Milwaukee Brewers Add Jordan Zimmermann to Pitching Mix on Minor League Deal

On Tuesday, the Milwaukee Brewers signed veteran right-handed pitcher Jordan Zimmermann to a minor league deal with an invitation to big league camp. While the Brewers rotation is mostly set, signing Zimmermann is a low-risk move that could add some potential depth.

Zimmermann spent the last five seasons in Detroit after signing a five-year, $110 million deal prior to the 2016 season. He earned that contract after some strong years with Washington that included a cumulative 3.14 ERA over his final five seasons there, a FIP of 3.30, and a 1.135 WHIP while being named a two-time All-Star.

Unfortunately for Zimmermann and the Tigers, he didn’t live up to his lucrative deal in Detroit. And in fact, he ended up struggling quite a bit. Over the previous five seasons, Zimmermann’s lowest ERA was 4.52, and in three of those years, it was above 6.00–although it’s worth noting that his FIP was never that high.

In 2020, Zimmermann would pitch in only 5.2 innings the entire season due to a forearm injury, and he battled other various injuries during his time in Detroit.

The soon to be 35-year-old Zimmermann has a good pitch mix, using four pitches with regularity. During the 2019 season, he threw his four-seamer and slider most often at 34 and 31 percent of the time, respectively. And he also mixes in a curveball, a sinker, and on rare occasions a change-up, according to Brooks Baseball.

However, as Adam McCalvy of MLB.com points out, the pitch mix we saw from Zimmermann recently in 2019 is quite different than what it was during his time in Washington as he adjusts to his decreased velocity:

With a career strikeout rate of 18.9 percent and a career walk rate of 5.1 percent, Zimmermann draws a lot of contact. Since joining Detroit, his hard contact rate has been on a steady climb, and Zimmerman also saw an increase in home runs allowed. Not to mention that his line drive rate has been above league average as well the last four seasons.

Despite the ups and downs recently, there was obviously something about Zimmermann that caught GM David Stearns’ attention, and perhaps some time in the Milwaukee Brewers Pitching Lab in Arizona will help iron a few things out. However, expectations from fans should be tempered.

As I alluded to in the beginning, with Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes, Adrian Houser, and Josh Lindblom, the Brewers have their first four in the rotation set. And presumably, it will be Eric Lauer and Freddy Peralta competing for the fifth spot–that is unless the Brewers use a six-man rotation.

But as we know, over the course of a 162 game season, you can never have too much pitching. So Jordan Zimmermann could provide the Crew with some added depth if he’s able to turn things around; however, if he continues to struggle, then Milwaukee can get out of his contract relatively easily.

After signing, the Wisconsin native told McCalvy that he didn’t get “much interest” this offseason from ball clubs, but he is happy to be in the Milwaukee Brewers’ organization–the team that Zimmermann grew up rooting for as a young kid.

All stats via Baseball Reference, Brooks Baseball, and Fangraphs