The Brewers announced that they signed right-hander Jairo Asencio to a minor league deal that includes an invitation to Spring Training. Praver/Shapiro represents the reliever.
Asencio spent this past season pitching for the Indians and Cubs. He posted a 4.91 ERA with 6.5 K/9 and 4.2 BB/9 in 40 1/3 innings out of the bullpen. The Indians purchased him from the Braves this March and the Cubs claimed him off of waivers two months later.
I like how the Brewers are attacking the bullpen. Sign a bunch of low cost, decent upside young guys to battle it out for a roster spot in spring training. No need to sign the top relievers for millions of dollars when a bunch of young guys will probably do nearly as well for near league minimum.
Agreed. I’d love to see more teams take a Rays-eque approach of buy-low contracts and upside arms.
I like this approach as well, but am a little nervous that all the guys they’re signing, while having good arms, have terrible walk rates and seemingly major control issues. That was a problem that plagued their bullpen last year with guys like Loe. Veras, K-Rod, Axford and Parra.
Um… looking at his numbers, what do they see in this guy?
Did you look at his AA and AAA numbers? If he can bring some of that success up to the majors, he could be a decent reliever out of the pen.
It’s not like the Brewers bullpen can get any worse from last year, so they might as well take a chance on developing this guy and the couple other guys like him that they have picked up.
Gotcha, so minor league numbers looked good.