Brewers Still In the Market For Rotation Depth?

[wiguy94]

According to Robert Murray on his latest Baseball Insiders Podcast episode, the Brewers are quietly scanning mid-tier SP free agent market with Michael Lorenzen and Mike Clevinger being the two names that were mentioned. Murray mentioned this at the 11:20 mark of the embedded video.

Lorenzen has a career 4.11 ERA and 4.32 FIP. He's coming off an up and down 2023 season where he was having a nice bounce back season in Detroit before being shipped to Philadelphia at the trade deadline where he struggled outside of his first two starts. Clevinger has a career 3.45 ERA and 3.87 FIP. He's coming off a bounce back season in 2023 after a rough 2022. There were some off field question marks regarding a domestic violence accusation that did not end up leading to a suspension.

With Wade Miley's health to open the year a question, should the Brewers add more SP depth if the price is right?

 

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[Brewcrew82]

Clevinger's xFIP from last year is a little scary. That said, he's a guy who's pretty much always solidly outperformed his peripherals. Doesn't K as many guys as he used to, but velo is still there and control is solid. I'd take him on a 1 year deal or something. 

Lorenzen I'd have less interest in. Last year was pretty much a career year in terms of health. And he's got the same peripherals, but without the history of overperformance of Clevinger. 

[Bratwithspecialsauce]

I'd say yes to either one, if Trevor Bauer is off the table.

The brewers have some good young arms that need seasoning.. They have some good guys for back of the rotation. 

Hall has made a good first impression. Gasser and Misiorowski look to be future rotation material. But our top of rotation needs legitimacy.

[wallus]

Only yes if they are worried about Miley's health (quite possible). Otherwise I am still on spending money to sign Belt train.

[nate82]

Yuck.

[StearnsFTW]

Both would be good additions, but I agree with Wallus.

 

If they're going to spend I'd rather add Belt.

 

 

[eddiemathews]

Snell or go to he...ck

$20mm with a $5mm player option on $15mm

[brewmann04]

I still think the crew needs a starter a lot of unknowns like Wade  Collin or Ross. But still love Snell or a combo of Clevinger or Lorezen and Belt

 

[TURBO]

Trevor Bauer or bust!

[MNBrew]

Quality is better than just depth, though that comes with an obvious cost.  I think it'd be something if the Brewers snuck in & signed Montgomery or Snell -- not that it's likely or without risks, just that it's intriguing.  Of course Lorenzen or Clevinger seems more realistic (and Lorenzen can hit decently in a pinch).

[NOMAAM]

Clevinger turned down a 12 million option correct.  Probably won’t sign for less than that or until Snell & Monty sign.

[Sugarrayray]

12 hours ago, Bratwithspecialsauce said:

I'd say yes to either one, if Trevor Bauer is off the table.

The brewers have some good young arms that need seasoning.. They have some good guys for back of the rotation. 

Hall has made a good first impression. Gasser and Misiorowski look to be future rotation material. But our top of rotation needs legitimacy.

Trevor Bauer is off the table I’d say, presumably because Matt Arnold wants to be able to look at himself in the mirror when he gets out of bed in the morning.

[Ro Mueller]

5 hours ago, NOMAAM said:

Clevinger turned down a 12 million option correct.  Probably won’t sign for less than that or until Snell & Monty sign.

He got a $4 million buy-out, so it was really an $8 million option decision. That said, I've no idea if we could get him for $8 million OR if we'd be willing to pay it.

[Dadbauer]

Usually when there's smoke there is fire when it comes to this front office. You either hear about something right before it happens or it happens without a mention. We will see in the coming days.

Off the wall theory - Brewers attempting a pillow contract on Snell and Boras is leading them on. Maybe they leak something like this now as an ultimatum - either take our offer or your guy is still in limbo.

[jay87shot]

I think we have enough depth, Peralta, Miley, Rae, Junis, Ross, Gasser, Hall, Ashby is 8 decent options but the problem is that there are so many questions behind Peralta.

 

[StearnsFTW]

11 hours ago, TURBO said:

Trevor Bauer or bust!

Even "Dadbauer" disliked this lol.

[brewmann04]

The Brewers don't usually let things slip out  so i be Curious but no denying they could use another arm

[TURBO]

2 hours ago, jay87shot said:

I think we have enough depth, Peralta, Miley, Rae, Junis, Ross, Gasser, Hall, Ashby is 8 decent options but the problem is that there are so many questions behind Peralta.

 

Really, there are nothing BUT questions after Peralta.  Things could go horribly wrong pretty quickly with a couple injuries here and there.  God help us, but what if Freddy goes down for an extended length of time?  Say he misses 4-6 weeks at some point.  I shudder to think it...

[Dave_Not_Here]

Clevinger could be interesting.  

24 starts, 131.1 innings pitched last year, and ended up with decent numbers. Certainly encouraging following his previous injuries.

 

I can't say I'd really be interested in Lorenzen, though. Would he really offer anything Junis already doesn't?

 

I'd prefer Montgomery, or Snell (who wouldn't), or even Bauer. But, we need to cover innings, so maybe Clevinger or Lorenzen could be options? Who knows?

[Playing Catch]

I'd be fine with Lorenzen. Not interested in Clevinger. It would be fun to sign Grienke. He threw 142 innings last year. Obviously not a world-beater, but he's an all-time favorite of mine.

[eddiemathews]

4 hours ago, jay87shot said:

I think we have enough depth, Peralta, Miley, Rae, Junis, Ross, Gasser, Hall, Ashby is 8 decent options but the problem is that there are so many questions behind Peralta.

 

I guess it's probably true of every team, but this rotation seems to have serious questions about various issues for every one of their options. Health, talent, ability to get above 70 pitches effectively, experience...all of them are deficient in more than one of these - if not all of them.

[Playing Catch]

Domingo German?

[jay87shot]

2 hours ago, TURBO said:

Really, there are nothing BUT questions after Peralta.  Things could go horribly wrong pretty quickly with a couple injuries here and there.  God help us, but what if Freddy goes down for an extended length of time?  Say he misses 4-6 weeks at some point.  I shudder to think it...

Things could go wrong but I don't know if adding Clevinger or Lorenzen really moves the needle for me. If we do get some injuries we do have Rodriguez and Misi not to far away. Junk and McKendry would probably be possible for a bit as well. I guess I would just stash the money and use it at the deadline, unless we can find money for Snell or Monty at least.

[brewmann04]

sorry but Miz is a way off for the Rotation and not sure how much Junk and Mckendery move the needle either

[JohnBriggs12]

In 10 of his starts last year, Clevinger allowed 0 or 1 run.  In his last 10 starts, he had 7 quality starts.  In those 7 starts, he allowed just 6 earned runs over 48 innings.  That included a complete game where he allowed 1 run, and 2 starts that went 7 innings of 3 hit shutout ball, and a third 7 inning start where he allowed 1 run on 1 hit and fanned 10.