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Brewers Sign Enoli Paredes, Jared Koenig To Minor League Deals

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The Brewers have signed pitchers Enoli Paredes and Jared Koenig to minor league contracts, tweets Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. Both will be in MLB camp as non-roster invitees.

Paredes elected free agency a few weeks ago after being waived by the Astros. The right-hander had previously spent his entire career in the Houston organization. Paredes pitched out of Dusty Baker’s bullpen at times from 2020-22, tallying 32 1/3 innings over 37 cumulative appearances. He worked to a 3.90 ERA but walked almost a fifth of opposing hitters.

Now 28, Paredes spent the entire 2023 season on optional assignment to Houston’s Triple-A club. He allowed 4.80 earned runs per nine over 54 1/3 innings in the Pacific Coast League. While Paredes’ 27.3% strikeout rate there was solid, his 18.6% walk percentage was similarly untenable as the mark he’s managed in his MLB career. He has a mid-90s heater but will need to dramatically improve his strike-throwing to carve out a spot in the middle innings for Milwaukee.

Koenig, 30 in January, also spent all of 2023 in Triple-A. He was in the Padres system on a minor league pact. Koenig allowed an even 5.00 ERA over 45 frames with their top affiliate in El Paso. He kept the ball on the ground at a 51.1% clip with slightly worse than average strikeout and walk marks.

His only major league work came in 2022. Koenig pitched 39 1/3 innings over 10 appearances (five starts) with Oakland. The soft-tossing lefty posted a 5.72 ERA while striking out 12.4% of opponents in green and gold. He could provide the Brew Crew with long relief depth in Triple-A if he doesn’t break camp.

National League Non-Tenders: 11/17/23

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The deadline to tender a contract to arbitration-eligible players is tonight at 7:00pm CT. Here’s a rundown of fairly minor players on National League teams who have been non-tendered today. This post will be updated as more decisions are revealed. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected salaries for all players eligible for arbitration last month.

All players who are non-tendered before this evening’s deadline go directly into free agency without being placed on waivers. They’ll be eligible to sign with any of the league’s 30 teams. It’s not uncommon to see non-tendered players almost immediately return to their previous organization on a minor league deal.

The transactions:

Latest Moves

Earlier

  • The Reds have non-tendered relievers Derek Law and Reiver Sanmartin. Cincinnati also confirmed the previously reported non-tender of Nick Senzel.
  • In addition to Rowdy Tellez and Brandon Woodruff, the Brewers have non-tendered right-hander J.C. Mejía. He failed a PED test in September, the second such result of his career, and was suspended for 162 games.
  • Former Rookie of the Year winner Kyle Lewis was non-tendered by the Diamondbacks. He played in only 16 games after being acquired from the Mariners last offseason.
  • The Cubs non-tendered relievers Ethan Roberts, Brandon Hughes and Codi Heuer. All three are recovering from surgeries.
  • Right-hander Tommy Doyle was non-tendered by the Rockies. Colorado designated him for assignment when acquiring Cal Quantrill this morning.
  • The Cardinals have non-tendered catcher Andrew Knizner, first baseman Juan Yepez and starting pitchers Jake Woodford and Dakota Hudson. St. Louis reportedly tried to deal Hudson this afternoon but evidently did not find a taker.
  • The Mets have non-tendered relievers Jeff Brigham, Sam Coonrod and Trevor Gott. New York also cut loose infielder Luis Guillorme and confirmed the reported non-tender of Dan Vogelbach.
  • Left-hander Josh Fleming was non-tendered by the Phillies, the team announced. Philadelphia just snagged the southpaw off waivers from the Rays a few weeks ago.
  • The Marlins have non-tendered catcher Jacob Stallings and infielder Garrett Hampson, per a club announcement. Stallings spent two seasons as the primary catcher after being acquired from the Pirates at the 2021-22 offseason. Hampson signed a minor league deal with the Fish last season.
  • The Pirates non-tendered Osvaldo Bido and Hunter Stratton, tweets Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Neither had yet been eligible for arbitration. Both right-handers made their big league debuts in 2023; Mackey suggests the Bucs will try to bring them back on minor league pacts.
  • The Nationals announced they’ve non-tendered first baseman Dominic Smith and right-hander Cory Abbott. Both players were designated for assignment earlier in the week, making this an inevitability.

