Milwaukee Brewers: The Show Goes On as Crew Signs RHP Brad Boxberger to Minor League Deal

The Milwaukee Brewers made a very competitive offer for third baseman Justin Tuner, unfortunately, he chose to stay in Los Angeles. However, for GM David Stearns, the show goes on and on Sunday, it was reported that the Brewers had signed relief pitcher Brad Boxberger to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training.

The 32-year-old Boxberger has been in the big leagues since 2012. Over his career he has posted a 3.56 ERA, a 4.13 FIP, and a WHIP of 1.31. He also has an excellent strikeout rate at 29.4 percent, but he’s also walked quite a few batters as well, with a career walk rate of over 12 percent.

Boxberger was an All-Star in 2015 with the Tampa Bay Rays. That season he logged a 3.71 ERA and led the AL in saves with 41 over 63 innings pitched. Unfortunately, Boxberger battled injuries in 2016 and 2017 and found himself with Arizona in 2018, where he saw a bit of a resurgence.

While his 4.39 ERA and 1.425 WHIP don’t tell the whole story from that season, Boxberger did tally 32 saves and many of his underlying stats including whiff rate, xBA, xSLG, and K rate all ranked well above average according to Baseball Savant.

But again, in 2019 he would battle injuries with Kansas City, and then last year with Miami, Boxberger pitched in 18 innings during the shortened season, posting a 3.00 ERA with a groundball rate over 50 percent–his career rate is 42.1 percent.

However, despite a much-improved ERA last season compared to 2018 when he was healthy, the underlying numbers that were referenced above all took a hit. In those same categories in 2020, Boxberger ranked below to well-below league average. In fact, he was below average in many key areas—even though he posted a 3.00 ERA.

In each of the last two full seasons that Boxberger has been healthy — 2015 and 2018 — he has had two of the better years of his career. This upside is what the Milwaukee Brewers are likely banking on as they bring him in on a low-risk minor league deal.

For most of his career, Boxberger has relied on his fastball and change-up out of the bullpen, although in 2020, he did mix in a slider with some regularity as well. His fastball last season averaged out to around 93 mph while his change-up was around 82–both of which are up a few mph from 2019 when he was injured. Boxberger’s slider was at about 89 mph.

While the Milwaukee Brewers do have a fairly deep bullpen, there is no such thing as having too many arms—especially with how Craig Counsell manages his starting rotation.

The addition of Boxberger is a very David Stearns-ian type of move as the right-hander comes with experience and past MLB success that could potentially help bolster the bullpen.

And if he doesn’t? Then the Brewers can move on from him with relative ease.