2024 Minor League Transaction Thread

[Joseph Zarr]

5 minutes ago, Ro Mueller said:

According to Baseball America, another 15 Brewers Minor Leaguers have become free agents:

• RHP Sam Carlson (AA)
• RHP Harold Chirino (AA)
• 1B Jesus Chirinos (A+)
• C Francisco Mejia (AAA)
• C Brian Navarreto (AAA)
• C Andrew Yerzy (AAA)
• INF Patrick Dorrian (AAA)
• INF Jose Acosta (A+)
• INF Christian Arroyo (AAA)
• INF Felix Valerio (AA)
• OF Reidy Mercado (A)
• OF Carlos D. Rodriguez (AAA)
• OF Chris Roller (AAA)
• OF Connor Scott (AA)
• OF Lamar Sparks (AA)

Yup. I looked through that list earlier today and had one thought off the bat: "How did I miss RHP Dylan File pitched for the D-Backs org last season?!?" 😅

[Ro Mueller]

C Ramon Rodriguez (High-A Wisconsin), whom we believe was scheduled to become a free agent, was not included on this Baseball America list.

In fact, his MILB player page indicates that he was assigned to the Arizona Fall League and he's showing on the Peoria Javelinas' AFL roster.

I've got to believe this means we're keeping Ramon for 2025.

[Joseph Zarr]

10 minutes ago, Ro Mueller said:

C Ramon Rodriguez (High-A Wisconsin), whom we believe was scheduled to become a free agent, was not included on this Baseball America list.

In fact, his MILB player page indicates that he was assigned to the Arizona Fall League and he's showing on the Peoria Javelinas' AFL roster.

I've got to believe this means we're keeping Ramon for 2025.

Indeed! And, absolutely awesome. It appears he was assigned on October 29th -- underneath all our collective noses. This is fantastic. One of the real bright spots of the past season gets a much-deserved nod of recognition. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Looking back to the 29th of October, a whole slew of players from the 60-Day and Full-Season IL's were activated. 18 players in total.

See them HERE

[Jim Goulart]

55 minutes ago, Ro Mueller said:

According to Baseball America, another 15 Brewers Minor Leaguers have become free agents:

• RHP Sam Carlson (AA)
• RHP Harold Chirino (AA)
• 1B Jesus Chirinos (A+)
• C Francisco Mejia (AAA)
• C Brian Navarreto (AAA)
• C Andrew Yerzy (AAA)
• INF Patrick Dorrian (AAA)
• INF Jose Acosta (A+)
• INF Christian Arroyo (AAA)
• INF Felix Valerio (AA)
• OF Reidy Mercado (A)
• OF Carlos D. Rodriguez (AAA)
• OF Chris Roller (AAA)
• OF Connor Scott (AA)
• OF Lamar Sparks (AA)

Good to see our record-keeping in the "Which Brewers Farmhands are Minor League Free Agents at Season's End?" thread was on-point. Things lined up nicely with all the projections, and we have now un-pinned that thread from the top of this forum.

 

[Ro Mueller]

I'm not sure where else to post this. By my count, we now have 129 players under stateside minor league contracts, which may reduce to as low as 124 in 2 weeks when we protect a few players from the Rule 5 draft. This is against a player cap limit of 175 in the off-season, so I'm expecting a SLEW of minor league player additions over the next 2 months.

Of course, we may leave room for about 18 DSL-to-ACL player promotions, but that would still leave room to add over 30 minor leaguers. I apologize if my math is materially wrong for any reason.

My suspicion is that we particularly value AAAA-type players - e.g. we added Koenig, Paredes, Herget, Zastryzny, Austin Nola, Yonny, Arroyo, Hicklen, Blackwood and McGee last year, in addition to Carlson, David Garcia, Ramon Rodriguez, Nova, Rund, Polancic, Chavez Young and Yerzy.

[Joseph Zarr]

8 hours ago, Ro Mueller said:

My suspicion is that we particularly value AAAA-type players - e.g. we added Koenig, Paredes, Herget, Zastryzny, Austin Nola, Yonny, Arroyo, Hicklen, Blackwood and McGee last year, in addition to Carlson, David Garcia, Ramon Rodriguez, Nova, Rund, Polancic, Chavez Young and Yerzy.

I suspect your suspicion here, tho suspiciously suspicious in and of itself, is spot on. It plays into the simple, if unfortunate, fact the Brewers lack any amount of meaningful depth at the highest levels within their own system. I personally believe they use the broader Minor Leagues to play this role. They've caught lightning in a bottle via this avenue on numerous occasions. The wealth of depth within the system is currently in the lower levels and it is filled with lottery ticket type talents. 

[CheeseheadInQC]

I would bet that is fairly common where maybe you have homegrown prospect depth at one position in AAA and a lot of veteran minor leaguers elsewhere. I recently went back and watched the famous Jeff Francouer prank video after hearing Murphy was the manager, and boy did that team have a lot of minor league veterans featured.

[Jim Goulart]

These names will be added to the Rule 5 protection list thread, as a technical note for accuracy’s sake.

Baseball Reference pages:

INF Ray Delgado

OF Jimmy Herron

[Ro Mueller]

- OF Ramon Moreno released by ACL Brewers
- RHP Francisco Guevara released by DSL Brewers-2

[markedman5]

 

[Ro Mueller]

- C/1B Ludwin Tejada released by DSL Brewers-1

[Ro Mueller]

• RHP Ranwell Smith released by DSL Brewers-1
• OF/LHP Idalberto Santiesteban released by DSL Brewers-1
• OF Jeremy George released by DSL Brewers-2

[Ro Mueller]

 

[Ro Mueller]

• Signed OF Bladimir Restituyo and assigned to AAA Nashville

The 23-year old Restituyo was in the Rockies system for 7 years before electing free agency. He spent 2023-24 at AA Hartford, clubbing a surprising 15 homers in 2023 (with an 8 BB / 86 K ratio and .691 OPS), then probably dialed back the all-or-nothing approach in 2024: 5 HRs, 25 BB, 73 Ks - .663 OPS. He averaged 21 SBs in 28.5 attempts while mainly playing CF.

