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Steven Brault

Steven Brault Announces Retirement

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Left-hander Steven Brault has retired, as he announced on his personal Instagram page last month. A veteran of seven MLB seasons, Brault spent almost his entire major league career as a member of the Pirates. According to a recent report by Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Brault has his sights set on a second act in broadcasting now that his playing career has come to a close.

“I cannot possibly describe what it feels like to achieve a childhood dream,” Brault wrote in his announcement,  “Playing Major League Baseball was everything I could have ever imagined and so much more… I may be retiring from playing, but I plan to continue in this game for life. Baseball is my passion, and I plan on sharing that passion with the world. ”

Drafted by the Orioles in the 11th round of the 2013 draft, Brault was acquired by the Pirates as the player to be named later in the deal that sent outfielder Travis Snider to the Orioles back in January 2015. Brault made his major league debut for the Pirates the following year and served as a swingman while shuttling between the majors and Triple-A from 2016 to 2017. In those first two years of his big league career, Brault posted roughly league average results, with a 4.76 ERA and 4.70 FIP in 68 innings of work.

In 2018, Brault got his first chance to stick on the major league roster, pitching to a 4.61 ERA (85 ERA+) in 91 2/3 innings of work primarily as a multi-inning reliever out of the Pittsburgh bullpen. While Brault held his own in his first full-season taste of big league action, his effectiveness was limited by control issues that saw him issue free passes to 13.8% of batters faced while striking out just 19.9%.

Brault’s role shifted again in 2019, as he began to pitch primarily as a member of the starting rotation. Brault posted a 5.16 ERA during the 2019 campaign that was virtually identical to his previous season by measure of ERA+ (84), but he eclipsed 100 innings for the first (and only time) in his career and posted more solid numbers when looking exclusively at his 19 starts that season. In 95  2/3 innings of work as a starter in 2019, Brault posted a 4.99 ERA with a walk rate under 10% while striking out 20.1% of batters faced.

The shortened 2020 campaign was by far the strongest of Brault’s career. Pitching almost exclusively as a member of the rotation, he posted a strong 3.38 ERA, 34% better than league average by measure of ERA+, with a 3.92 FIP and a career-best 21.3% strikeout rate in 42 2/3 innings of work. Unfortunately for Brault, he’d be left unable to build upon his strong campaign during the shortened season the following year as he was limited to just seven appearances due to a recurring left lat strain that saw him make his first start of the season in August before prompting returning to the injured list in September.

Brault’s injury woes led the Pirates to designate the lefty for assignment following the 2021 campaign, at which point Brault caught on with the Cubs on a minor league deal. Brault once again battled injury issues early in the season but managed to make his debut with the big league Cubs on the Fourth of July. He would ultimately make nine appearances in short relief for the Cubs, posting a 3.00 ERA and 3.33 FIP with a 20.5% strikeout rate before a shoulder strain ended his season.

Entering 2023, Brault caught on with the Spire City Ghost Hounds of the independent Atlantic League, though he did so as an outfielder, not as a pitcher. Brault had hit well during his college days with a .971 OPS in 199 trips to the plate, and was one of the better hitting pitchers in the majors as well, with a career .258/.275/.337 slash line in 101 major league plate appearances. Brault’s stint with the Ghost Hounds ultimately lasted 58 games, during which he slashed a solid .283/.327/.465 with an 18% walk rate in 200 plate appearances.

Ultimately, Brault ended his big league career having posted a 4.73 ERA and 4.64 FIP with 299 strikeouts in 352 1/3 innings of work. Those of us at MLBTR would like to congratulate Brault on his playing career and wish him all the best in his post-playing endeavors.

Steven Brault Moving To Outfield With Atlantic League Club

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Former Pirates and Cubs left-hander Steven Brault signed with the Atlantic League’s new Frederick club last week, and it seems he’ll do so as the hopeful first step down a new career path. Brault has already played left field for his new club, and MLBTR has learned that the 31-year-old plans to become a position player on a full-time basis. He’ll hope to use this opportunity in the Atlantic League to land a minor league deal with an affiliated club and eventually return to the Majors as an outfielder.

