The Brewers have designated right-hander Phil Bickford for assignment, per a club announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to right-hander Zack Godley, whose contract has been selected from the team’s alternate training site. Manager Craig Counsell indicated last night that Godley’s contract would be selected, and outfielder Corey Ray would be optioned, but the corresponding 40-man move was only revealed this morning.
Bickford, 25, was the No. 10 overall pick by the Blue Jays back in 2013. He opted to attend college rather than sign, but he was again a first-rounder once eligible, going to the Giants with the No. 18 overall selection. San Francisco traded Bickford and catching prospect to Milwaukee in exchange for lefty Will Smith back in 2016, but Bickford has yet to establish himself as a viable big league arm. He’s tossed just two innings in the Majors — one in 2020 and one in 2021 — allowing a total of six runs.
Bickford’s path to the big leagues hasn’t exactly been a straightforward one. He served a 50-game suspension after a second positive test for a drug of abuse in 2017. Upon returning, he was struck in the hand by a batted ball, fracturing both the pinkie and ring finger in his pitching hand, which required surgery to repair. Because of that suspension and surgery, Bickford totaled just 51 2/3 innings from 2017-18.
A return to the mound in a bullpen role in 2019 proved quite fruitful, when Bickford notched a 2.48 ERA and a whopping 41.1 percent strikeout rate in Class-A Advanced, but the lack of minor league games in 2020 and so far in 2021 hasn’t done any favors for his development. All in all, he sports a 2.98 ERA in 226 2/3 frames, but Bickford will also turn 26 this summer and hasn’t pitched above High-A with the exception of those two MLB innings.
The Brewers will have a week to trade Bickford or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. Given his former pedigree, a solid minor league track record and a pair of minor league options remaining, it’s possible that another club will look at him as an intriguing project.
Hope the Marlins pick him up. His minor league stats are pretty solid.
25 Yr old, former upper 1st round picks are not bad options to claim on the waiver wire. Obviously something stuck out about their upside and especially with pitchers it may just click with a change of scenery.
Intresting…
Nooooo
Are you kidding me here we go again giving a retread another chance instead of just giving the chance to a player who has been with the organization for years. So tired of these bullshoot moves. Rather see Zack Brown, Lee Barker, Ethan Small, Ashby . Quit doing this crap
Its a spot start, and whoever was selected almost certainly will be sent right back down tomorrow. Is that a good first shot for a prospect pitcher? 1 appearance and back on the bus to the minors/alternate training site?
I feel like if it was up to you we’d have 25 unproven prospects on the roster..and of course, Wil freaking Myers.
Your right what was I thinking we could’ve had Wil Myers two years ago for nothing and what all he has done is turned it around since then
BTW I also think it’s a dumb idea to have Maile and Vogel on the roster instead of Nottingham. Defensively he is better then both at catching and firstbase His offense is better then Maile and not far behind Vogel. Plus time to cut bait on Garcia and give Taylor a starting job. So and one more thing you can rip on me about is should have never signed JBJ at saved the money for a shortstop in free agency next winter . So begin
what exactly do teams see in Maile anyway?
Re: the Wil Myers thing (then ill try not to bring him up again..if you do the same): 2 years ago his salary alone was enough to steer clear of, regardless of being able to “get him for nothing” as you claim. And there was no evidence at the time he’d ever turn it around.
I didn’t understand the JBJ signing. No argument there, or with the Maile signing/ retention.
I don’t get your love affair with Nottingham. He couldn’t hit his way out of a wet paper bag, and they held onto him maybe a year longer than they should have. He was out of options or probably would still be there.
If Urius hits like he has the last couple weeks we won’t need a ss. Either way, I think ss to the Brewers is like LB’er to the Packers..They’re not going to invest much for one.
Will give you that one and I apologize if I sounded like I don’t like you. I’m just fed up with these guys that aren’t even stop gap players. No more mentioning of Muers or Orf lol
But Notts is now great behind the plate and he swings like Gorman Thomas every time he’s at the plate.
You gotta love that!
Small and Brown are terrible. Haven’t seen Barker.
Ashby is the only one with talent, and I’m not sure he’s ready (has he even had a spring invite yet?).
I like this move.
I do agree with your remarks below about Taylor and getting rid of Garcia. Maile is also terrible and Notts should be on the roster (but so should Vogie).
I’m ready to move on from Suter, Anderson, Yardley and look for a solid pen arm to replace them. I’m even thinking we should trade Cain and find the 3rd starter we will need for the play offs (Houser and Peralta are still 4 and 5 starters).
Time to make moves.
Stearns usually makes a fairly big one in May.
We’ll see if that holds true again.
The Blue Jays originally drafted him in 2013 when Anthopolous was the GM, though he didn’t sign. I wonder if they’d still have interest in him now. They’re down to just three starters with Pearson and Stripling on the IL and Roark having been moved to the bullpen. I’d take a flyer on him.
Would be interesting. He shunned the Jays when they drafted him so high but then if they were the ones to get his career on track so many years later.
Don’t see him as an improvement over Kay or Thornton.
giants should grab him back
Hmmmmmm. Maybe
Hum baby
So did the Brewers get anything out of the Will Smith trade?
