Brent Suter Heads West; Adrian Houser Reaches Deal For 2023

With 18 players eligible for arbitration this offseason, Friday — the deadline for Major League Baseball teams to tender 2023 contracts to arbitration-eligible players — was sure to be a busy and, at times, difficult one for Milwaukee Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold.

That became evident early Friday afternoon when it was announced that left-hander Brent Suter had been claimed off waivers by the Colorado Rockies.

Suter, 33, had been the longest-tenured Brewers player. A 31st-round selection in the 2012 MLB Draft out of Harvard, he made his debut in 2016 and made 196 appearances (39 starts) for Milwaukee, posting a 36-19 record and 3.51 ERA.

Along the way, Suter became a fan favoite thanks to his library of impressions — most notably, Harry Caray and Jim Carrey — and an outgoing personality which led to him starring in a number of viral movie parodies.

Suter also became deeply involved in the community, so much so that he was a three-time nominee for MLB’s Roberto Clemente Award, given for sportsmanship and community involvement. A passionate environmentalist, Suter was a major supporter of Milwaukee’s Urban Ecology Center and spearheaded numerous efforts to better help the environment while also serving as the Brewers’ representative to the MLB Players’ Union.

But with an estimated price tag of $3.1 million, the Brewers instead decided to part ways with the veteran left-hander, who was set to become a free agent next winter.

While the team bid farewell to one pitcher, it avoided arbitration with another by signing right-hander Adrian Houser for a reported $3.6 million.

Houser, 29, went 6-10 with a 4.73 ERA in 22 appearances last season, all but one of which came as a starter. Overall, he’s 23-29 with a 3.97 ERA in 106 appearances for Milwaukee (76 starts) since joining the team with left-hander Josh Hader and outfielders Brett Phillips and Domingo Santana in a trade that sent Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers to Houston in 2015.

Houser is the last player involved in that trade that remains with the Brewers.