Ro Mueller

RHP Robert Stock is in Nashville. He started 29 games in Korea last year:

We've got three levels (AA, High-A, Low-A) playing the Giants today:

I hereby authorize the comeback to begin.

The Angels have all the lefties: https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/depth-charts/angels By comparison, the world champion Astros have one LHP on their active roster: https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/depth-charts/astros

RHP Israel Puello – 22 – An international free agent signing ($460k) by the Phillies out of the Dominican Republic in July 2017, Puello was one of three young pitchers acquired by the Brewers in the David Phelps 2020 trade. A brief but eye-opening 2021 in Arizona saw Israel post a 4.94 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 12.2 K/9 rate and fantastic 37K/9BB ratio in 27.1 innings. Outside of a high ERA (5.51), Mr. Puello was again very respectable at Low-A Carolina in the first half of 2022, with a 1.33 WHIP, 11.2 K/9 rate and 61K/17BB ratio, earning a mid-season promotion to High-A Wisconsin, where the going was understandably rougher (5.55 ERA, 1.51 WHIP, 7.7 K/9, 50K/34BB). This is probably the most surprising of today’s releases. We wish Israel tremendous success in his next opportunity. RHP Matt Hardy – 27 – Signed as an undrafted free agent in 2017, Hardy struggled through his first two seasons before a breakout campaign at Carolina in 2019 (3.32 ERA, 10.0 K/9). He continued that success at Biloxi in 2021 (3.83 ERA, 11.1 K/9) before finding it a bit more difficult at Nashville last year (4.15 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 8.3 K/9). Eligible for minor league free agency after this season, the Brewers obviously decided it wasn’t worth Mr. Hardy occupying a precious MILB roster spot. Hopefully his recent terrific stint in Puerto Rican Winter Ball (0.64 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, 9.3 K/9 in 28 innings) will help Matt quickly land on his feet. 1B/3B Branlyn Jaraba – 21 – A big bonus international signing ($1.1m) in July 2018 out of Columbia, Branlyn debuted in the DSL in June 2019, producing a .677 OPS with 4 homers, 20 walks and 75 Ks in 280 plate appearances. The lost Covid year was followed by an injury-plagued 2021 (57 PAs in Arizona) before Mr. Jaraba showed glimpses of his potential in 2022: .615 OPS in 90 PAs in Arizona, .717 OPS in 61 PAs at Low-A Carolina. However, last year’s 8BB/53K ratio was likely too much for the Brewers to brush aside. Best of luck to Branlyn in the career and life opportunities which follow. RHP Juan Geraldo – 21 – The third and final member of the 2020 David Phelps trade, Juan was originally signed by the Phillies out of the Dominican Republic in September 2017. He only had one season to strut his stuff for the Brewers, registering a 5.69 ERA, 1.57 WHIP and 9.9 K/9 rate in 49 innings as a reliever at Low-A Carolina in 2021. Sadly, that campaign ended due to an injury on August 21, 2021 and he underwent Tommy John surgery, then missed the entire 2022 season as a result. We’ve noted Mr. Geraldo’s presence in at least two MILB spring training games, so it appears he’s healthy once again. Good luck to Juan on his next adventure and career opportunities. 2B Zack Raabe – 23 – An 8th round draft selection ($150k signing) out of the University of Minnesota in 2021, Mr. Raabe was an on-base machine over his two minor league seasons, including a .368 OBP last season (308 PAs in Low-A Carolina, 34 at High-A Wisconsin). Although the 75BB/85K ratio and .362 career OBP are impressive, these are unfortunately paired with a .226 AVG and .276 SLG, with no home runs, one triple and just seven stolen bases in 445 career plate appearances. Hopefully Zack can get more balls to drop for hits at his next opportunity. RHP Arnaldo Hernandez – 27 – Originally an international signing out of Venezuela by the Royals in September 2012, Arnaldo had some decent numbers as a starting pitcher in AAA in 2017-2018, thus getting added to Kansas City’s 40-man MLB roster before a rough 2019 in AAA sent him to independent ball. The Brewers signed him to a 2-year MILB contract in December 2021, but AA Biloxi was a nightmare for him in 2022: 7.03 ERA, 1.91 WHIP, 12.2 K/9 in 48.2 innings. We were hoping that Mr. Hernandez’s respectable Venezuelan winter league campaign (3.51 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 9.5 K/9) had put him back on course, but now it’s on to the next stop. Good luck to you, Arnaldo. LHP Jackson Gillis – 25 – The Brewers selected Gillis in the 13th round of the 2019 draft ($125k), despite him pitching just seven innings at Vanderbilt that year. Intending to ease him in, Jackson didn’t make an MILB appearance in 2019, then lost out on 2020 as well. Mr. Gillis finally made his MILB debut on May 6, 2021 for Low-A Carolina. Unfortunately, he made it just six weeks before an injury requiring Tommy John surgery ended that season early: 9.24 ERA, 2.05 WHIP, 7.8 K/9 in 12.2 innings. He spent 2022 recovering from injury and he wasn’t listed on any of the MILB lineups this spring. We hope that Jackson has made a full physical recovery and wish him success in his upcoming endeavors. RHP Jonathan Beymer – 24 – Undrafted out of Campbell University in 2022, the Brewers signed Jonathan as a free agent and gave him three appearances at ACL Brewers Blue: 4 IP, 2.25 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 11.3 K/9. He also featured four times on MILB lineup cards this spring, so the team probably wanted to see him against real opposition before making this difficult decision. We wish Jonathan better luck on his next opportunity. RHP Moises Gomez – 26 – An international free agent signing of the Twins out of Venezuela in 2014, Moises had a respectable 2018 and terrific 2019, before the Covid year. A solid 2021 with the Mariners (2.93 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 8.4 K/9 in 46 relief innings at AA/AAA) appeared to inch him closer to his dream, before signing with Milwaukee in December 2021. However, he retired at the end of spring training in 2022, before resurfacing in Venezuelan winter ball and joining his second spring training with the Brewers. Good luck to Mr. Gomez as he searches for the right fit.

