Brewers Sign Catcher Eric Haase to One-Year Deal

The Brewers have announced the deal, so it's official. However, Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel had it first.

The Brewers have signed veteran catcher Eric Haase to a one-year contract.

— Curt Hogg (@CyrtHogg) December 20, 2023

Haase, who just turned 31, had a long journey to a job in the big leagues. He emerged as a major contributor with the Tigers in 2021 and 2022, but his production cratered in 2023 and he found himself adrift on the market. Now, he'll try to reestablish himself as the Crew's backup backstop.

When he's right, Haase has good power. In his two solid seasons in Detroit, he hit 36 home runs in 732 plate appearances. He struck out nearly 30 percent of the time and drew relatively few walks, but his overall batting line for those two campaigns was .242/.295/.451--above average for anyone, and certainly so for a catcher. He pulled the ball in the air at a high rate, which is the surest way to sustain good power production.

Last year, he got swing-happy. He swung at 53.7 percent of the pitches he saw, overall, up from 49.6 percent in 2021 and 2022. His first-pitch swing rate climbed from 28.1 percent to 34.1 percent. As a result, he didn't get his pitch as reliably, and his power diminished. His final line from 2023 looks calamitous: .201/.247/.281. Underneath it, though, there's still enough offensive upside to merit work as a big-league backup. That's why Haase found a big-league deal in Milwaukee. 

The biggest hurdle to Haase finding regular work in the majors, though, has been his iffy defense behind the plate. According to Baseball Prospectus, he's been worth -19 Framing Runs behind the plate since the start of 2021. He's slightly above-average at controlling the running game, which has gained new importance, but it doesn't make up for his inability to frame balls and strikes. 

But hey! The Brewers are baseball's best team, when it comes to turning lousy pitch framers into good ones. They just promoted Charlie Greene to their big-league coaching staff. They have a chance to turn Haase into an average (or maybe even better) framer, and if they manage it, he has a chance to be one of the best backup catchers in the game. Helping Haase clean up that aspect of his game would ensure that the team is still able to slide Contreras over to the designated hitter spot at times, to keep his bat in the lineup more often. 

Haase was a seventh-round pick in 2011, and didn't even reach the majors for a cup of coffee until 2018. His career was on life support until he caught on with a rebuilding Tigers team. He still has three years of team control, should things work out here, so the Brewers can tender him a contract and pay him via arbitration beyond the scope of this deal.

What do you make of this move? Is it the right way to leverage the team's edge in terms of catching instruction and refinement? Let's talk about it more.