Brewers To Non-Tender Rowdy Tellez

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The Brewers are planning to non-tender first baseman Rowdy Tellez, reports Robert Murray of Fansided. Tellez was projected by MLBTR’s Matt Swartz for a $5.9MM salary in his final trip through arbitration this offseason.

The 28-year-old Tellez smacked a career-high 35 home runs for the 2022 Brewers but was unable to replicate that production at the plate in 2023. This past season saw the slugger turn in a career-worst .215/.291/.376 batting line with just 13 home runs — a stark decline from the prior year’s offensive output.

Perhaps the Brewers might’ve been willing to give him another chance or find a trade partner if Tellez were a standout defender, but the 6’4″, 270-pound slugger is limited to first base and designated hitter only and draws below-average marks for his glovework. Tellez also generally requires a platoon partner; he hit just .174/.269/.261 against left-handers this year and owns a tepid .236/.308/.386 batting line in 438 career plate appearances versus same-handed opponents.

As his 2022 campaign showed, Tellez has the capability to be a source of booming power in the middle of a lineup, but his margin for error is rather slight, given the lack of defensive versatility and on-base issues. Now that he’s a free agent, a club with openings at first base and/or designated hitter and in the market for some low-cost power upside figures to take a look.

Brewers Acquire Jake Bauers From Yankees

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The Brewers have acquired infielder/outfielder Jake Bauers from the Yankees, per announcements from both clubs. Minor league outfielders Jace Avina and Brian Sanchez are headed to the Yanks in return.

Bauers, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Yanks prior to the 2023 season and ended up getting into 84 big league games on the year. He struck out in 34.9% of his plate appearances but walked at a 9.9% clip and hit 12 home runs. His final batting line of .202/.279/.413 translated to a wRC+ of 89. He’s out of options and has qualified for arbitration for the first time, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a salary of $1.7MM next year. Tonight is the deadline for clubs to decide whether or not to tender contracts to arb-eligible players and it seems the Yanks preferred to exchange Bauers for some prospects as opposed to making him part of the 2024 club.

Though the results weren’t outstanding in 2023, Bauers has generally hit well in the minors and has continued to intrigue clubs around the league. Drafted by the Padres back in 2013, he was traded to the Rays as part of the Wil Myers deal, with Tampa later flipping him to Cleveland in the three-team deal that also involved Edwin Encarnación, Carlos Santana and Yandy Díaz. Bauers was dealt a third time, going to the Mariners in 2021, but couldn’t thrive at the big league level with any club.

He has hit .211/.302/.361 in his career as a major leaguer but has a much more impressive line of .257/.363/.438 at Triple-A. The Brewers will be the latest club to take a chance on him finally putting it together at the big league level, perhaps as a Rowdy Tellez replacement. Tellez hit just .215/.291/.376 this year and is projected to make $5.9MM in his final arbitration year, making him a speculative non-tender candidate. With Bauers projected at less than a third of of that price and also having two more seasons of club control, the Brewers are taking a bet that he will be better value for money.

The tender deadline is at 7 pm Central tonight, so the Brewers still have a few hours to work out a trade of Tellez or decide whether to keep him around. In addition to first base, Bauers has also played some corner outfield. That perhaps allows them both to fit on the roster but the club is fairly loaded with outfield options, having Christian Yelich, Tyrone Taylor, Joey Wiemer, Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick and Blake Perkins, with prospect Jackson Chourio charging hard towards a major league debut.