Brault may never have garnered as much attention as some of the other best-hitting pitchers in the National League, but he certainly qualifies among them. Back in college, Brault was a .397/.416/.554 hitter in 199 plate appearances. He batted .419/.419/.484 in 36 minor league plate appearances and is a career .258/.275/.337 hitter with a homer — a second-deck, 441-foot bomb — four doubles and just a 14.9% strikeout rate in 101 big league trips to the plate. He’s gone 1-for-8 to begin his season with Frederick. Baseball America’s scouting reports on Brault from his early days in the Orioles system note that he was a plus athlete and the first player in Rocky Mountain Conference history to earn all-conference first team honors as both a position player and a pitcher.

Brault’s move away from the mound comes on the heels of several injury-plagued seasons. Shoulder and lat strains regularly hampered Brault from 2019-22, limiting him to a combined 192 2/3 frames in the Majors over that four-year period. Most of those innings came in 2019, when he tossed a career-high 113 2/3 frames but also missed more than a month with a shoulder strain.

In his career on the mound, Brault at times looked like a viable starter and multi-inning reliever, but injuries derailed some otherwise promising stretches on more than one occasion. In all, he’s tallied 352 1/3 innings at the big league level with a 4.73 ERA, 18.8% strikeout rate, 11.3% walk rate, 0.97 HR/9 and 45.5% ground-ball rate.

Only time will tell whether Brault can successfully make the move to the other side of the ball at age 31, but it makes for an interesting subplot to keep an eye on throughout the season. His raw batting numbers in the Majors certainly don’t leap out relative to other full-time hitters, but it’s clear that Brault has more of a knack for handling the bat than the majority of now-former mound counterparts.

Steven Brault, Starlin Castro Sign With Atlantic League Team

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Left-hander Steven Brault, right-hander Brett de Geus and infielder Starlin Castro have signed with the new and yet to-be-named Atlantic League team based in Frederick, Md., the team announced this week (Twitter links).

Brault, 30, spent the 2022 season in the Cubs organization but was on the injured list for the majority of the season. The former Pirates hurler originally inked a one-year, Major League deal with the Cubs in the offseason, but that was reworked as a minor league pact following some injury concerns. Those proved to have merit, as Brault pitched in just 16 innings between the minors and the big leagues, due in large part to a shoulder strain.

The few innings Brault managed to pitch with the Cubs were solid. He tossed nine frames and allowed three runs on eight hits with an 8-to-5 K/BB ratio. Brault is best known for his six-year run with Pittsburgh, where he frequently bounced between the Pirates’ rotation and bullpen, ultimately tossing 343 1/3 innings of 4.77 ERA ball in 107 appearances (52 starts, 55 in relief).

Castro, 33, hasn’t appeared in the Majors since the Nationals released him in the summer of 2021 on the heels of a 30-game suspension under Major League Baseball’s joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. He had a brief 28-game stint in the Mexican League last year, where he batted .240/.312/.323 in 109 plate appearances for los Leones de Yucatan. A stint in the the Dominican Winter League didn’t go any better this past offseason; Castro managed only a .219/.250/.250 output in 168 plate appearances.

From 2010-21, Castro played in 1573 Major League games and logged nearly 6600 plate appearances with the Cubs, Yankees, Marlins and Nationals. He holds a career .280/.319/.412 batting line.

The 25-year-old de Geus was one of the top picks in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft but struggled to a 7.56 ERA in 50 innings between the Rangers and Diamondbacks that season. The former Dodgers farmhand spent the 2022 season in the D-backs organization, tossing 22 2/3 of 5.96 ERA ball with their Double-A affiliate.

