When does Rengifo get DFA'd?

[AdvantageSchneider]

I was a fan of his signing when it was announced.  I thought he would be an excellent bounce back candidate.  But I was wrong(and so was our front office).  He's got a giant fork sticking out of him.  He gives us nothing offensively or defensively.  He is worse offensively than both Ortiz and Hamilton by pretty much every metric.  He's also horrible on defense.  He should have been credited with three errors in one inning tonight if not for a generous scoring decision and a tremendous play by at first by Vaughn.  There is no baseball or financial reason to keep him around.

So when should be be cut?  Well, I wouldn't want a rookie to face the defending world champions.  And the series against the cardinals would also seem to have a little more importance to give a rookie his first taste of the bigs.  However after the Cards series there is a Thursday off day followed by a short 3 game road trip in Houston before a 4 game homestand against the giants.  Neither of those teams are playing great baseball so that would be a good stretch to get a rookie's feet wet.  In fact after that the play Colorado and the A's.  4 series against average at best before they play some tougher competition.

So I'm hoping Rengifo is DFA's Thursday May 28th.  Nothing against the guy but he just can't play.  

[Matt]

The best time to DFA Reginfo was yesterday. The second best time is now.

[Brian]

Rengifo has had flashes of good play but that's about it.  So who would you call up Eddys Leonard? Jett Williams, Cooper Pratt? 

https://www.milb.com/player/eddys-leonard-678760?stats=gamelogs-r-hitting-mlb&year=2026 

 

[igor67]

I watched the condensed game this morning and thought it was noteworthy that one of the Dodger announcers was speculating how much longer Rengifo would be part of the Brewers after that defensive showing.

[adambr2]

42 minutes ago, Brian said:

Rengifo has had flashes of good play but that's about it.  So who would you call up Eddys Leonard? Jett Williams, Cooper Pratt? 

https://www.milb.com/player/eddys-leonard-678760?stats=gamelogs-r-hitting-mlb&year=2026 

 

Leonard is interesting to me as a guy who might actually be the best “fit” to get a shot right now. He’s a journeyman minor leaguer, not really a prospect but he’s also only still 25 and raking. He’s never had a shot at the bigs, so he’s still an unknown.

I guess my thought process on Leonard is, out of him, Pratt and Jett, Leonard is the one you could bring up for Rengifo and not really worry too much about him not playing every day and not really feel like anything is lost if you have to cut bait, and just might get a Casey McGehee type surprise out of him.

I don't really know much about his glove which is obviously pretty important to him getting a shot with this organization.

[Brian]

43 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Leonard is interesting to me as a guy who might actually be the best “fit” to get a shot right now. He’s a journeyman minor leaguer, not really a prospect but he’s also only still 25 and raking. He’s never had a shot at the bigs, so he’s still an unknown.

I guess my thought process on Leonard is, out of him, Pratt and Jett, Leonard is the one you could bring up for Rengifo and not really worry too much about him not playing every day and not really feel like anything is lost if you have to cut bait, and just might get a Casey McGehee type surprise out of him.

I don't really know much about his glove which is obviously pretty important to him getting a shot with this organization.

Defensively Leonard is a Swiss army knife.  He's played every position except pitch and catch in his minor league career. 

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

Sounds good to me.  Anyone is better than Seigler, I mean Rengifo

[wallus]

Unless Luis turns it up, we will see Jett take over for him once the Super 2 time is done. I would be shocked if that isn't the plan

[sveumrules]

1 hour ago, Brian said:

Defensively Leonard is a Swiss army knife.  He's played every position except pitch and catch in his minor league career. 

Maybe like an old Swiss Army knife you find at a rummage sale with a bunch of dull edges that is missing the tweezers and toothpick.

In his 2024 FanGraphs write up it was noted he could play all over, but isn't an especially good defender at any one spot.

So far this year he has played primarily LF (158 innings), with some 2B (86 innings), a smattering of 1B (18 innings) and RF (14 innings), plus a solitary inning at 3B.