In exchange for a player that likely wasn’t in their plans anyway, the Yanks will add a couple of pieces to their farm system, both long-term plays. Avina, who turns 21 in June, spent 2023 in Single-A. He hit .233/.373/.442 at that level for a wRC+ of 134. Sanchez is just 19 and was in the Dominican Summer League this year, hitting .297/.414/.446 for a wRC+ of 129. Neither are Rule 5 eligible at this point and won’t need a 40-man roster spot for the time being.

Cubs Interested In Shota Imanaga, “Have An Eye On” Corbin Burnes

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“The Cubs would like to acquire a starter” to add to their rotation depth, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers writes, with the idea that a new arm would help make up for the departure of Marcus Stroman.  To this end, the Cubs are exploring options on both the free agent and trade fronts, including Japanese southpaw Shota Imanaga and Brewers right-hander Corbin Burnes.  As has been previously reported, Chicago is also in on Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s market, and of course the Cubs are one of the teams known to be interested in Shohei Ohtani, though Ohtani’s UCL surgery will keep him off the mound in 2024.

The Red Sox are the only other team publicly linked to Imanaga’s market thus far, and technically, his market has yet to officially open.  The Yokonama DeNA Baystars haven’t yet posted Imanaga for Major League teams, though the move is expected any day now.  Once Imanaga is posted, he’ll have 45 days to reach a deal with an MLB club, or else he’ll return to the Baystars for the 2024 Nippon Professional Baseball season.

Imanaga has a long track record of success in NPB and on the international stage, including a 3.18 ERA and 25% strikeout rate over 1002 2/3 innings with the Baystars, two NPB All-Star nods, and a World Baseball Classic gold medal as part of Japan’s championship team in 2023.  MLBTR ranked Imanaga tenth on our list of the winter’s top 50 free agents and projected a five-year, $85MM deal for the left-hander, with Anthony Franco even predicting that Imanaga would land with the Cubs.

While $85MM isn’t small change, it does represent significantly less than Ohtani or Yamamoto will receive, making Imanaga an interesting backup plan for the Cubs (and other teams) if they don’t land one of the bigger names on the pitching market.  Five years/$85MM happens to be exactly what Chicago gave to another notable Japanese player in Seiya Suzuki two offseasons ago.  Though the Cubs did sign Dansby Swanson for $177MM last winter, Rogers notes that “under [president of baseball operations Jed] Hoyer and owner Tom Ricketts, the Cubs have been measured in their dealings with free agents.  Setting Ohtani aside, the organization isn’t the type that gets into bidding wars.”

Burnes’ price tag would just cover the 2024 season, as the former NL Cy Young Award winner is set for free agency next winter and is projected for a $15.1MM salary in his final year of arbitration eligibility.  Of course, Burnes would come at a different cost than just money, as Chicago would have to give up a significant trade package to obtain Burnes from the Brewers.  This might be more of a due diligence situation than a true pursuit, as Rogers writes that the Cubs just “have an eye” on Burnes should Milwaukee make him available in the first place.

A Burnes trade would also be contingent on many other factors, including the larger hurdle of whether or not the Brewers would specifically be open to trading Burnes within the NL Central.  As Rogers notes, Craig Counsell just surprisingly left the Brewers to become the new manager in Wrigleyville, only adding to the rivalry between the two clubs — and quite possibly the unlikelihood of the two sides coming together on any sort of trade, let alone a major swap.

Justin Steele, Kyle Hendricks, and Jameson Taillon are the Cubs’ current top three starters, with youngsters Javier Assad, Hayden Wesneski, and Jordan Wicks competing for the other two spots and veteran Drew Smyly on hand as either further depth or as a bullpen option.  On paper, this is already a surplus of arms, even before factoring in top prospect Cade Horton likely making his MLB debut in 2024, or Ben Brown and Caleb Kilian as further Triple-A depth.  However, adding another frontline starter would certainly solidify things for a Cubs team that wants to contend in 2024.  Signing Imanaga, for instance, might also give Chicago some flexibility in dealing from that young depth to address other needs.

Brewers, Yonny Hernández Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Brewers and infielder Yonny Hernández are in agreement on a minor league deal that includes an invitation to Spring Training, reports Robert Murray of FanSided.