Definitely not – Andrew Susac was the other piece that went to the Brewers, who’s now in the Pirates system.
Also wrong will Smith linked. Dodgers will Smith is linked.
“San Francisco traded Bickford and catching prospect to Milwaukee in exchange for lefty Will Smith”
Just a heads up. You left Andrew Susac out.
Just a heads up, Susac is the catching prospect.
“traded Bickford and catching prospect to Milwaukee”
Where does it say his name exactly?
It doesn’t say his name. But that doesn’t mean it was left out. It just means the writer got a little lazy and didn’t want to look up his name.
If I was a Brewers fan I would wonder about this move. The Angels always seem to have a 27 year old reliever waiver wire claim on their roster they never call up. Cutting someone like that makes sense but this guy seems to have legit potential and not gotten off the ground yet. What you think Perry? Bet Arte not a fan of his hair.
You may be right, but Bickford has looked bad in his brief stints in Milwaukee and the Brewers seem to know what they’re doing with bullpen arms.
No, he’s really just bad. REALLY bad.
If the Brewers’ lab couldn’t harness his potential, no one can.
He was really terrible last night and looked like he doesn’t believe he belongs (and that was after a surprisingly good spring).
Ok he had two appearances and maybewe can chalk that up to nerves. Personally the weed things doesn’t matter to me . I say let him land someplace get familiar and then see . Could be another Jeremy Jeffress who should be pitching still in the majors .
The difference is that JJ had some measure of success throughout his entire MLB career–yes, even from the very first appearances–as he only gave up runs in 2 of his first 10 outings and finished the year with a sparkling ERA under 3.00
It wasn’t until later in JJ’s career that he became wildly inconsistent from season to season and needed help to get back to form.
Bickford is in perfect physical health and should be in perfect mental health at this point.
Which means he just can’t pitch.
Clubs don’t release guys with value and remaining options. My guess is he was smoking weed in Milwaukee and someone found out about it. Hopefully, for his sake, I’m wrong or it’s not worse than that.
Don’t be a moron.
He pitched poorly. It was awful both times. He looks lost out there.
The Brewers are the best at developing pitchers with their lab, and the fact is that his immense talent cannot be harnessed and it seems like he won’t figure it out.
In case you haven’t heard, weed is finally becoming legal as well (and should never have been an issue in his life).
Just because it is legal in a lot of places doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem. I’ve read enough testimonials, by people that gave it up, to know the stuff can create a fog in your thinking process.
Yep, You are truly a moron too.
Getting called a moron from a pothead is a compliment. Thank you!
Your being a moron is a sign that I’m right (and I do have a 150 IQ and a microbiology Master’s).
You, on the other hand, seem to be several rungs below moron on the mental retardation scale.
Imbecile?
Cretin?
Idiot?
Simpleton?
I bet you’ve been all of them at some point until you settled into whatever it is they call someone with an IQ below 75.
LOL. A pot smoking Ari Spyros. See how I summed that up in so few words.
But Spike has a 150 IQ and a microbiology Masters. Of course, I’ve never seen anyone brag about something like that, and then take that much trouble to insult someone else.
IMO, if I can’t take you in a straight BB discussion, I am not going to try to beat you down with my resume.
Jays dodged a huge bullet with this guy, seems like a total bust so far, and the PED suspensions look horrible.
It wasn’t PEDs.
It was something that is now legal in more places than ever.
Yup exactly. It’s legal and provides no performance advantage. MLBPA should fight to get recreational drugs off the ban list in the future
Do you really think the union should be expending political capital trying to get something that illegal in many states, off the banned list?
On the contrary. It’s a natural anti-inflammatory, pain reliever, and muscle relaxer (it also gets the head in a nice place, as an anti-anxiety med).
I’ve been a semi-pro disc golfer for 25 years and was a college hoops player. I played every game at both of those sports after at least half a joint.
I’d like to agree with you, but the fact that I once went 21-25 from the field with 8 3-pointers, broke the course record at Madison’s first disc golf course after only a year of playing, and then the next year beat the 3rd best disc golfer in the world in a big tournament seems to suggest otherwise.
It’s a MASSIVE performance enhancer and a natural one that ALL professional athletes should have free access to.
Do you really think that something as corrupt as MLB has any choice but to allow things that ARE legal in society?
The only reason it’s still illegal in less than half the states is because of moronic redneck views.
The Union won’t have to do a thing.
Pro sports will have to cave to all of them without negotiations since weed will be legal in ALL 50 states within the next year.
1-You want millionaire athletes to have FREE access to pot?
2-IRT to pain management, assuming you are talking about after the game, there is a lot of merit to that, though much of the benefits can be obtained using CBD oil.
3-IRT to performance-enhancement, I seriously doubt it. I’ve seen a lot of guys smoking after the game, and they were less than certain on their feet, and their reaction time was weak. I would love to see some documentation that a 95 mph fastball is easier to hit while high?
“Pro sports will have to cave to all of them without negotiations since weed will be legal in ALL 50 states within the next year.”
Actually, they don’t. The first issue is that it is still illegal federally. That won’t change unless the US opts out of some of our global agreements.
The second is that companies can ban any performance-altering drugs. Alcohol has been legal for a long time. But virtually no company allows you to show up drunk, and many do not allow drinking during work hours.