To me that reads like someone the Brewers probably view as somewhat akin to Tyler Black as a fielder.

[liveforoctober]

9 hours ago, AdvantageSchneider said:

I was a fan of his signing when it was announced.  I thought he would be an excellent bounce back candidate.  But I was wrong(and so was our front office).  He's got a giant fork sticking out of him.  He gives us nothing offensively or defensively.  He is worse offensively than both Ortiz and Hamilton by pretty much every metric.  He's also horrible on defense.  He should have been credited with three errors in one inning tonight if not for a generous scoring decision and a tremendous play by at first by Vaughn.  There is no baseball or financial reason to keep him around.

So when should be be cut?  Well, I wouldn't want a rookie to face the defending world champions.  And the series against the cardinals would also seem to have a little more importance to give a rookie his first taste of the bigs.  However after the Cards series there is a Thursday off day followed by a short 3 game road trip in Houston before a 4 game homestand against the giants.  Neither of those teams are playing great baseball so that would be a good stretch to get a rookie's feet wet.  In fact after that the play Colorado and the A's.  4 series against average at best before they play some tougher competition.

So I'm hoping Rengifo is DFA's Thursday May 28th.  Nothing against the guy but he just can't play.  

Not wanting the rookies who would replace him to come up immediately because "the lights might be too bright" is probably the answer to your question. If we don't trust Pratt or Leonard to hit against Justin Wrobleski at home in May... Then maybe they need some more seasoning in AAA.

Jett will be here in 3 weeks when his Super 2 triggers. Until then it doesn't make sense to cut bait for depth purposes.

 

[Brian]

2 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Maybe like an old Swiss Army knife you find at a rummage sale with a bunch of dull edges that is missing the tweezers and toothpick.

In his 2024 FanGraphs write up it was noted he could play all over, but isn't an especially good defender at any one spot.

So far this year he has played primarily LF (158 innings), with some 2B (86 innings), a smattering of 1B (18 innings) and RF (14 innings), plus a solitary inning at 3B.

To me that reads like someone the Brewers probably view as somewhat akin to Tyler Black as a fielder.

Yes, I see that after diving deeper into the defensive #'s,  but ... 

Super-utility players - are few and far between that are good defenders and can hit also.  Shohei Ohtani and would be #1 in my book and Jake Bauers would kind of be one I guess along with Jeff McNeill, Ketal Marte and Brendon Donavan. 

Can anyone name a few more but that probably should be for a new thread? 

[harrydalton]

I agree that Williams will replace Rengifo fairly soon. Fine with me.

I like Leonard but they could use him best right now in AAA as a fail safe for Andrew Vaughn who could play 1B and OF and as an emergency 2B-3B. They have no RH first base prospects right now save the wounded Luke Adam's. Wilken is not viable.

 

[Jimbo]

I was listening to the radio and mentioned he cut off a throw and didn't even look to second, allowing the advancing runner to slide in safely.

 

[TURBO]

I don't think they DFA him ever.  I think we have him until 2035.

[nate82]

1 hour ago, TURBO said:

I don't think they DFA him ever.  I think we have him until 2035.

Doubtful he lasts beyond this season and I am not sure he lasts beyond the trade deadline.  Unlike Ortiz the Brewers probably don't see a long term future with Regnifo.  With Ortiz the Brewers probably see a serviceable utility player though it looks like Hamilton has surpassed Ortiz in that thinking at least for this season.  At some point in the season we will be seeing Pratt and Williams up.  The Brewers will drop Regnifo before they drop Ortiz.  

[Frisbee Slider]

My biggest complaint against Rengifo would be if his erratic throws to first get Bauers or Vaughn injured. There have been too many acrobatic picks at first base.

[wibadgers23]

Rengifo is hitting .200 with terrible defense. He should have been DFA'd a long time ago.

