out a decent amount, but with home run tallies of 25 and 31, leading to a wRC+ of 120 and 109 in those campaigns. He spent most of those two years with the Brewers after being traded early in the 2021 season.

As mentioned up top, there was a dip in 2023, which looks like it may have been mostly about luck. His 11.1% walk rate was actually a career high and his 25.9% strikeout rate was a career low. The 24 home runs were a tad lower than the previous two seasons, but not by much. But when the ball didn’t go over the fence, his batting average was just .259. That was almost 40 points below last year’s .297 league-wide batting average on balls in play and below his career rate of .311. He finished the year with a line of .217/.310/.407 and a 94 wRC+.

That may not have been entirely bad fortune, as his batted ball metrics also dipped alongside his results. His average exit velocity was 87.4 miles per hour last year, whereas he was between 88.5 and 89.5 in the previous four campaigns. His 36.5% hard hit rate was also down, as he finished between 40.5% and 44.7% in the three prior years.

Perhaps the lack of zip partially explains why he was finding so many gloves last year, but he’s had no such problems here in 2024. Through his first 30 games this year, he has a .313 BABIP, a huge turnaround from last year and right in line with his career mark. His average exit velocity is back up, currently at 89.5 miles per hour for the year. His hard hit rate has also recovered, currently at 42.7% this season. He already has six home runs while his 12.7% walk rate and 20.1% strikeout rate are both career bests. His .278/.373/.496 batting line translates to a huge 147 wRC+.

Although the Statcast metrics somewhat supported his decline in results last year, the 2023 season looks like a clear outlier compared to the rest of his career. Perhaps Adames was playing through some kind of injury that was tugging him down last year. He was struck in the head by a foul ball in the dugout in late May and went on the concussion-related injured list, returning a week later. He was hitting just .205/.292/.384 before that injury, however, with a .234 BABIP. After his return, his BABIP crept up to .274 as he slashed .223/.318/.418 the rest of the way.

Regardless of the cause, the 2023 dip seems to be in the rear-view mirror now. His Statcast metrics are back to pre-2023 levels and his overall results have been even better, particularly with that improved plate discipline. Even if he doesn’t maintain this excellent form all the way through the end of the year, a bounceback at the plate should set him up nicely as he heads into free agency this winter.

In terms of his glovework, Defensive Runs Saved is a long-time fan. That metric gave Adames a -8 in his rookie debut but has been in positive territory in each season since. Outs Above Average took longer to come around, giving Adames a negative grade in three of four years from 2018 to 2021. But he was given grades of +10 and +16 in the last two campaigns, with a mark of +4 already here this year. His +29 OAA since the start of 2022 is second among all big league shortstops, trailing only Dansby Swanson. His 17 DRS in that time is fourth in the league among shortstops.

Adames has roughly average sprint speed but can steal a few bases, as mentioned. He has between four and eight steals in each full season of his career, with four already in the early parts of this year.

He also has a strong track record in terms of health. He had the aforementioned stint on the concussion IL last year, and previously missed about three weeks due to a high left ankle sprain in 2022 and about two weeks in 2021 due to a left quad strain, but that’s it. Apart from his rookie season, when he was frequently optioned to the minors, he’s never played less than 139 games in a full season.

All of these ingredients should come together nicely for Adames this winter. The most recent offseason was icy for the players and it’s hard to know how much to reset expectations because of it, but everyday shortstops tend to get paid. Since the end of the 2021 season, nine different nine-figure contracts have been given to free agent shortstops. MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows three for players going into their age-29 seasons:

Adames is going to be the same age as the Swanson-Báez-Story trio, heading into his age-29 season, but could potentially be in a better position than any of that three. Story had shown tremendous upside but limped into free agency with a 98 wRC+ in his walk year and concerns around his throwing elbow. Swanson had an excellent defensive reputation but inconsistent offense, with just two full seasons where his wRC+ was above average. Báez also had fluctuating offense and mounting strikeout concerns, getting punched out at a 33.6% clip in his walk year.

The Brewers were surely give Adames a qualifying offer at season’s end, which he will reject. Báez was spared a QO since he was traded midseason but Swanson and Story each rejected QOs and were therefore tied to the associated penalties.