Cubs Outright Seven Players

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The Cubs announced they’ve outrighted seven players off their 40-man roster. Designated hitter Franmil Reyes, infielder David Bote, outfielder Narciso Crook and pitchers Alec Mills, Steven Brault, Anderson Espinoza and Brad Wieck have all been let go.

Roster turnover is high on this date, five days after the World Series. This is when the injured list comes to an end until Spring Training, meaning all players on the 60-day IL have to be reinstated or else removed from the squad in some way. Also, the Rule 5 protection date is on November 15, now just five days away. Given those combined factors, many players are getting squeezed out.

Reyes, 27, is probably the most high-profile name on this list, given that he was a productive slugger from 2018 to 2021. However, 2022 was a dismal year for him, as he hit .213/.254/.350 for the Guardians and got designated for assignment in August. The Cubs picked him up and put him into 48 games, where his batting improved but was still below league average. Given that Reyes very rarely takes the field and is primarily a designated hitter, that kind of production doesn’t pass muster.

He could have been retained via arbitration, but MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a salary of $6MM. Instead, the Cubs will move on. Since Reyes has more than three years of MLB service time, he has the right to reject this assignment, which he has done.

Bote, 30 in April, debuted in 2018 and intrigued the Cubs enough that they gave him a five-year, $15MM extension. He’s hovered around league average at the plate, with his career batting line currently sitting at .231/.318/.393 for a wRC+ of 91. Despite that somewhat tepid production, he’s also provided defensive versatility, playing all four infield positions and some brief cameos in the outfield corners. He has the over three years of MLB service time necessary to reject an outright assignment, but not the five years necessary to reject while retaining his salary. Given that the Cubs owe him $4MM in 2023 and $5.5MM in 2024, along with a $1MM buyout on a $7MM club option for 2025, he is likely to accept his assignment and remain with the organization.

Crook, 27, was first selected to the roster in June, making his MLB debut by making nine plate appearances over four games. He spent the rest of the year in Triple-A, where he hit .260/.345/.492 for a wRC+ of 120. He is eligible to elect free agency based on his seven years of minor league experience, which he has done.

Mills, 31 later this month, has been in and out of the Cubs’ rotation over the past few seasons, managing to throw a no-hitter in 2020. Apart from that, the results have been pretty mediocre, as he has a career 4.95 ERA over 256 1/3 career innings. 2022 saw injuries limit him to just seven games and 17 2/3 innings. He’s eligible to elect free agency based on his three-plus years of MLB service time, which he has done.

Brault, 31 in April, spent the previous six seasons with the Pirates but was designated for assignment after 2021 and signed a minor league deal with the Cubs. Injuries limited him to just nine innings on the year. He’s eligible to elect free agency based on his three-plus years of MLB service time, which he has done.

Espinoza, 25 in March, was once considered one of the best pitching prospects in the sport. Baseball America ranked him the 19th best prospect in baseball in 2016. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to live up to the hype just yet, perhaps due to twice undergoing Tommy John surgery. He finally made it to the big leagues this year, posting a 5.40 ERA in 18 1/3 innings. That was actually better than his minor league performance this season, where he had a 7.55 ERA over 70 1/3 innings. He was eligible to elect free agency based on his seven-plus years of minor league experience, which he has done.

Wieck, 31, pitched in the four MLB seasons from 2018 to 2021 but began 2022 on the injured list. He required Tommy John surgery in July and is likely to miss the majority of the 2023 campaign. He is eligible to elect free agency based on having more than three years of MLB experience, which he has done.

Injury Notes: Carpenter, Larnach, Brault

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Matt Carpenter was putting together a comeback season for the ages with the Yankees, hitting .305/.412/.727 with 15 home runs in 154 plate appearances before suffering a broken bone when fouling a ball into his foot. The foot fracture didn’t require surgery, but the timing of the injury placed Carpenter’s season in jeopardy. Manager Aaron Boone said yesterday that the Yankees are now hopeful that the 36-year-old Carpenter will be able to return for the final series of the regular season (Twitter link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). It’s not a given, but it’d be a nice bonus for both the Yankees and Carpenter himself to get a look at his swing in a game setting before the postseason rolls around.

