2024 Minor League Transaction Thread

[Ro Mueller]

From yesterday:

• Signed C Francisco Mejia and assigned him to AAA Nashville
• INF Daniel Guilarte assigned to ACL Brewers from Low-A Carolina
• RHP Chad Patrick promoted to AAA Nashville from AA Biloxi
• C Blayberg Diaz assigned to Low-A Carolina from AAA Nashville
• C Alejandro Rodriguez placed on Development List
• INF Ben Metzinger placed on Development List
• C/1B Brayan Oropeza released by DSL Brewers-1
• OF Irving Igualas released by DSL Brewers-1
• RHP Nestor Mena released by DSL Brewers-1
• LHP Pedro Quintana released by DSL Brewers-2
• LHP Wade Miley sent on rehab assignment to AAA Nashville
• RHP Vladimir Gutierrez claimed from Marlins and optioned to AAA Nashville

[Ro Mueller]

More moves today:

• Signed RHP Samuel Valerio and assigned to ACL Brewers (the 22-year old fireballer with control issues was released by the Royals two weeks ago)
• RHP Logan Henderson promoted to High-A Wisconsin from Low-A Carolina and placed on 7-day injured list
• INF Felix Valerio placed on AA Biloxi 7-day injured list
• RHP Rafael Garcia placed on Low-A Carolina 7-day injured list (Garcia last pitched on July 30, 2022, throwing only 1.1 innings that season; he’ll turn 23 later this month)
• RHP Kevin Briceno released by ACL Brewers
• 1B/OF Yeison Perez released by ACL Brewers
• RHP Darling Solano released by ACL Brewers
• RHP Henrison Mota released by ACL Brewers
• RHP Anthony Perez released by ACL Brewers
• LHP Aaron Ashby recalled to MLB Brewers from AAA Nashville (replacing injured RHP Jakob Junis)

[jay87shot]

Any word on the Quero injury on if it's the lesser or more major version. My guess is it is the bad on if we are adding Mejia. I always liked Mejia and with are ability to help catchers defensively he will be great insurance.

[LouisEly]

On 4/5/2024 at 12:10 PM, markedman5 said:

Former top prospect 

 

 

And almost Milwaukee Brewer.  You wonder how things may have been different if that had happened.  Lucroy vetoed that deal to Cleveland and the Brewers got Brinson from Texas instead, who they packaged to Miami for Yelich.  Mejia was still a top prospect pre-2018 at the time of the Yelich trade, but who knows if the Brewers would have been willing to part with him versus an OF.

[Ro Mueller]

- C Brian Navarreto transferred to AAA Nashville’s 60-day injured list from 7-day injured list

[brewmann04]

Wow what happened 

[Ro Mueller]

1 hour ago, brewmann04 said:

Wow what happened 

There was an injury delay when Navarreto K’d to start the 9th inning on March 30. Maybe we can discern something from that video.

[Jim Goulart]

11 hours ago, damuelle said:

- C Brian Navarreto transferred to AAA Nashville’s 60-day injured list from 7-day injured list

For MiLB.TV subscribers, you can go to the 03:12:30 hour/minute mark of the March 30th game here.

Navarreto with a mighty swing fouls the ball directly into the forward portion of his left foot insole and hits the dirt immediately.

Remarkably, he stays in for several more pitches, and even has to bust out of the box after lining a ball foul down the right field line.

But with a 60-day IL placement now, it's clear that imaging indicated a significant injury.

[Ro Mueller]

• RHP Kevin Herget's contract selected by MLB Brewers from AAA Nashville
• LHP Aaron Ashby optioned to AAA Nashville from MLB Brewers

[MrTPlush]

On 4/8/2024 at 2:38 PM, LouisEly said:

 

And almost Milwaukee Brewer.  You wonder how things may have been different if that had happened.  Lucroy vetoed that deal to Cleveland and the Brewers got Brinson from Texas instead, who they packaged to Miami for Yelich.  Mejia was still a top prospect pre-2018 at the time of the Yelich trade, but who knows if the Brewers would have been willing to part with him versus an OF.

Shows how Quero may be promising, but even Mejia flopped bigtime....and he was certainly a much more promising prospect.

[sveumrules]

16 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

Shows how Quero may be promising, but even Mejia flopped bigtime....and he was certainly a much more promising prospect.

