NEWSLETTER
Although the Milwaukee Brewers reportedly plan to use D.H. Hall, acquired in the Corbin Burnes trade, in the rotation, they still could use another starting pitcher. That’s because, even before the Burnes trade, the Brewers rotation was looking something like Burnes, Freddy Peralta, Wade Miley (who hasn’t always been healthy), Colin Rea (far from a sure thing), and Joe Ross (a reclamation project) or Robert Gasser (a rookie). Beyond Burnes and Peralta, it was not a convincing group.
So then you swap out Burnes for Hall, a youngster who has pitched only in relief in the big leagues, and the rotation need grew.
Thus, the Brewers are signing another pitcher, albeit it’s another guy who isn’t quite a sure-fire successful starter. Via Ken Rosenthal:
“The team has reached agreement on a one-year, $7 million contract with right-hander Jakob Junis, pending a physical, according to sources briefed on the discussions. Junis, who will be paid $4 million this season with a $3 million buyout on a mutual option, will be a candidate to start, giving the Brewers another option for their rotation.”
Junis, 31, was a solid swing-man for the Giants the last two years, posting a 4.18 ERA over 198 innings (21 starts, 42 relief appearances). He was roughly a league-average pitcher by the results and the peripherals in that time, though he was much better in 2023, when he mostly pitched out of the bullpen.
But that apparently isn’t the plan for Junis with the Brewers, who’ll at least give him a chance to start. I think it probably depends a bit on the health of the other guys in the spring, and how ready Gasser looks to jump to the big leagues. Junis has good stuff, though it’s worth pointing out that he was unsuccessful in his younger days with the Royals as a starter. He may very well wind up pitching in relief for the Brewers when all is said and done.
Junis is not an exciting signing for the Brewers, but he’s a solid, flexible addition to a team that needed some pitching. I wondered what the Brewers would do with the cost savings from the Burnes trade, and this looks to be a reasonably smart deployment.
The question is, do Junis, Hall, and Joey Ortiz combined make up for the loss of Burnes, in terms of 2024 competitiveness? I think the answer is that it’s unlikely they do, but not impossible. And the Brewers get Hall and Ortiz for years to come, AND they got a very high draft pick in the deal. Still not sure why people think that wasn’t a good trade for the Brewers.