Hernández, 26 in May, spent the 2023 season with the Dodgers but was mostly kept in the minors, only getting into 14 major league contests. In 93 games at the Triple-A level, he hit .252/.395/.342. He walked in 18.4% of his plate appearances and struck out just 19.9% of the time but hit just four home runs, with his overall production translating into a wRC+ of 93. He also stole 17 bases but was caught 12 times. Defensively, he lined up at shortstop, second base and third base.

The Dodgers outrighted Hernández off their 40-man roster in September and he was able to elect free agency at season’s end, allowing him to sign this deal with the Brewers. He will likely serve a similar contact-hitting depth role with his new club. He has generally had strong walk rates and low strikeout rates throughout his time in the minors but his four homers this year brought his career minor league tally to just nine.

The Milwaukee infield has plenty of question marks right now. Shortstop Willy Adames is the most surefire everyday player, but he is a speculative trade candidate since he’s going into his final arbitration season and has a projected salary of $12.4MM, with that figure courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. First baseman Rowdy Tellez is a non-tender candidate after a rough 2023 season. Players like Brice Turang, Andruw Monasterio, Owen Miller and Jahmai Jones all produced subpar offense in the majors this past season.

The club has been actively trying to improve the depth lately, having claimed Vinny Capra off waivers from the Pirates, acquiring Oliver Dunn from the Phillies and now bringing Hernández aboard in a non-roster capacity. If Hernández is selected to the roster next year, he still has an option remaining and less than a year of service time.

Brewers Discussing Brandon Woodruff Trades

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The Brewers are discussing right-hander Brandon Woodruff in trades with multiple clubs, per Jon Morosi of MLB.com. With the non-tender deadline coming up at 7 pm Central tonight, it’s possible the club is looking to make a move before committing to Woodruff for the 2024 season.

With the deadline looming, Woodruff is arguably the most fascinating player to watch today. He has been an excellent pitcher for Milwaukee in recent years, having made 103 starts from 2019 to the present with a 2.93 earned run average. He struck out 30% of batters faced in that time while giving out walks at just a 6.3% clip. The 15.1 wins above replacement he produced in that stretch, per FanGraphs, was 15th among all major league pitchers.

He can be retained for one more season via arbitration but the situation is complicated by a shoulder injury. The righty missed part of the 2023 campaign due to a subscapular strain in his right shoulder, making just 11 starts, and wasn’t able to appear in the playoffs. Last month, the club announced that he would require surgery to repair the anterior capsule in his right shoulder, which would keep him out of action for most or perhaps all of 2024. Woodruff himself later addressed the situation and put a bit more of an optimistic spin on it, suggesting it’s possible he’s back by midseason, but he’s a real wild card at the moment.

Woodruff had a salary of $10.8MM in 2023 and MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for a raise to $11.6MM next year. Although Woodruff is incredibly talented, that could be a lot of money for a low-spending club like the Brewers to give out for a guy who is such an unknown right now. On the positive end of things, Woodruff could return for the second half and be his old self, helping the team for a postseason push. That would be a huge boost to a rotation that currently is fronted by Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta with plenty of question marks beyond that, and Burnes himself is a trade candidate given that he also has just one year of expensive arb control remaining. If that were to come to pass, Woodruff would be a lock to receive and reject a qualifying offer, thus netting the Brewers an extra draft pick.

But it’s also possible that the injury timeline goes beyond expectations and Woodruff doesn’t come back, or perhaps he does return but he’s not as effective as before. In that case, justifying a qualifying offer would be harder and he could perhaps depart for nothing.

Given that possible downside, it’s possible the club might have to consider a strict non-tender. The club has had payrolls around $120-130MM in recent years, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, so committing almost 10% of their budget to a guy who might not pitch at all next year would certainly be risky. Other clubs with more financial wiggle room might have a greater appetite for taking that bet so it’s understandable that the Brewers would try to get a sense of what other options are available.

