MLB Winter Meetings End Quietly For The Brewers, Who Have Yet To Sign A Big League Free Agent This Winter

Major League Baseball teams spent more than a billion dollars on free agents signings during the league’s annual Winter Meetings, which wrapped up earlier this week in San Diego, but the Milwaukee Brewers were not part of the spending frenzy.

In fact, the Brewers were one of only six teams to return from San Diego without signing an MLB free agent since the offseason began.

That’s not to say President of Baseball Operations Matt Arnold and his staff spent the week lounging in the Southern California sun.

“Things are moving,” Arnold said Wednesday night as the meetings came to a close. “I’m not sure anything is necessarily close but you’re always one phone call away from something being done. It’s definitely been a productive week for us.”

The Brewers’ most notable buzz came on Day 1, when manager Craig Counsell strolled about the Hilton San Diego sporting a t-shirt emblazoned with a photo of Hall of Fame radio announcer Bob Uecker clad in a pair of Speedo swim trunks underneath his suit jacket.

But terms of player acquisitions, there wasn’t much to write home about. Milwaukee signed right-handed pitcher Adonis Medina to a minor league contract early in the week and then selected Gus Varland, another right-handed pitcher, out of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ farm system in the Rule 5 draft before heading back home where Arnold says the work will continue on filling out the Brewers’ 2023 roster.

“Just because we’re (at the Winter Meetings) doesn’t mean something necessarily has to get done,” Arnold said. “You’re lying the foundation for a bunch of things that can happen over the course of several months.”

Arnold’s most pressing tasks between now and the start of spring training is to shore up the catching situation. As it stands, Milwaukee has three catchers on its 40-man roster: veteran Victor Caratini and prospects Mario Feliciano and Payton Henry but only Caratini, whom the Brewers picked up on the eve of Opening Day last season, has extensive big-league experience and might be better suited to a backup role than being the every day starter.

“We’re hoping to continue to improve at the catching spot,” Arnold said. “I do think there’s been real movement in that market.”

Wilson Contreras was the biggest name on the free agent catching market but he’s no longer available after signing a five-year, $87.5 million contract with the Cardinals.

Contreras’ deal could help set the market for remaining catchers like Christian Vasquez, who slashed .274/.315/.399 with nine himers and a .714 OPS for th Red Sox and Astros last season.

Arnold could also look to upgrade the position via a trade. Oakland has reportedly been shopping 27-year-old Sean Murphy while the Blue Jays have a trio of talented catchers on its roster, including former Appleton prep standout Danny Jansen.

“There’s people who are kind of still spitballing on the trade front but also giving the volume of things that are happening on the free agent market, making sure that you’re assessing that market, too,” Arnold said. “When you see these markets start to move, they usually start at the top. When you see a Contreras move, for example, it’s a domino in that pool of players. You see Aaron Judge move, it’s the main domino in that pool of players. Trea Turner moves and shortstop will subsequently move after. It could be people working down their pecking order.”

Money Matters: Arnold doesn’t expect money to be an issue when it comes to adding to the roster. The Brewers have approximately $116 million already committed in salary next season, well below the franchise-record $137 million payroll of last season.

“We’re prepared to be opportunistic here and if there are deals that we like, we have incredible support from our ownership to access those players,” Arnold said. “Whatever that (payroll) number ends up being, I know that (Brewers owner) Mark Attanasio will give us the ability to access the type of player we’re looking at that will help us in 2023.”

Rule 5 Draft: For the first time since 2016, the Brewers made a selection in the Rule 5 draft by plucking Garland, 26, from the Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate where he spent the last two seasons, posting a 5.71 ERA in 2021 and 6.11 mark last season.

His numbers, though, improved after moving to the bullpen. Varland closed out the season with 31 strikeouts over his final 18 1/3 innings.

Arnold said that Varland will likely work out of Milwaukee’s bullpen next season.

“He’s got really good stuff,” Arnold said. “We really like what he did in the second half, that’s something tha really stood out to us. He was a starter and had converted and as he got more comfortable in his new role, he really pitched well. That was something that was really intriguing to us, plus his stuff, plus his command toward the end of the season got much, much better…We thought it was worth a shot to bring in and see if he has a chance to make our club.”

The Brewers paid the Dodgers $100,000 to select Garland who must stay on Milwaukee’s 26-man roster for the entire 2023 season and cannot be sent to the minors without first clearing waivers and being offered back to the Dodgers for $50,000.

Rule 5 players can be placed on the injured list but they must be kept on the active roster for at least 90 games or teams will face the same roster restrictions again the following season.

Staff Updates: Arnold said that while things aren’t quite final, he expects Milwaukee’s coaching staff to return largely intact in 2023 as well as working out an extension on Counsell’s contract, which is set to expire at the end of the season.

As far as front office moves, he’s yet to hire somebody to serve as assistant general manager, the role he held under David Stearns before being promoted to general manager and ultimately taking over as president of baseball operations when Stearns stepped down in October.