A  couple more injury updates from around the game…

  • The Twins added another name to their ever-growing list of season-ending injuries, as outfielder Trevor Larnach will not return before the end of the 2022 season, per Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Larnach underwent core muscle surgery early in the summer and was all but finished with a rehab assignment last week, when he sustained a wrist injury during one of the final plate appearances of his rehab assignment. The 25-year-old tells Miller that he wasn’t even able to hold a bat the day after incurring the injury. Larnach got out to a solid start in 2022, hitting .258/.331/.477 with five homers and 13 doubles through his first 145 plate appearances. He collected just four hits in 35 plate appearances before undergoing surgery, however, and now won’t return to the field this year. Larnach and teammate Alex Kirilloff are both former first-rounders who’ve been touted among the game’s 50 best prospects at multiple points in the past, but injuries have prevented them from establishing themselves as lineup fixtures at Target Field.
  • Left-hander Steven Brault’s shoulder hasn’t responded as hoped during his minor league rehab assignment, Cubs skipper David Ross said yesterday (via Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times, on Twitter). He’s headed back to Chicago to be further evaluated and won’t return to the mound this season. The longtime Pirates lefty originally inked a Major League deal with the Cubs in the offseason but had it restructured as a minor league contract due to an injury setback. The 30-year-old Brault didn’t pitch, even in the minors, until July 1 this season. He made his way to the big league roster two weeks later and tossed nine innings with a 3.00 ERA and an 8-to-5 K/BB ratio before a shoulder strain sent him back to the injured list in mid-August. Brault also missed significant time in 2019 due to a shoulder strain and missed much of the 2021 campaign due to a lat strain. Brault will be a free agent at season’s end.

Cubs Select Luke Farrell

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AUGUST 24: Chicago has formally selected Farrell’s contract, relays Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune (on Twitter). Hendricks, who is unlikely to pitch again this season after revealing the presence of a small capsule tear in his throwing shoulder, was indeed transferred to the 60-day IL to create the 40-man roster spot. Chicago also placed southpaw Steven Brault on the 15-day IL with a should strain, recalled reliever Kervin Castro from Iowa, optioned Anderson Espinoza and sent Padilla back to Triple-A after yesterday’s doubleheader.

AUGUST 23: The Cubs are adding right-hander Luke Farrell to the big league roster before tomorrow evening’s game against the Cardinals, manager David Ross told reporters (including Tim Stebbins of NBC Sports Chicago). He’ll get the start for the contest.

It’ll be the first MLB outing of the season for Farrell, who signed a minor league deal in April. He’s spent the entire season at Triple-A Iowa, starting 11 of his 17 outings. Over 59 innings, Farrell has a 5.03 ERA with a below-average 19% strikeout rate and a higher than average 10.9% walk percentage. It’s the first extended rotation stretch for the Northwestern product since 2018, also a stint in the Chicago farm system.

Farrell has come out of the bullpen for 58 of his 63 big league outings, working 87 2/3 innings between the Royals, Reds, Cubs, Rangers and Twins. He owns a 4.93 ERA at the major league level, including a 4.74 mark in 20 outings with Minnesota last season. Farrell typically runs solid swing-and-miss rates, but he’s had spotty control and given up quite a few home runs at the major league level.

The Cubs will need to formally select Farrell’s contract tomorrow. He’ll be the third pitcher added to the 40-man roster in two days, as Chicago also brought up Javier Assad and Nicholas Padilla today. Those transactions brought the 40-man to full capacity, but the Cubs could easily transfer either Kyle Hendricks or Wade Miley to the 60-day injured list to free a spot.

Cubs Select Steven Brault, Designate Matt Swarmer For Assignment

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The Cubs selected the contract of Steven Brault prior to today’s ballgame, tweets Mark Gonzales. In corresponding moves, Mark Leiter Jr. was optioned to Triple-A and Matt Swarmer was designated for assignment. Anderson Espinoza, meanwhile, is serving as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader.