Completely different profiles though, Mejia had elite bat to ball skills but no power and he was always viewed as a pretty marginal defender coming up.

Quero is pretty much the opposite with top end reports on his defense and a power over hit profile on offense.

[MrTPlush]

22 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Completely different profiles though, Mejia had elite bat to ball skills but no power and he was always viewed as a pretty marginal defender coming up.

Quero is pretty much the opposite with top end reports on his defense and a power over hit profile on offense.

Mejia had just as much power coming up. He still managed 14 homers the last two years in the minors. 17 homers if you include the MLB ABs in 2018. He hit a ton of doubles to add to it. MLB.com had them both at a 50 rating. Similar power...better bat skills. The later is probably the rarer and more valuable to get in a catcher. 

There is the defense aspect, but I guess that wasn't a part of the point I was making. Both have/had huge offensive hype, but it definitely didn't materialize for Mejia. Just a tough position to excel offensively at when so much pressure to not mess up on the defensive side of your game....and the beating you take every day.

[Ro Mueller]

- C Satchell Norman placed on Low-A Carolina’s 7-day injured list

Norman exited their Saturday game early after a 5th inning strikeout.

[Ro Mueller]

- INF Daniel Guilarte assigned to Low-A Carolina from ACL Brewers
- RHP Kevin Herget optioned to AAA Nashville from MLB Brewers

[Ro Mueller]

- RHP Jason Woodward assigned to Low-A Carolina from ACL Brewers and placed on 60-day injured list 

[biedergb]

49 minutes ago, damuelle said:

- RHP Jason Woodward assigned to Low-A Carolina from ACL Brewers and placed on 60-day injured list 

He was recovering from surgery when we drafted him, right? TJ surgery?

[Ro Mueller]

19 minutes ago, biedergb said:

He was recovering from surgery when we drafted him, right? TJ surgery?

Yeah, from March 2023. I don’t believe that we have any recent update, but many of us assumed he’d start 2024 on this 60-day injured list.

[Ro Mueller]

- LHP Darrell Thompson placed on AAA Nashville's temporarily inactive list

[Ro Mueller]

• 3B Brock Wilken placed on AA Biloxi's 7-day injured list

 

[Ro Mueller]

From the early April DSL releases:

20-year old C/1B Brayan Oropeza from Venezuela signed as an international free agent in July 2021, getting his feet wet in the DSL that year (.526 OPS in 42 PAs), then surging to a seemingly promising .759 OPS in 2022 (103 PAs) with 3 HRs, 13 RBIs and a 16 BB / 23 K ratio, while throwing out 16 of 47 attempted basestealers (34%). However, something obviously didn’t sit right for the Brewers, so he stayed in the DSL in 2023, falling to a .672 OPS (59 PAs) and played catcher only 30.4% of the time (vs. 69.6% of innings at 1B). We wish Brayan success as he seeks his next opportunity.

20-year old OF Irving Igualas from Panama also signed in July 2021, but didn’t debut until June 2022, struggling to a .556 OPS over 2 seasons (244 PAs). He principally played right field, which may indicate a strong arm. He also stole 8 bases in 13 attempts. We wish him well in his next endeavor.

19-year old RHP Nestor Mena from Nicaragua signed in January 2023, producing a respectable 4.55 ERA, 1.66 WHIP and 8.8 K/9 in 27.2 IP over 12 games as a reliever in his only DSL season. Unfortunately, this apparently wasn’t enough to earn a second season in the organization. We hope that Nestor finds a great landing spot.

Getting LHP Pedro Quintana to the mound for his first MILB appearance was unfortunately a challenge due to injury setbacks. The now 20-year old from Venezuela signed with the Mets in January 2021 and was sent to the Brewers in the OF Billy McKinney trade in May 2021 (Matt Arnold: “He’s physical, athletic. Our guys did a really good job on him as an amateur. We've tracked him for a while. The talent is really intriguing.”) Quintana didn’t play in 2021, spent the entire 2022 season on the injured list, then finally debuted with DSL Brewers-2 in June 2023, putting up relatively encouraging numbers in 12 games out of the bullpen: 3.86 ERA, 1.63 WHIP, 8.5 K/9 in 11.2 IP. Similar to Mena however, this wasn’t enough to retain a spot in the organization for 2024. We wish Pedro best of luck in whatever comes next on his path.

