Brewers Sign Luis Rengifo to 1yr Deal

[patrickgpe]

if this guarantees Hamilton is nothing more than last years Mona, that’s another plus. I like that he is a switch hitter, only one year removed from some decent seasons and is stronger from the left handed side. If he does get the majority of the starts, it will be interfering to see how he stacks up against Durbin in the advanced metrics since I think Fenway will be kind to Caleb. 

[MNBrew]

30 minutes ago, jay87shot said:

This is solid. Hamilton and Rengifo are both decent utility guys. I still kind of like Ortiz at 3B and Turang at SS with those 2 at 2B. Hamilton and Rengifo have both been good defensively at 2B. I have faith Turang will be a good SS so I think this benefits us most.

Rengifo does have a .300 year, 17 HR year, and 24 sb year (different years) so there is some solid upside. If Williams proves ready in a month or 2 it is easy to move him to a utility role or find a trade. This is probably the best non big trade move we could have made. I am pretty confident he can hit .250/.300/.400 with decent defense and baserunning. Hamilton has been slightly better against rhp and Rengifo is better against LHP so a platoon could have a nice moneyball effect.

Could've done worse, IMO.  Hopefully his 2025 is Rengifo's outlier.  He definitely brings more offense in his track record than Monasterio did.  It sounds like he has (had?) a negative DRS at multiple positions, which seems pretty not-Brewers-like.

To your favoring Ortiz & Turang moving positions, I get that you're just stating your preference.  It's worth noting that Murphy's already been quoted as saying that Ortiz & Turang won't be changing positions, and that 3B is the position with multiple options for filling.

[liveforoctober]

Am I crazy? I am not comparing the two obviously, but watching this home run swing (the one hand finish, the quick escape from the box before the swing is seemingly complete, the even & quiet set up, etc) ... I see an Eric Thames swing.

[wallus]

The Angels were one of the least aggressive teams about defensive positioning so the team might think they can help out Rengifo a little bit that way. Obviously the Brewers were one of the most aggressive.

[treego14]

He ain't no Caleb Durbin!  What are we doing?

[adambr2]

With Seigler now in Boston, I fully expect Rengifo to challenge Jake Bauers for clubhouse whipping boy.

[ToolShed55]

5 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

With Seigler now in Boston, I fully expect Rengifo to challenge Jake Bauers for clubhouse whipping boy.

There's gotta be one, but I'm gonna wait for the new season of Whipping Boy Idol!

[wallus]

7 minutes ago, ToolShed55 said:

There's gotta be one, but I'm gonna wait for the new season of Whipping Boy Idol!

Ortiz is wondering what he has to do

[brewerfan82]

2025 MIL production from 3B:

Rengifo/Hamilton should outproduce the Dunn/Capra 3B combo from earlier in the season and the Seigler/Mona utility combo later in the season.

Rengifo:

Hamilton:

And hopefully one of the prospects is able to force their way onto the ML roster at some point and replace Durbin's production.

Williams:

Wilken:

Throw in adding a couple of nice LHP arms to the system in Harrison and Drohan and I think this makes the Durbin trade look like a pretty solid move.

[adambr2]

5 minutes ago, wallus said:

Ortiz is wondering what he has to do

I’ve tried to get that train going, but everyone just raves about his glove.

[Klantz27]

5 hours ago, TURBO said:

Meh.

Well, that's that I guess.

Hopefully he's just a placeholder until Wilken gets called up at some point...

Wilkens hasn't even seen triple a yet and he sucks 

[BallFour]

With the way the current roster is constructed I feel like David Hamilton is going to get a decent amount of playing time at 3B, more so than a lot of fans will want.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, Klantz27 said:

Wilkens hasn't even seen triple a yet and he sucks 

Right. Wilken hasn’t played a full season since turning pro because of injuries, and has a .784 OPS in A and AA as a college age player. Nothing there suggests he sees the majors anytime soon. 

[bm1090]

8 hours ago, ClosetBrewerFan said:

He had a significant offensive dropoff last year, but he will only be 29 this year so not too old.  Its reasonable to think he will rebound some.  I'd expect a 700 OPS at best, which is probably fine and at least sets a floor for our 3b situation.  This will give our prospects more time in the minors and if someone really hits, can easily replace Rengifo or enter into a platoon.  Rengifo hits LH's very well.

Out of curiosity, why do you expect a .700 OPS best case when he was over that every year from 2022-2024, and over .750 in 2023 and 2024?

[SF70]

The time is fast approaching when the greatest collection of young organizational talent in baseball will start spitting-out the impact positional talent the team needs to completely fill-out their 26-man roster without having to sign meh positional talent as stopgaps because of payroll limitations.

Soon there will be no need for the Rengifo’s & Sanchez’s.

[Playing Catch]

8 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

Right. Wilken hasn’t played a full season since turning pro because of injuries, and has a .784 OPS in A and AA as a college age player. Nothing there suggests he sees the majors anytime soon. 