[edfunderburk]

This should be a wider discussion …

DFA candidates: Rengifo, Woodford, & possibly Sanchez

Option candidates: Perkins, Gasser

There are multiple candidates to take the place of these players:

Jett Williams or Cooper Pratt for Rengifo

Jeferson Quero for Sanchez

Akil Baddoo, Luis Lara, or Eddys Leonard for Perkins

McGee, Pannone, Stallings, CRod can all give us “mop up duty” in place of Woodford

Fitzpatrick, Yoho, & Zastryzny could also add value to the pen

I can tolerate Joey Ortiz remaining on the major league roster because he adds value defensively & has been getting on base via walks recently. He will make a great late inning defensive replacement at SS, 3B, even 2B. 

I love Perkins as a person & he is an excellent CF - but let him work on his hitting in Nashville. We can use Mitchell as the defensive specialist.

Rengifo made sense to begin the year, but it simply hasn’t worked out. He was never good enough defensively to play 3rd, & his offense is worse than last year when he was having an off year. It’s time. 

[igor67]

Sanchez may just be in a funk, and I think Quero still benefits from regular work to see how well he can get his throwing arm. Back-up catcher mid year is also a bit tricky for learning the different pitchers.

I'm on record as thinking there is no need for a mop-up duty guy at all, we have plenty of options that can give some length, so just add another one of those options and give all of them a mix of longer outings and 1 inning stints to stay fresh. I bet in the long run that makes it easier to cover more innings from the pen and also prevents the couple of top guys running out of gas in August issue.

As far as Super 2 and Williams I give that a week or,so but we have an important series with the Cards this week. And it's also worth acknowledging that since the CBA is up there is no guarantee that I am aware of that Super 2 will work the same way in the future.

[TURBO]

Quero needs to play.  Starting one game a week and possibly pinch hitting a couple times a week just won't cut it.  He needs to stay in Nashville until his playing time can increase, and with Contreras, that isn't going to happen.

[patrickgpe]

I understand he has a decent contract. But to DFA him for Pratt costs the Brewers nothing additional. 

[YelichPosse]

Ya the bottom of the roster could use a little churn and burn. I’d really be interested in seeing if Leonard can do something. He was a top prospect I believe in the LA system? Would be hard pressed to provide less spark than Rengifo.

[wallus]

Sanchez isn't getting DFA'ed anytime soon.

[owbc]

1 minute ago, wallus said:

Sanchez isn't getting DFA'ed anytime soon.

Yeah the dude has a .793 OPS. I know we give him favorable matchups but the list of players capable of that OPS with sporadic playing time is very, very short. 
 

Rengifo…I would give him until the all star break. I won’t defend anything about his performance this year which has been god awful, but depth doesn’t grow on trees and you never know when an injury happens or when Rengifo’s .228 BABIP start regressing to the mean. He’d get snatched up in a second on the waiver wire. 
 

But a hypothetical 600-something OPS from Williams with better defense does seem like it would be an upgrade so it won’t be long. I’d just rather not lose the depth. 

[Lathund]

Rengifo has that low BABIP for a reason though. The quality of contact isn't there, and he swings at so many pitches he shouldn't, resulting in terrible contact. He is getting unlucky to an extent, absolutely, but even if his true performance is more akin to his xwOBA, that's still only .287. He'd still be a below average hitter and a below replacement level player at that level. He offers nothing on defense or on the basepaths. And even his peak wasn't amazing; 111 wRC+ from 2022-2024 is perfectly cromulent and would be very useful on this team. But it's not the kind of track record that buys you extended patience. And there is no positive trend. Over the last two weeks his wRC+ is 29, while Hamilton and Ortiz are at 130+. He absolutely should not be in the lineup other than the odd rest day for those two. 

I hate being this negative about a player who is trying, and I didn't hate taking a chance on him to begin with. The only legit reason to keep him here is if they're waiting for Jett to clear Super 2 for sure, or if they think he or Pratt are truly not ready. But if so, keep him on the bench until they are. btw I know we're basically agreeing that his time on the active roster should be coming to an end, I just don't think it's realistic to expect a real upturn in performance. And that even the best case scenario, a return to his very peak form. is still just basically a league average player. I'd rather run with a prospect in that case.