[Ro Mueller]

• RHP Evan McKendry placed on AAA Nashville's 7-day injured list

[Jim Goulart]

• Carolina Mudcats placed SS Cooper Pratt on the 7-day injured list.
• 2B Jose Acosta assigned to Carolina Mudcats from Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.
• Wisconsin Timber Rattlers activated 3B Ben Metzinger.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

Need to wrap Misio in bubble wrap.

[Ro Mueller]

These early April ACL-level releases look like an attempted goodwill gesture by the Brewers, giving them a chance to potentially latch onto another contract in affiliated baseball before ACL seasons commence on May 4th:

• 21-year old RHP Kevin Briceno from Venezuela was signed as an international free agent in January 2021, impressing with a 3.12 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 9.0 K/9 ratio the same year in 26 DSL innings. In 2022, he captured Brewer Fanatic’s Short-Season Pitcher of the Year Award by producing a fabulous 2.02 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 8.8 K/9 ratio over 49 innings, split about evenly between the DSL and the Arizona Complex League. Sadly, an injury suffered in spring training sidelined Briceno for the entire 2023 campaign and, although he’s reportedly healthy now, he now exits due to a roster crunch. For his sake, we hope that he’s able to recapture his 21-22 domination elsewhere or find similar success in another career path.
• 20-year old 1B/OF Yeison Perez was also signed in January 2021 out of Venezuela, putting up a .627 OPS in the DSL in 2021 in 167 PAs. Yeison then entertained us daily in a top-notch 2022 DSL campaign: .331 AVG / .409 OBP / .654 SLG, with 26 extra-base hits including 7 homers. Moved stateside to the ACL in 2023, Perez produced a respectable .675 OPS in 140 PAs, although with just one homer and a 12 BB / 50 K ratio. We wish Yeison luck finding another landing spot for the 2024 season and rediscovering that 2022 power stroke.
• 20-year old RHP Darling Solano joined the Brewers in July 2021 out of the Dominican Republic, making his debut in the DSL in 2022: 6.42 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, 13.1 K/9 in 33.2 IP over 11 games (including 7 starts). The number of starts indicated the organization was relatively high on him and the K-rate was obviously encouraging, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise that Darling was promoted stateside in 2023. Struggling in the ACL wasn’t unexpected (7.96 ERA, 2.08 WHIP), but the interesting K-rate unfortunately disappeared (6.6 K/9 in 26 innings). Best of luck to Mr. Solano as he identifies his next opportunity.
• 20-year old RHP Henrison Mota from the Dominican Republic also signed in July 2021, notching respectable seasons in the DSL (2021: 3.20 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 12.1 K/9 with 2 saves in 25.1 relief innings) and ACL (2022: 3.62 ERA, 1.76 WHIP, 12.2 K/9 in 32.1 IP, starting 9 of 10 games). However, a 39 BB / 44 K ratio in that 2022 season forced him to repeat 2023 in the Arizona Complex League, where his results severely dipped: 11.12 ERA, 2.60 WHIP, 13.9 K/9 in 22.2 relief innings. We wish Henrison success in his next endeavor, whether in baseball or another career path.
• 22-year old RHP Anthony Perez from the Dominican Republic signed in June 2021, putting up a 7.36 ERA, 1.83 WHIP and 12.4 K/9 in 37.2 IP in the DSL before a June 2022 callup to the ACL. The numbers unfortunately didn’t get much better there in 2022-23 (7.36 ERA, 1.74 WHIP, 8.6 K/9 in 29.1 IP), although the fact that he started 9 of his 15 ACL games tells us that the team certainly valued Anthony’s potential. Unfortunately, MILB roster spots are especially difficult to hold onto in 2024. Good luck to Mr. Perez as he seeks out his next opportunity.

[Jim Goulart]

I took another MiLB.TV subscriber look at the game in which Pratt exited (the 02:14:25 hour/minute mark via this link). You'll see him line a single to left field, just smoked it. Two pitches later, with Tayden Hall at the plate, Pratt successfully steals second base, but shakes his left hand (glove hand) for a bit while remaining in the game. He was removed after returning to the dugout. Pratt was wearing batting-type gloves, not the oven-mitt version.