I think this is a solid article. Many of us are worried about the bullpen - we're going from three proven guys in Boxberger-Williams-Hader to something far less predictable in Strzelecki-Bush-Williams. And then we'll probably see Brian Anderson a TON in right field, as Baseball Savant has him in the 99th arm strength percentile versus Winker's 43rd percentile, which is even before considering who has better range (Anderson) and reads out there (Anderson). So I'm praying Mr. Anderson has an excellent April at the plate, so we never have to see Winker in right field. I will also say that it's pretty cool that most are not concerned about Brice Turang's defense at second base, especially as I don't believe he saw any action at that position before August 13, 2022. Turang essentially gives us a shortstop on each side of second base, which I'm sure Counsell's thrilled with. Finally, I'll sound a note of caution on our starting pitching depth, given that Houser, Ashby and Alexander are all on the shelf. This means that Bryse Wilson is probably our 6th starter and Janson Junk our 7th. Stay healthy Burnes, Woodruff, Freddy, Lauer and Miley!!!!

At least his recovery seems to be going well:

- RHP Israel Puello released by High-A Wisconsin - 1B/3B Branlyn Jaraba released by Low-A Carolina - RHP Arnaldo Hernandez released by AA Biloxi - RHP Jonathan Beymer released by ACL Brewers Blue

New Plan: Keep Frelick and Wiemer down so that we can win the first half of the season, thus allowing Nashville to host a 3-game AAA semi-final series in September: https://www.milb.com/news/triple-a-national-championship-game-2023

This may be a good sign that Brady and Merkel are poised for an early addition to the Low-A Carolina Mudcats

Voit actually has a split contract, heavy on incentives. Even the $2m base salary isn’t likely guaranteed. My interpretation of this is that if he flops and we attempt to option him to AAA, he could either accept the option (he’ll have the right to reject it, as he’ll earn his 5th year of MLB service time a few days into the season) and keep earning a $200k minor league salary OR reject it and try his luck signing an MLB deal elsewhere. https://apnews.com/article/luke-voit-milwaukee-brewers-mlb-contract-7bb25c222b7c79a94ad0ef747125d4dd

They may not be Ryon Healy, but having Voit and Winker alternating days as super bench bat looks promising.

