Rea is back, resigned to 1 yr deal

[DR28]

Back on 1 yr deal with option for 2025.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Interesting they wanted the option year. I don't find Rea coming back surprising but the option makes me wonder if the Brewers see something there they might be able to maximize with more time.*

*I'm not saying Rea will suddenly become a #2 starter, only that the Brewers see value there

[markedman5]

I’ll be interested to see the terms

[duewizard]

No options left though. Definitely changes his role

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 minute ago, duewizard said:

No options left though. Definitely changes his role

Not necessarily. A new trend in MLB is to sign fringe players to MLB-guaranteed money. That all but guarantees no team will claim them as you do the minor league shuffle several times a season. The risk is much larger if the team has to take on a prorated portion of $700k to a little over a million.

[nate82]

I am assuming this means Houser will be traded or won’t be offered arbitration.

[Thurston Fluff]

24 minutes ago, nate82 said:

I am assuming this means Houser will be traded or won’t be offered arbitration.

I don't think they're related. Both are capable back of the rotation starters and both can be multi-inning relievers. I don't think a team can have enough of those.

[TURBO]

44 minutes ago, nate82 said:

I am assuming this means Houser will be traded or won’t be offered arbitration.

Interesting, why do you think one has to do with the other.

We know we aren't going to have Woodruff, odds are Burnes is gone as well.  That leaves 2 holes to fill at the very least.  I'm really hoping we get Miley back, so our rotation will probably look like this today if that happens:

Peralta/Miley/Gasser/Houser/Rea

I have almost zero faith that Ashby is going to contribute as a starter this year, who else does that leave?  No way we can afford to not have Houser back unless we get another arm in a trade or as a free agent.  

 

[markedman5]

I think,he is assuming that if the Brewers expect to compete next season…….( they typically do but we will see) they aren’t going to want Rae and Houser as the 4 and 5 men in the rotation without any minor league options for either guy.

if one of them could go up and down like last season it’s a different decision……..

[Thurston Fluff]

Maybe it's just me but I see this as much about supplementing the bullpen as I do the rotation.

[folly412]

You can never have enough starting pitching depth.  People were thinking Houser would be traded when we signed Miley last year, and we ended up needing 22 starts from Rea and 11 from Julio Tehran just to hold things together.

[Ro Mueller]

What are we guessing? $2.75m base, incentives for 110+ innings, $6m option for 2025, $250k buyout? Maybe I’m waaaayyy off.

[BrewerFan]

Just now, damuelle said:

What are we guessing? $2.75m base, incentives for 110+ innings, $6m option for 2025, $250k buyout? Maybe I’m waaaayyy off.

I haven't got the first clue...

4.90 FIP, propped up a bit by our D(but every starter was). Solid K rate, lower WHIP. 5M a year seems like a reasonable number for a guy who threw ~120 IP as a #4-5 pitcher, but his first year in arbitration, I'd say 2M and then a TO for 4.5 with a very minimal buyout(the 250K). So just south of what you said. He guarantees he makes a couple of million as a 33-year-old pitcher with a -.5 WAR coming into last season.

Feels like this has to be team-friendly to get this done this early. 

[Ro Mueller]

 

[wildcat2237]

16 minutes ago, damuelle said:

 

This is bargain bin for a guy who could be a 4 starter on a bad team or a 5 starter on a good team. Starting pitching is not cheap. 

Rea has hinted in the past he likes the Brewers, so there may have been a discount here to make this happen. 

[Outlander]

2 hours ago, nate82 said:

I am assuming this means Houser will be traded or won’t be offered arbitration.

Doubt it, every year it is assumed he is done with the Brewers and every year he is a starter. They are guaranteeing Rea 4.5 million, not going to cost much more than that to keep Houser.

[SF70]

2 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Interesting they wanted the option year. I don't find Rea coming back surprising but the option makes me wonder if the Brewers see something there they might be able to maximize with more time.*

*I'm not saying Rea will suddenly become a #2 starter, only that the Brewers see value there

I agree.

I think the team see’s another gear with Rea and his 6 pitches. Maybe not a #2, but a 3-4, is possible, imo.

[RobertCrawley]

Glad to see it. Rea gave us a lot and kept us in the race for the division. I hope finds more ways to be effective in the off-season.

[BrewerFan]

1 hour ago, damuelle said:

 

Huh...that seems a bit steep for a guy going into his first year of arbitration at 33 with a negative war coming into this season.

[LouisEly]

Funny thing about him this past season is that his OPS-A in innings 4-6 was way better than his OPS-A in innings 1-3 (.487 vs .876).  Once he gets through the 3rd inning he's golden.

[SF70]

5 minutes ago, BrewerFan said:

Huh...that seems a bit steep for a guy going into his first year of arbitration at 33 with a negative war coming into this season.

$3.5M for a starter that in 22 starts last year went 5+ innings 17 times with 15 bulk outing’s giving up 3 or less runs is quite the bargain. 1.18 WHIP to boot.

[LouisEly]

Few more oddities about Rea that may suggest that the Brewers think that they can get more out of him.

His OPS-A on the first pitch to a batter was 1.121 (.758 SLG); he gave up 7 HRs to batters on the first pitch.  Different strategy on the first pitch or maybe confidence in different pitch types for the first pitch can make that first pitch less predictable.

With a 3-1 count he had a 1.786 OPS-A; while it was a small sample of only 14 PAs, he walked them 10 of the 14 PAs.  Of the other four, hitters were only 1-4.  Confidence in his stuff, and being able to throw strikes on 3-1, is something that can be improved as well to keep more runners off of the bases.  He had a .836 OPS-A with runners on base vs. .673 OPS-A with nobody on; keeping runners off of the bases is key for him.

[jay87shot]

I don't mind Rea for 1/3.5, however this worries me that we are going to sign like 4 or 5 guys for cheap 1 year deals and get no real difference makers.

We hit on Miley but last off-season wasn't great, especially since we knew we needed some offense help.

[BrewerFan]

1 hour ago, wildcat2237 said:

This is bargain bin for a guy who could be a 4 starter on a bad team or a 5 starter on a good team. Starting pitching is not cheap. 

Rea has hinted in the past he likes the Brewers, so there may have been a discount here to make this happen. 

He was in his first year of arbitration.  How much do you think a 33-year-old pitcher who just had his career year...-with a 4.55 ERA -is worth?

[sveumrules]

1 minute ago, BrewerFan said:

He was in his first year of arbitration.  How much do you think a 33-year-old pitcher who just had his career year...-with a 4.55 ERA -is worth?

Rea has language in his contract which made him an outright free agent, so he wasn’t beholden to Arbitration deflating  his salary.