1:33pm: Mejia was actually granted a fourth minor league option, president of baseball operations David Stearns tells Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (Twitter link). That’s quite notable for his outlook, as he can now head to Triple-A Nashville and continue to develop as a starter and serve as some upper-level depth.
1:03pm: The Brewers have acquired right-hander J.C. Mejia from the Guardians in exchange for a player to be named later or cash, the teams announced. Mejia was one of seven players designated for assignment in Cleveland last Friday as the Guardians set their roster in advance of the Rule 5 protection deadline.
Mejia, 25, made his big league debut this past season for a Cleveland club that was rocked by injuries in the starting rotation. It wasn’t a great showing, evidenced by gruesome 8.25 ERA and 2.2 HR/9 marks through his first 52 1/3 Major League innings. His struggles weren’t confined to the Majors, either, as Mejia was roughed up for a 6.75 ERA in 39 Triple-A frames — also his debut at that level.
While the 2021 season wasn’t a strong one in terms of results, Mejia had a sharp track record prior to this rocky campaign. Even with this year’s poor Triple-A numbers, he sports a career 3.12 ERA in the minors — a mark accompanied by solid strikeout and walk rates (23.4% and 7.1%, respectively). Mejia also had a 48% ground-ball rate in the big leagues and has regularly posted grounder percentages north of 55% in the minors.
Starting pitching isn’t a major need in Milwaukee, where the Brewers have a star-studded rotation headlined by Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta. Righty Adrian Houser and lefty Eric Lauer round out the mix, and the Brewers also have some homegrown alternative options in the form of Aaron Ashby and Ethan Small — the former of whom could open the 2021 season in the Milwaukee bullpen.
Given that solid group of options, Mejia seems likely to open the year in the bullpen — if he survives the winter on the 40-man roster. Mejia is out of minor league options, so he’ll need to break camp with the club or else be exposed to waivers. With a ~93mph four-seamer and sinker working as a starter, it’s possible his velocity could jump into the mid-90s working in shorter stints. For now, he’ll likely head to camp in hopes of winning a long-relief spot.
our first trade with the new guardians
arent we special
Do you Indians fans like that name i think it has to be the ugliest name in mlb. The Indians were such a lovable loser the guardians sounds like an xfl team its horrible do you Cleveland fans like it?
Not at all. It’s about as inspiring as a mouthful of sand. I REALLY thought they were going with the Spiders because that at least would have resulted in a ton of gear sales. Guardians has all the punch of a glass of warm milk.
*indians ftfy
The name changed, stop whining about it
the Minors numbers dont impress me, but he was skipped over AA and was largely thrust into the fire this year, so maybe some patience with him would help.
Oh the indians did. Nice
You gonna do this the rest of your life? It’s gonna be pretty embarrassing still commenting this 30 years from now
Take it easy jabronie
i mean seriously though…just let it go.
Did people act this way when the Rays dropped the Devil from their name or this a new level of cope?
No one declared it to be an affront to their political views… so no.
Cause the Ray’s are not an iconic franchise people who don’t watch sports know about the Indians from the movies not to mention even the people from Tampa don’t care about the team their ownership is all about making money all they care about is that welfare tax money they get from the teams that actually care
Mix in a period every once in awhile.
Your name is jabronie. You’re existence is embarrassing enough. Stop posting
@jabronie why don’t they take it one step further and give the stadium and all its property back to the native Americans it was stolen from.
@BloodySox with that user name and the content of your comment, you MUST be the disgraced Curt Schilling
@richt you don’t agree with me? Oh, that’s because you’re racist.
ooh you showed them!!1!
Guy was in over his head in Cleveland but got pushed there fast due to injuries. He went from being a A/AA guy thrown off into the fire in the bigs. In the right situation he could develop into a contributor.
He is likely to end up a bullpen piece.
You can forget about him as a starter, but in his defense the Guardians were decimated by injuries and he was forced to help before he probably should have. As a reliever, the Brewers could be onto something. He’s out of options though.
Well, never mind the out of options part then. Good move for the Brewers.
He’s not out of options. Stearns just said granted his 4th & will pitch out of the bullpen. No-risk move with a guy with some nice movement on his SL & sinker.
@ Bud Selig Fan;
Guardians, Brewers, and Rays see things in players the same way.
I’d guess this is simply the Guardians having other guys out of the bullpen they want to work with. They gave up on Francisco Mejia – the Catcher – and used him in a trade for Brad Hand and Adam Cimber (which worked out well for them). The Padres couldn’t square him away so they sent him onto the Rays. Rays are trying a different approach and have been working with him as he splits time at Catcher with Zunino.
Those 3 organizations have a lot of commonalities. They seem to be happy if another team can get something out of a player they failed with. Seem to learn watching what the other team did that worked.
Yeah my original comment was before it was reported that he had a 4th option, hence my reply
Seems like a low risk pick up for the Brewers who could develop into a solid reliever if given time to develop. Worst case they waive him and they are out a little $$$.
You’ve got to do more than “stat scout” when it comes to these types of deals. The Brewers, who are as good as the Rays are in this regard, no doubt feel they can coach Mejia up, using whatever system they use. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. But there’s been too many pitchers that have been productive having been found like this.
Stearns does like those big bullpen guys. 6-5 240lbs.
Your going to trade for this guy and then leave Westbrook and Barker off the 40 man . What a joke I hope those two get picked by another team . Then come back and burn the Brewers what fricken joke !!!!
Not sure why you’re upset they didn’t add those two players. I can think of plenty of prospects I would’ve added before them. I guess to each their own.
Guardians seem to be cleaning house today
And you can bet the farm they end up taking the cash rather than a prospect.
Cleveland has an outstanding farm system and many of their best prospects needed to rostered or risked losing in the rule 5 draft. These two trades were of players that were designated for assignment last Friday. They added 11 prospects to their 40 man roster.
The only name that matters is world champions
Mejia is a good get I think. He works around 93/94 as a starter, and he has a plus slider. In a relief role, 95+ and a slider makes a good reliever.
Cleveland really did him wrong, but not by intention. He had missed most of 2019 and obviously 2020 was a wash too. And he’d never been above A ball prior to 2021. He really should have spent this entire year in the high minors developing, and finding out if he was a starter or reliever. Instead because of injuries they had to rush him as a starter to the majors.
For awhile, he was the second best of their starters by FIP and xFIP. His last two starts he just imploded, and it looked to my eye that he lost a bit of confidence. But he came back and made some solid appearances as a reliever in generally low leverage situations.
He probably should stick to the bullpen now, and I suspect this will work out well for the Brewers.
Insightful thoughts, thanks for sharing this!
What Milwaukee needs is plenty of hitting. Specially after Yelich’s back to back Mediocre seasons !
They could benefit from 2 former Cubs cornerstones in Bryant and Rizzo to take the corners. But I know they won’t spend that money !