We’ll need Brian Anderson to play well while Taylor is out and Wiemer is down.

This is nice to see after the Brewers didn’t give him a call-up from AAA last year despite a 2.04 ERA in 53 innings. It’ll be Hobie Harris’ MLB debut: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/03/nationals-to-select-hobie-harris.html

Two squads face off against the White Sox today. I suspect that our AAA players are headed to Nashville as I type this:

Reading through MILB Spring Training lineup tea leaves, we eventually see patterns emerge which suggest the levels where players are likely to commence and/or their primary position, e.g.: C Jeferson Quero - 5 starts, all at AA level C Darrien Miller - 5 starts, all at High-A level 1B/C Tayden Hall - 6 starts at first base (5 at low-A level), none at catcher, thus likely opening up a catcher spot in Low-A for Jhonnys Cabrera (2 starts, none at catcher though), Blayberg Diaz (2 starts, 1 at catcher) or Satchell Norman (1 start, at catcher) INF Tyler Black - 5 AA starts at third base, 1 at DH = may signal a shift to third base as primary position, though Zavier Warren (7 AA starts - 2 at 1B, 1 at 2B, 2 at 3B, 2 at DH) is around too OF Tristen Lutz - 7 starts, all at AA OF Lamar Sparks - 5 starts, none below AA OF Hendry Mendez - 4 starts, all at High-A OF Joe Gray Jr. - 6 starts, all at High-A OF Je'Von Ward - 6 starts, 5 of which were at High-A

Yeah, we've not seen Henderson, Fitzpatrick, Vallecillo, Arielbi Gonzalez, Pannone, Bullock, Arnaldo Hernandez, Garabitos (worried about this one), Domingo Mejia, Jhoan Cruz, Shapiro, Gillis, Rafael Garcia, Logan Adams, Delson Guzman and Mario Perez by my records

Our young squads play the Giants today, welcoming three recently signed international super-prospects (OF Yophery Rodriguez, SS Kevin Ereu, SS Filippo Di Turi) to the action. This is also the first time that we've seen RHP Edwin Jimenez, RHP Fernando Olguin, RHP Kevin Briceno and C Jason Ollarve listed this spring:

Our minor leaguers play the White Sox today. I believe that is the first time that we've seen 3B Ben Metzinger, RHP Israel Puello, RHP Cameron Wagoner and RHP Yujanyer Herrera listed this spring:

Groin tightness for Houser. Doesn’t sound like a good pattern of events. Shoot!

Or Tyson Miller grabs the last spot, while Payamps is still DFA’d. Still hope Houser is okay though.

Let's hope Houser's not seriously injured. Our bullpen is not deep.

Playing the Reds for the third time this spring. Welcome to 2022 5th round pick RHP Will Rudy, RHP Miguel Segura, 2B/3B Jonatan Guzman and 3B/2B Miguel Briceno:

Small and Claudio aren’t exactly inspiring confidence in our LHP depth, combining for 5 walks in the 8th inning today. And where the heck is LHP Thomas Pannone, who seems to be MIA for the past few weeks? I hope they all figure it out by next week in Nashville!

Hiura had some trade value when we inexplicably burned his final option on July 13 last year instead of trading him. He even had a little (less) value at the August 2 trade deadline, though I understood that we weren’t trading him based on the foolish July move. Guaranteeing him $2.2m in wages for 2023 this offseason, instead of trading him like we did with Chase Anderson some years ago, was another interesting decision. I guess it’s basically like paying damages at this point. It has seemed like he needs to start afresh with a new set of voices, but I’m not sure he has any value left at the moment. Who’s going to guarantee $2.2m to a player who can’t field and isn’t hitting? The best move may be to trade him and pay part of his salary at the new club. Otherwise, we may see Keston go unclaimed via DFA, then stick around in AAA Nashville earning $2.2m.