[Joseph Zarr]

On 11/20/2024 at 1:03 PM, Ro Mueller said:

• Signed OF Bladimir Restituyo and assigned to AAA Nashville

The 23-year old Restituyo was in the Rockies system for 7 years before electing free agency. He spent 2023-24 at AA Hartford, clubbing a surprising 15 homers in 2023 (with an 8 BB / 86 K ratio and .691 OPS), then probably dialed back the all-or-nothing approach in 2024: 5 HRs, 25 BB, 73 Ks - .663 OPS. He averaged 21 SBs in 28.5 attempts while mainly playing CF.

Ranked 31 by Baseball 'Merica this past spring they had this to say:

"Restituyo signed for $200,000 out of the Dominican Republic in 2017. The Rockies converted him from the infield to the outfield and he’s steadily progressed over the past five seasons. In 2023, Restituyo spent the entire season with Double-A Hartford and hit .258/.277/.414 with a career-high 15 home runs. Restituyo is an undersized outfielder with standout abilities defensively, a high motor and a big swing. He shows above-average bat-to-ball skills but rarely sees a pitch he doesn’t want to swing at."

In ye ol FWIW. A 16.5% strikeout percentage is fine by me for a rangy plus defensive OF'er. Hope he takes off!

[Jastro]

 

[Joseph Zarr]

34 minutes ago, Jastro said:

 

FUN! Seigler, if any of you recall, is one of those rare rare baseball players who not only is ambidextrous but he'll showcase it in the same game! Back in 2023, when he was still primarily catching, he caught with his left and threw with his right. Then, later in the game, when he was switched to LF, he caught with his right and threw with his left - and the ball definitely found him. When he first came out scouts loved he threw equally impactfully in the 80's from each side. Last season, his first as solely a 2B (after starting 13 contests there in 2023 in a split role between catching dutes), he fielded to a 97 FP% and his offensive numbers were bolstered by a very very good K:BB ratio  (77:64) 12 long balls and 24 two-baggers. He has played a small bit of corner OF. I'll be curious to see what the Brewers have in store - I'm pretty sure the original move away from the backstop was ongoing injury-related. 

 

[Joseph Zarr]

On 11/6/2024 at 9:45 AM, Ro Mueller said:

According to Baseball America, another 15 Brewers Minor Leaguers have become free agents:

• RHP Sam Carlson (AA)
• RHP Harold Chirino (AA)
• 1B Jesus Chirinos (A+)
• C Francisco Mejia (AAA)
• C Brian Navarreto (AAA)
• C Andrew Yerzy (AAA)
• INF Patrick Dorrian (AAA)
• INF Jose Acosta (A+)
• INF Christian Arroyo (AAA)
• INF Felix Valerio (AA)
• OF Reidy Mercado (A)
• OF Carlos D. Rodriguez (AAA)
• OF Chris Roller (AAA)
• OF Connor Scott (AA)
• OF Lamar Sparks (AA)

I'm certainly not going to do this for each and every player (as they'll be discussed HERE when the officially become Brewers Alumni) in our ongoing Transaction Thread. But I simply wanted to share my overwhelmingly positive opinions of the raw tools RHP Harold Chirino possesses - and, the reality he simply needs to continue fine-tuning and honing his arsenal as control and zone accuracy is an ongoing body of work - were validated quite quickly.

Mr. Chirino signed a new Minor League contract with the San Diego Padres org less than two week's from his official MiLB transaction wire FA announcement. The young man is just incredibly talented. I'll be rooting for him to earn a call-up as he matures and evolves. Go get it, Harold!

[TURBO]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but I'm disappointed we let him go.

Atlanta signed OF Carlos Rodriguez to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract.

 

Rodriguez joins Atlanta from the Brewers’ organization. The 23-year-old hit .284/.368/.374 in his time at the Double-A and Triple-A levels in 2024. He’ll compete for a fourth outfield spot in spring training with Atlanta

[Joseph Zarr]

13 hours ago, TURBO said:

Wasn't sure where to put this, but I'm disappointed we let him go.

Atlanta signed OF Carlos Rodriguez to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract.

 

Rodriguez joins Atlanta from the Brewers’ organization. The 23-year-old hit .284/.368/.374 in his time at the Double-A and Triple-A levels in 2024. He’ll compete for a fourth outfield spot in spring training with Atlanta

For your future reference, it's over in the 'Alumni' thread HERE

I know how you feel, tho. It's very weird in the early early days to call these men 'Alumni'. It feels like just yesterday I watched Cargo move from Biloxi to that Nashville grass. They grow up so fast!🥹

[ARobsBrewCrew]

Venezuelan RHP Jose Arias has been signed to a minor league contract.  That’s all the info we have on Arias at the moment.

[Spencer Michaelis]

18 minutes ago, ARobsBrewCrew said:

Venezuelan RHP Jose Arias has been signed to a minor league contract.  That’s all the info we have on Arias at the moment.

It appears Arias is signing as part of the 2024 International Class, from what I can tell. They must have a bit of money left over.

Found his TikTok and his Instagram. Not much video, but you can see some of the mechanics.

[Joseph Zarr]

Welcome back into the Brewers fold Mr. Pannone!

 

[Spencer Michaelis]

A couple more interesting MiLB Signings per Curt Hogg