Brault appeared in the Majors with the Pirates in each of the past six seasons going back to 2016. He owns a 4.77 career ERA/4.67 FIP across 343 1/3 innings. He has served primarily as a starter, but he is no stranger to coming out of the bullpen either.

The 28-year-old Swarmer had some real ups and downs in his short time on the Cubs’ roster. In five starts and six relief appearances, Swarmer posted a 5.03 ERA/7.35 FIP over 34 innings. After giving up just one earned run in each of his first two starts, Swarmer was tagged with six home runs in his third start of the season against the Yankees.

Leiter Jr. is no stranger to the road between Chicago and Iowa. The 31-year-old has logged 38 2/3 innings with the Cubs with a 5.35 ERA/5.00 FIP. He has logged 19 innings in Triple-A over five starts with a 6.16 ERA.

Roster Notes: Twins, Marlins, Pirates, Yankees, Cubs, Phillies

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With the season just a few days away, roster decisions around the game continue to trickle in. We’ll round up some notable non 40-man roster decisions here.

    • Twins pitching prospect Jhoan Duran has made the Opening Day roster, per a club announcement. He’ll initially work out of the bullpen. Ranked the #9 prospect in the Minnesota organization by Baseball America, Duran draws praise for an upper-90s fastball and a power splitter that have helped him run plus strikeout rates throughout his minor league career.
    • The Marlins have informed outfielder Roman Quinn he will not make the Opening Day roster, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid (Twitter link). It comes as a bit of a surprise, as Quinn had seemed the favorite for a fourth outfield role after the Fish released Delino DeShields Jr. over the weekend. Presumably, that job will fall to utilityman Jon Berti early on.
    • Infield prospect Diego Castillo has made the Pirates’ Opening Day roster, tweets Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Castillo, acquired in the trade that sent righty Clay Holmes to the Yankees, will make his big league debut the first time he gets into a game.
    • The Yankees announced they’ve reassigned outfielder Ender Inciarte and left-hander Manny Bañuelos to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Inciarte has an opt-out clause in his minor league deal and tells ESPN’s Marly Rivera he hasn’t yet decided whether he’ll accept the assignment to Triple-A.
    • The Cubs informed pitching prospect Ethan Roberts he’ll be on the Opening Day roster, he informed reporters (including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times). A fourth-round pick in 2018 out of Tennessee Tech, the right-hander is the #33 prospect in the organization according to Baseball America. The reliever posted an even 3.00 ERA over 54 innings between Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa last season. The Cubs reassigned non-roster invitees Jonathan Holder, Robert Gsellman, Steven Brault, Stephen Gonsalves and Ildemaro Vargas to Iowa, tweets Jordan Bastian of MLB.com.
    • The Phillies reassigned non-roster invitees Ronald Torreyes, Yairo Muñoz and Dillon Maples to Triple-A Lehigh Valley, tweets Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. Torreyes and Muñoz were competing for utility spots, while the hard-throwing Maples had been seeking a spot in the Philly bullpen.

 

Cubs To Sign Steven Brault

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March 21: Brault’s deal has been reworked as a minor league contract with a non-roster invite to Spring Training and a July opt-out opportunity, tweets Bastian. The veteran lefty is now dealing with an “injury setback” of some type, per Bastian — hence the restructured deal. He’d earn at a $1.5MM rate in the big leagues and can tack on up to $400K worth of incentives.

March 16, 11:30am: Brault is signing a Major League contract with the Cubs, tweets Jordan Bastian of MLB.com.

10:44am: The Cubs are close to a deal with free-agent lefty Steven Brault, tweets Robert Murray of FanSided. The longtime Pirates southpaw became a free agent earlier this offseason when Pittsburgh cut him loose just prior to the non-tender deadline. Brault is represented by Warner Sports Management.