The deadline doesn’t necessarily mean that a trade has to happen today. The Brewers could agree to tender Woodruff a contract and then trade him at a later date. But the talks should at least give them some perspective on whether that’s an advisable path to take or not. If they don’t find any offers that are particularly appealing, then maybe they simply decide to bite the bullet on a non-tender. That would result in Woodruff departing for nothing and becoming a free agent, but they could at least use the saved money on upgrading the roster with some other player or players. With the deadline now just a few hours away, the situation should have more clarity by the time today is done.

Wisconsin Legislature Approves Brewers’ Stadium Renovation Plan

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The Wisconsin state legislature passed a bill approving stadium renovations at Milwaukee’s American Family Field on Tuesday, as covered by Jessie Opoien of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. While the bill still needs approval from governor Tony Evers to officially pass, he has already announced his intent to sign off.

Under this funding plan, the state is agreeing to pay just under $366MM to support the stadium upgrades through 2050. Milwaukee County and the City of Milwaukee will each contribute $67.5MM. The Brewers are expected to pay roughly $150MM — around $100MM of that via rent and approximately $50MM devoted to discretionary upgrades. In total, the public funding amounts to a little over half a billion dollars over the course of 26 years.

Once signed into law by the governor, the plan will put to rest any questions about the Brewers’ future in Milwaukee. The team’s lease at American Family Field, which had been set to expire after the 2030 season, will be extended through 2050. In August, team officials floated the possibility of relocation if a lease extension weren’t agreed upon this fall. That’ll no longer be a concern for Brewer fans, at least for the better part of the next three decades.

“We now can all go to sleep tonight knowing the Brewers are going to be here for the next generation in a great, beautifully maintained ballpark that is worthy of the fans’ support,” the team’s business operations president Rick Schlesinger told reporters (including Opoien) on Tuesday.

Some residents will surely have qualms about committing significant public funding to stadium upgrades. There was opposition among the state senate, with the bill passing by a narrow 19-14 margin.

The Brewers have played in Milwaukee since 1970. The franchise began as an expansion team in Seattle but spent only one season there before moving to Wisconsin. With the Rays and Brewers reaching agreements on stadium deals, the A’s are the only franchise that will be relocating in the near future. MLB’s owners unanimously approved the Athletics’ application for relocation to Las Vegas this morning.

A’s Acquire Abraham Toro

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The A’s have acquired infielder Abraham Toro in a trade with the Brewers. Minor league pitcher Chad Patrick is headed back to Milwaukee. Oakland already had four vacancies on the 40-man roster, so no further move was necessary.

Toro, 27 next month, has now been traded three times in his career. The former Astro draftee went to the Mariners in the Kendall Graveman deal at the 2021 deadline. Toro didn’t find consistent offensive success over a season and a half in Seattle. He hit only .213/.276/.342 in 605 plate appearances (roughly one full year of playing time) through the end of the 2022 campaign.

As a result, the Mariners looked to upgrade at second base. They sent Toro alongside designated hitter Jesse Winker to Milwaukee for Kolten Wong. The trade didn’t work out for anyone involved. Wong was released by August while Winker slumped to a .199/.320/.247 line before hitting free agency. Toro barely played for the Brew Crew, getting into just nine MLB contests.

Toro spent most of the season on optional assignment to Milwaukee’s Triple-A team in Nashville. The switch-hitter had solid numbers there, running a .291/.374/.471 batting line over 414 plate appearances. He only hit eight home runs but walked at an excellent 11.8% clip while striking out 17.6% of the time. Despite the solid numbers, Milwaukee stuck with light-hitting rookie Brice Turang at second base and rotated through a number of third base options. 26-year-old rookie Andruw Monasterio and scuffling veteran Josh Donaldson got looks at the hot corner instead of Toro.

That limited usage made him a non-tender candidate approaching Friday’s deadline. While his projected $1.3MM arbitration salary isn’t exorbitant, it’s almost twice the league minimum rate. Toro is also out of minor league option years. Milwaukee would have had to keep him on the MLB roster or designate him for assignment at the beginning of next season.