I think if he were playing for the Rockies or Twins, he would be seeing a big-league roster by June (if he hits in AAA). But you are right about all of the little issues and red flags in his development. Some of those interruptions have been really quirky and disruptive, but it's hard to argue with a wRC+ of 158 last season in AA. So even though there looks to be a great deal of variability in his future outcomes, if he ends up being a quality big-leaguer, there will have been lots of signs of that success in his minor league profile as well.

But the good news for the organization is that there are a number of other guys that could be ready to provide a spark after the deadline in an infield role, not just Wilken.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

7 hours ago, bm1090 said:

Out of curiosity, why do you expect a .700 OPS best case when he was over that every year from 2022-2024, and over .750 in 2023 and 2024?

A 622 OPS last year has me concerned and he is not getting younger.  Fangraphs projects him at 680 OPS and Baseball Ref at 705.  If we get 700 OPS from him, I'll be happy.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I'm thoroughly whelmed.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

11 hours ago, adambr2 said:

I’ve tried to get that train going, but everyone just raves about his glove.

His glove isn't anywhere near the level where it mitigates what he is on offense, one of those blowy Gumby things that are always outside car dealerships.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, Playing Catch said:

I think if he were playing for the Rockies or Twins, he would be seeing a big-league roster by June (if he hits in AAA). But you are right about all of the little issues and red flags in his development. Some of those interruptions have been really quirky and disruptive, but it's hard to argue with a wRC+ of 158 last season in AA. So even though there looks to be a great deal of variability in his future outcomes, if he ends up being a quality big-leaguer, there will have been lots of signs of that success in his minor league profile as well.

But the good news for the organization is that there are a number of other guys that could be ready to provide a spark after the deadline in an infield role, not just Wilken.

Time will tell. He’s not on the 40 man roster and as you alluded to there’s a lot of talent nearing major league ready, so Wilken’s performance will need to force the issue.

Metrics aside, Frelick was a college bat and put up .844 OPS in AA, Braun was .956, So he’s behind a couple of  Brewer college draftees who developed into everyday contributors. Keston Hiura was .755 in AA and Garrett Mitchell was, like Wilken, injured a bunch and put up a .681 there. 

[gregmag]

10 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

Right. Wilken hasn’t played a full season since turning pro because of injuries, and has a .784 OPS in A and AA as a college age player. Nothing there suggests he sees the majors anytime soon. 

Counterpoint: He just put up the second-best OPS in his league while playing at nearly a year below league-average age, he’s healthy after working through the freakiest of injuries (unless you think his face is a ball magnet or his feet will slip in every clubhouse party), he has the offensive skill the Brewers most lack and plays the position they most need, and at AAA he’ll be on call by definition. There’s no way he doesn’t see the majors by June!

Or, you know, we could be intellectually honest and look at the whole picture, which seems like it’s mostly down to his K rate and defensive performance as he starts at AAA.

[Jopal78]

3 hours ago, SF70 said:

The time is fast approaching when the greatest collection of young organizational talent in baseball will start spitting-out the impact positional talent the team needs to completely fill-out their 26-man roster without having to sign meh positional talent as stopgaps because of payroll limitations.

Soon there will be no need for the Rengifo’s & Sanchez’s.

I hope you’re right, but remember even when the Brewers had Hart, Hardy, Weeks, Braun, Fielder, there were still “meh” players brought aboard every year 

[Jopal78]

12 minutes ago, gregmag said:

Counterpoint: He just put up the second-best OPS in his league while playing at nearly a year below league-average age, he’s healthy after working through the freakiest of injuries (unless you think his face is a ball magnet or his feet will slip in every clubhouse party), he has the offensive skill the Brewers most lack and plays the position they most need, and at AAA he’ll be on call by definition. There’s no way he doesn’t see the majors by June!

Or, you know, we could be intellectually honest and look at the whole picture, which seems like it’s mostly down to his K rate and defensive performance as he starts at AAA.

I was wondering when someone was going to say “he was young for the league” the oldest cliché in talking about minor league players.
 

He’s a college player, and there were 9 players younger on Biloxi last season. 

Nice tone by the way…..

[mudbutt]

8 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

I was wondering when someone was going to say “he was young for the league” the oldest cliché in talking about minor league players.
 

He’s a college player, and there were 9 players younger on Biloxi last season. 

Nice tone by the way…..

He put up the second highest OPS in league and better numbers last year other than Braun of the Brewers you mentioned. I don’t know why you keep aggregating his numbers when he put up a .876 OPS last year. Now you are saying he’s old and someone pointed out he’s still younger than the average age for the league.

Wilken has his flaws but those aren’t the arguments you are making.

[Team Canada]

17 minutes ago, gregmag said:

Or, you know, we could be intellectually honest and look at the whole picture,

Just debate the facts. We can disagree without taking shots at the opposing viewpoint.