Brault, 30 in April, has tallied 70 1/3 innings for the Pirates since 2020.  He was occasionally deployed as an opener in the shortened 2020 season, though he did close out that year by allowing only one earned run over 16 innings across two starts.  In March of 2021, Brault suffered a lat strain, pushing his season debut to August 4.  In seven starts, he completed five innings only twice, with his velocity down 1.4 miles per hour from the prior year.  The lat strain re-occured on September 10, ending his season and six-year career with the Pirates.

Brault’s career high in innings in an MLB season is 113 1/3, back in 2019.  In his big league career, he’s generally struggled with walks and hasn’t missed bats.  Brault was a two-way player at Regis University, and was drafted by the Orioles in the 11th round in 2013 and traded to the Pirates two years later.  The athletic lefty managed to hit .333 in 50 plate appearances back in 2019, and which point the suggestion arose that he could occasionally pitch in in the outfield.  If Brault is healthy, there could still be a potential back-end starter in there for the Cubs.  They badly need the depth, especially with Adbert Alzolay starting the season on the IL.

Central Notes: Pirates, Brault, Reds, Lodolo, Guardians, Francona

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The Pirates designated left-hander Steven Brault for assignment before the lockout began, with Brault electing free agency shortly thereafter. The rebuilding club could feasibly re-sign Brault and fit him into their plans for 2022, but Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic doesn’t think that’s likely. He quotes general manager Ben Cherington as saying he’ll “keep the door open” to bringing the lefty back, but that “The health has gotten in the way the last couple of years.”

Brault missed about a month in 2019 with a shoulder strain but managed to stay healthy for the shortened 2020 campaign. Over those two seasons, he threw 156 innings with a 4.67 ERA, seeming like a decent rotation piece for a rebuilding club to have on hand. Unfortunately, 2021 wasn’t kind to the southpaw, as he spent much of the season on the IL and only made seven starts in the big leagues. He’s still only 29 years old, turning 30 in April, meaning another team could give him a chance to log some innings and show his health, even if it might not be the Pirates. He has between four and five years’ service time, which means a team that signs him and sees him round back into form could control him through 2023, as long as the service time rules remain unchanged in the next CBA.

More news from the Central divisions…

  • Much like Brault, Reds prospect Nick Lodolo also had an injury-plagued season in 2021. The 23-year-old was only able to make 13 starts between Double-A and Triple-A this year due to a blister as well as a shoulder strain. However, he seems to be on track for a healthy start to 2022, according to Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. He spoke to Reds farm director Shawn Pender, who says he reached out to Lodolo about two weeks ago “just to check in, say hello and how are you doing. He says, ’Gosh, I feel great. I guess all that strength and conditioning helped me, and the time off. I feel really up to the task of coming back ready to go,’ so that’s all been positive.” That’s surely good news for Reds fans, as Lodolo could be an important contributor in 2022, if healthy. The 7th overall selection of the 2019 draft, Lodolo is one of the most highly-touted prospects in the game, being ranked as the 89th-best prospect in baseball by FanGraphs, coming in at #31 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 and 23rd on Baseball America’s list. The Reds’ rotation has a strong front three in Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray and Tyler Mahle, but all three have been frequently mentioned in trade rumors in recent months, as the Reds are apparently looking to reduce payroll. If those rumors prove true and any of that trio is moved, it would enhance the likelihood of Lodolo being able to make the jump to the big leagues in the coming season.
  • Terry Francona stepped away from his managerial duties in Cleveland at the end of July to undergo a hip replacement and foot surgery, leaving DeMarlo Hale in charge for the latter parts of the 2021 campaign. Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com provides an update, saying that Francona “should be off crutches in the next few weeks.” In September, team president Chris Antonetti said “We continue to plan looking at ’22 with Tito as our manager. If at some point that changes, we’re going to have to reconsider and relook at things at that point.  But we have no reason to think that will be the case.” Based on this most recent update, it appears everything is still on track for Francona to return to health and to the dugout in 2022.
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