Oakland is apparently more willing to take that shot. The A’s have almost nothing locked down in the infield. Second baseman Tony Kemp hit free agency. A’s third basemen (primarily the since-traded Jace Peterson, Jordan Diaz and Aledmys Díaz) combined for dreadful .192/.271/.285 batting line. Toro has a solid minor league track record and is eligible for arbitration through 2026. The A’s can afford to give him some run in what’ll be another uncompetitive season to see if he can hit MLB pitching.

The move for Milwaukee is mostly about clearing the roster spot and projected salary. Rather than a straight non-tender, they’ll pick up a mid-tier pitching prospect. Patrick joined the A’s before the trade deadline in the deal that sent Peterson to the Diamondbacks.

A former fourth round pick, Patrick spent the 2023 campaign in the upper minors. He logged a 5.59 ERA over 124 innings between the Arizona and Oakland organizations. The Purdue-Northwest product struck out 23% of opponents while issuing walks at a slightly high 9.4% clip. He won’t be eligible for the Rule 5 draft until next offseason, so Milwaukee can keep him in Nashville as non-roster rotation depth.

Brewers Name Pat Murphy Manager

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November 15: The Brewers officially announced Murphy’s hiring today.

November 13: The Brewers appear to have settled on their new manager. Milwaukee is expected to promote longtime bench coach Pat Murphy, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Murphy will replace longtime manager Craig Counsell after his departure to the Cubs.

Milwaukee’s managerial search proved to be a short one, ultimately concluding just one week after Counsell officially departed for Chicago. In that time, the Brewers reportedly considered several candidates in addition to Murphy during the short process, including Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly, Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough, 14-year MLB veteran Rickie Weeks and Astros hitting coach Troy Snitker.

Their reported list of candidates also included a pair of names attached to the other managerial vacancies around the league at the time: Astros then-bench coach Joe Espada, who has since been promoted to the managerial gig in Houston, as well as Padres senior advisor Mike Shildt, who is considered a potential favorite to replace Bob Melvin in San Diego. Ultimately, the Brewers decided to go with Murphy, who many around the game had speculated could consider joining Counsell as bench coach in Chicago if not promoted in Milwaukee.

Murphy, 64, has never been formally hired for the manager’s role with a big league organization but has plenty of experience managing in baseball nonetheless. He ran the Padres for 96 games on an interim basis in 2015 after Bud Black was dismissed that June. Murphy also spent more than 20 years as a head coach in college baseball for Arizona State and Notre Dame. Now, he’ll get his first proper managerial opportunity in the major leagues, stepping into Counsell’s shoes in the Milwaukee dugout after the pair worked closely for eight seasons.

He’ll inherit a roster that figures to be in flux this offseason. Though the Brewers won 92 games and an NL Central crown in 2023 en route to their fifth playoff appearance in the past six seasons, Counsell’s departure combined with the impending free agencies of ace right-hander Corbin Burnes and shortstop Willy Adames have Milwaukee’s front office potentially contemplating major changes to the roster. Further complicating the club’s offseason plans is the status of Burnes’s fellow ace Brandon Woodruff, who underwent shoulder surgery earlier in the offseason and is expected to miss most or perhaps even all of the 2024 season, though he hopes to be back sometime next summer.

Tumultuous as the coming offseason might be, the outlook in Milwaukee isn’t entirely bleak. Outfielder Jackson Chourio is widely considered one of the top two prospects in the entire sport. The club’s farm system sports three other top 100 prospects per MLB Pipeline. Those prospects could help to supplement a core of quality players at the big league level that includes catcher William Contreras, right-hander Freddy Peralta, closer Devin Williams, and outfielders Christian Yelich and Garrett Mitchell, among others. Even if Burnes and Adames are dealt this offseason, the club has the pieces to remain competitive in a relatively weak NL Central division if they choose to supplement the roster rather than engage in a larger teardown.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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