Luke Voit has been a member of the Brewers group for just some weeks. The previous house run chief signed a minor league deal a pair weeks in the past, getting a chance to audition for a roster spot early in Spring Coaching.
The Brewers should make that decision comparatively early into exhibition play. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reviews that Voit would be capable to decide out of the deal subsequent Thursday if he’s not added to the massive league roster. In accordance with Sherman, Voit’s deal would include a $2MM base wage if he makes the MLB membership.
Whereas that’s removed from an exorbitant sum, it stays to be seen whether or not Milwaukee feels there’ll be adequate at-bats for Voit to warrant a spot. Keston Hiura is readily available as an in-house choice with an analogous power-oriented skillset from the correct aspect. Hiura has run exorbitant strikeout tallies over the previous few years however he’s flashed impression energy upside. The previous ninth total choose related on 14 house runs with a high quality .222 ISO (slugging minus batting common) in simply 80 video games final season.
Voit and Hiura are seemingly jockeying for reps as a right-handed complement to lefty-swinging first base/DH choices Rowdy Tellez and Jesse Winker. Each Hiura and Voit have truly fared worse in opposition to left-handed pitching than righties over the course of their careers. Tellez and particularly Winker have had extra conventional splits, nevertheless, with each dealing with righties higher over time. Whereas neither Voit nor Hiura has functioned as a standard lefty masher, they every supply some righty pop to assist stability the order.
Including some energy from that aspect of the dish was apparently a aim for Milwaukee. To that finish, Sherman writes that the Brew Crew had checked in with free agent catcher Gary Sánchez earlier within the offseason. Milwaukee subsequently acquired their new backstop, William Contreras, from the Braves as a part of the three-team Sean Murphy commerce. That swap landed the Brewers 5 seasons of management over a participant they hope to be the long-term reply behind the dish at the price of middle area prospect Esteury Ruiz, who went to Oakland.
Sánchez nonetheless has but to place pen to paper regardless of reviews of curiosity from the likes of the Angels and Giants in latest months. He’s one of many high unsigned hitters out there. Milwaukee now not has a necessity for MLB catching, because the duo of Contreras and Víctor Caratini will deal with the load. Milwaukee introduced in Payton Henry from the Marlins in a low-profile commerce to function the #3 choice. There’s no indication Sánchez stays on the radar consequently, although he could possibly be of curiosity to any variety of groups if he’s keen to take a minor league deal at this stage of the winter.
A bat-first catcher for many of his time with the Yankees, Sánchez flipped the script to an extent throughout his lone season in Minnesota final yr. He hit 16 homers however with a reasonably modest .205/.282/.377 total exhibiting by means of 471 journeys to the plate. That was among the many worst full-season offensive performances of his profession however he obtained roughly common grades for his pitch framing and ball-blocking from Statcast.
Whereas Sánchez’s vacation spot remains to be to be decided, there are not any such questions with starter Wade Miley. The Brewers introduced him again on a one-year, $4.5MM assure shortly after the calendar flipped to 2023. It’ll be season quantity 13 for the 36-year-old southpaw, who acknowledged he thought at factors this offseason his profession is likely to be over.
“I used to be so uncertain on the finish of the yr for what was subsequent,” Miley informed Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I wished to get my shoulder wholesome. I did slightly program proper after the season was over and it didn’t really feel good in any respect. I did it for 4 weeks and it was terrible. That’s after I went into – I wouldn’t name it depressed mode, however I used to be like ’it’s not price it.’ At that second, I used to be like, ’I believe we’re carried out.’ Me and my spouse talked, and I mentioned, ‘I believe this is likely to be it.’”
Miley is coming off a season by which shoulder points stored him to solely 9 appearances with the Cubs. Fortuitously, he says his arm feels good after an offseason of relaxation and he felt comfy giving issues one other go. Miley figures to take a back-end rotation position in Milwaukee, providing some veteran depth behind Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta and Eric Lauer. That takes on added significance for the Brew Crew after spring accidents to Aaron Ashby and Jason Alexander have thinned the depth past Miley and #6 starter Adrian Houser. As for his long-term outlook, Miley informed Nightengale “I assume so long as (groups) preserve calling, I’ll preserve taking part in.”