Adames may not be an MVP candidate. In fact, he’s bizarrely never even been an All-Star. But there’s a steadiness to his production. He’s never had more than 4.4 wins above replacement in a season, per FanGraphs, but he’s also been worth at least 3.1 fWAR in each full season. He’s already at 1.7 fWAR here in 2024.

As we saw in the most recent winter, the market can be affected by things beyond a player’s control, such as TV rights deals and luxury tax calculations. But Adames is currently doing everything in his power to set himself up well for the upcoming offseason. The longer he keeps it up, the more he will make 2023 look like a distant memory.

MLB Announces Suspensions For Rays-Brewers Brawl

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2:55pm: Rays manager Kevin Cash said after today’s game that Siri’s suspension was reduced to two games and he already started serving it, per Topkin.

1:05pm: Major League Baseball announced several suspensions today in relation to last night’s confrontation between the Rays and the Brewers. Milwaukee right-handers Freddy Peralta and Abner Uribe got suspensions of five and six games, respectively. Their manager Pat Murphy got a two-game suspension. Outfielder Jose Siri of the Rays got three games. All four parties also received undisclosed fines.

Murphy is serving his suspension starting today but both of the Milwaukee hurlers are appealing, per Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Siri will also be appealing his suspension, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

Siri homered off Peralta in the third inning and then was plunked by Peralta in the sixth. The umpires conferred and ejected Peralta, despite the fact that no warnings had been issued in the game to that point. Murphy objected to the ejection and he was also ejected.

Siri came up again in the eighth with Uribe pitching. Siri hit a grounder to Rhys Hoskins at first base, who flipped the ball to Uribe as he covered first and recorded the out. Siri and Uribe exchanged words by first base before Uribe took a swipe at Siri. The two tried throwing punches towards each other as various parties tried to intervene with the benches emptying. Both were ejected after the fracas died down.

Adam McCalvy and Adam Berry of MLB.com spoke to the relevant parties after the game and relayed some natural differences of opinion about what transpired. Crew chief Chris Guccione said the umpires thought it was “clear-cut” that Peralta intentionally threw at Siri, though the pitcher denied it. “How many homers did I give up in seven years? A lot, and I never did something after,” Peralta said. “It’s my first time I got ejected from a game in seven seasons and there’s no reason for me to hit him.”

For his part, Siri denied that he celebrated his home run in any outlandish way. “I didn’t take too much time,” Siri said through Rays interpreter Manny Navarro. “I hit the ball, took a couple of steps and then I started running like normal.”

As for the later incident at first base, Uribe had this to say: “There were some words shared that didn’t have much to do with the game that probably shouldn’t have been shared there in that exchange.”

His sparring partner described it thusly: “When I went to first base, I just went there normal, and he kind of hit me on the shoulder,” Siri said. “So I asked him why did he do that? And he just said, ‘Because I felt like it.’”

As mentioned, Murphy is serving his suspension immediately while the players are all appealing. Their suspensions will be held in abeyance until the appeal process is complete, though players in this situation will often drop an appeal at a convenient time, such as when they were planning to have an unrelated day off.

Brewers Promote Tyler Black

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4:05pm: The Brewers have made it official, announcing they have selected Black’s contract. Miley was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open up a 40-man spot while Miller was optioned to make room on the active roster.

1:35pm: The Brewers are expected to call up infield prospect Tyler Black today, per Jon Morosi of MLB.com. Black is not on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move will be necessary, though Wade Miley could easily be transferred to the 60-day injured list since he is going to miss the rest of the season due to Tommy John surgery. Another move would still be necessary to get Black onto the active roster.

Black, 23, was selected by the Brewers with the 33rd overall pick in the 2021 draft. Since then, he has climbed the minor league ladder, earning huge amounts of praise for his plate discipline. He spent 2022 in High-A, walking more often than he struck out. He was limited to 283 plate appearances in 64 games due to a fractured scapula but drew 45 walks while getting punched out 44 times, leading to respective rates of 15.9% and 15.5%. He only hit four home runs but his .281/.406/.424 batting line translated to a 137 wRC+.

He got over his injury and returned to the field last year, playing 123 games between Double-A and Triple-A. He walked in 15.8% of his trips to the plate on the year while striking out at a 17.9% rate, hitting 18 home runs in the process. He hit a combined .284/.417/.513 between the two levels for a 145 wRC+. He returned to Triple-A this year and has produced a batting line of .303/.393/.525 so far.

Though the plate discipline is his most standout tool, he also has some speed to offer. He stole 13 bases in his injury-shortened 2022 campaign before swiping 55 bags on 67 tries last year. He’s tallied another three in the early going here in 2024.

Defensively, he’s more of a question mark. He was a second baseman in college and the early parts of his minor league career, spending some time in center field in 2022 as well. But since the start of last year, he’s been exclusively on the infield corners, primarily at third.

Regardless of the defensive question marks, the strong offense and the speed are enough for him to be considered one of the best prospects in the league. Baseball America currently lists him as their #73 prospect. MLB Pipeline has him at #42, ESPN at #51 while Keith Law of The Athletic put him in the #44 spot. Though for a dissenting opinion, Black doesn’t crack the top 100 at FanGraphs and Eric Longenhagen put him at just #10 in the Brewers’ system last month. Longenhagen expresses concern that Black won’t stick at third base and will eventually end up at first, where his contact-over-power approach will be insufficient.

Given the current Milwaukee infield alignment, it would seem that Black probably has a better path to playing time at first base for now. Joey Ortiz has been the regular at third and is hitting a strong .279/.392/.426 so far this year, 134 wRC+. First base has been split between Rhys Hoskins and Jake Bauers, though the latter hasn’t been performing especially well. Bauers is hitting .200/.250/.383 while striking out in 37.5% of his trips to the plate this year.

Both Bauers and Black are left-handed hitters, so it seems Bauers is the player most likely to lose playing time with Black promotion. Bauers is out of options and would have to be designated for assignment if he is to be squeezed off the roster. Though if the Brewers want to keep him around as a bench bat, they could option someone like Joey Wiemer, Oliver Dunn or Owen Miller.

It’s late enough in the season that Black can’t earn a full year of service time, at least not the traditional way. A major league season is 187 days long but a player needs 172 days in the big leagues, or on the major league injured list, to get to the one-year mark. Since we’re over a month into the 2024 campaign already, Black can’t quite make it to that line.

The current collective bargaining agreement contains measures to disincentive service time manipulation, by rewarding clubs for promotion top prospects while also allowing such players a path to getting one year of service even if held down. If a player is on two of the three top 100 lists at BA, MLB Pipeline or ESPN, they are considered eligible for the prospect promotion incentive, which applies to Black since he’s on all three.

Had the Brewers promoted Black earlier in the year, they could have earned themselves an extra draft pick depending on how he performed in awards voting, but that won’t be in play now. Black will be able to earn a full service year if he can finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting, the other new measure in the CBA, though he will have an uphill battle in achieving that. Players like Shota Imanaga Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jared Jones, Jackson Merrill, Masyn Winn and others have already had a head start of over a month to rack up stats while Black is just getting started.

Even if he comes up short of the one-year mark here in 2024, he would be in line for Super Two status after the 2026 campaign if he can stay up in the big leagues from this point forward. He would be able to go through arbitration four times instead of three before being slated for free agency after 2030, though future optional assignments could delay either of those trajectories.

NL Central Notes: Imanaga, Pirates, Brewers, Carpenter, Reds

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Before the Cubs signed Shota Imanaga to a four-year, $53MM deal, the other finalists for Imanaga’s services were the Red Sox, Pirates, and Brewers, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.  Boston’s interest in Imanaga was well-known, and Pittsburgh had also been linked to Imanaga’s market, even if the Bucs’ traditional lack of spending makes it somewhat surprising to learn that they apparently came relatively close to landing the southpaw.  Of course, “finalist” is a bit of a nebulous term, and it isn’t known just how close the Pirates might’ve come to Chicago in the bidding.  For instance, the Red Sox offered Imanaga two years and $26MM in guaranteed money according to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, with two more vesting years covering the 2026 and 2027 seasons.

The Brewers are also a surprise entry, as it wasn’t publicly known that they were in on Imanaga at all, let alone one of the last four suitors in the running for his services.  Milwaukee also often operates with a limited payroll (albeit not as limited as the Pirates’ budget), and it’s interesting to speculate on what the team might’ve offered Imanaga, or whether signing the Japanese star might’ve kept from the Crew from any of their other winter business.  For instance, if the Brewers had signed Imanaga, would they have still had enough spending capacity to bring back Brandon Woodruff and/or Wade Miley, or would any further pitching additions would’ve been strictly of the lower-cost or minor league variety if Imanaga had been the team’s big offseason strike.  As Nightengale observes, any of Imanaga’s other suitors might have some regrets given how the left-hander has gotten his MLB career off to such a great start.

Some other notes from around the NL Central…

  • Matt Carpenter recently received a cortisone shot to deal with the oblique strain that has kept him on the injured list for almost four weeks, MLB.com’s John Denton writes (X link).  The shot led to a shutdown, and it isn’t clear when Carpenter will be ready to begin a minor league rehab assignment, though he has been able to take batting practice.  Carpenter reunited with the Cardinals on a one-year deal this past winter, but played in just three games before suffering his oblique problem.
  • X-rays were negative on both Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Tyler Stephenson after the Reds duo were each hit on the hand by pitches in Saturday’s game.  Encarnacion-Strand might be the slightly more serious situation of the two, as Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that the infielder’s X-ray revealed a small previous fracture in the same spot that CES was hit on Saturday.  Encarnacion-Strand said he had “no clue” about the origin of the older injury, and he hadn’t felt any discomfort prior to this most recent HBP.  It isn’t yet clear if Encarnacion-Strand will get an MRI to further explore the injury, but he hoped to return to the lineup within a day or two.

NL Central Notes: Wicks, Junis, Carlson

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The Cubs are in for their second bullpen game in as many days tomorrow, as Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune was among those to relay that left-hander Jordan Wicks has been scratched from his scheduled start tomorrow due to forearm tightness. Right-hander Hayden Wesneski will start the game in Wicks’s place just three days after pitching 2 1/3 scoreless frames against the Astros Thursday afternoon.

It’s not currently clear how serious Wicks’s injury is or if a stint on the injured list will be required, but a lengthy absence would be a major blow to the Cubs. The club’s first-round pick in the 2021 draft, Wicks has pitched solidly for the Cubs through five starts this season, posting a roughly league average 4.70 ERA and a much stronger 3.25 FIP in 23 innings of work. An trip to the shelf for Wicks would further exacerbate Chicago’s early-season injury woes. Hurlers Justin Steele, Kyle Hendricks, Drew Smyly, and Julian Merryweather are all currently on the injured list (though the former may be back soon) while the positional corps has lost both Seiya Suzuki and Cody Bellinger from its outfield mix.

The laundry list of injuries has left the Cubs somewhat thin in terms of rotation options, with both Ben Brown and now Wesneski stepping in to make starts after previously pitching out of the bullpen for the big league club. Chicago signed veteran right-hander Julio Teheran to a minor league deal in earlier this month, and the 33-year-old righty and lefty Thomas Pannone among the club’s top non-roster depth options for the rotation.

More from the NL Central…

  • Brewers right-hander Jakob Junis suffered a scary incident earlier this week when he was struck by an errant fly ball during the club’s pregame workouts prior to a game against the Pirates in Pittsburgh. Fortunately, Junis is back traveling with the team and spoke to Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel yesterday. The right-hander noted that he underwent an MRI and CT scan, both of which came back clean, before he was released from the hospital. Now that he’s back with the team, it appears Junis is set to continue rehabbing from the shoulder impingement that has cost him most of the season to this point. Per MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy, Brewers manager Pat Murphy recently indicated that the club may look to bring Junis back into the fold as a reliever rather than build him up to start. It’s something of a surprise given the recent injuries suffered by lefties DL Hall and Wade Miley, though it’s possible that a multi-inning relief role could allow the Brewers to maximize Junis’s innings in the short-term.
  • Cardinals outfielder Dylan Carlson has missed the entire season to this point after suffering a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder just before Opening Day. Fortunately, however, it appears that the 25-year-old could be nearing his season debut. According to MLB.com’s Injury Tracker, Carlson is set to begin a rehab assignment in the near future if he comes out of a hitting session today pain-free. The return of Carlson would be most welcome for St. Louis, as the club recently optioned struggling youngster Jordan Walker to the minor leagues. With Carlson and Tommy Edman both on the injured list, that’s left the club to rely on Michael Siani and Alec Burleson as major contributors to the outfield mix alongside Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan.
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