Brewers sign UTL Jace Peterson to minor league deal

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Everyone's favorite from the 2020 season is back on a minor league pact with an invitation to MLB Spring Training, per Adam McCalvy.

 

 

Apparently Stearns has identified middling utility players as the new market inefficiency. Hopefully Peterson is in Nashville, and this is much ado about nothing ... but I think it is appropriate in the Major League forum, as Peterson was a semi-regular for a portion of the abbreviated 2020 season.

 

It is getting to the point now, at least to me, where these signings are getting concerning. I keep hoping that these utility types are all to provide minor league depth, but there's only so many spots in Nashville. I certainly hope that the Brewers aren't signing the likes of Robertson, Lopes, Green, Reyes and now Peterson with the idea that they are going to be big league regulars. I guess I don't mind these signings if they truly are "lightning in a bottle" type signings, and they aren't banking on these guys to be regular contributors.

[Eye Black]

They can’t quit Jace Peterson.

 

Agreed that this is hopefully a move to solidify the Nashville roster (which is something they still very much need to do).

[djoctagone]

Hopefully Peterson is in Nashville, and this is much ado about nothing ... but I think it is appropriate in the Major League forum, as Peterson was a semi-regular for a portion of the abbreviated 2020 season.

alfredo figaro and dontrelle willis might disagree with you, but considering that peterson got an invite to big league camp with this deal, it should be posted in the major league forum.

 

jace peterson is out of minor league options.

 

the brewers have five non-roster invitees in camp.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Hopefully Peterson is in Nashville, and this is much ado about nothing ... but I think it is appropriate in the Major League forum, as Peterson was a semi-regular for a portion of the abbreviated 2020 season.

alfredo figaro and dontrelle willis might disagree with you.

 

They don't care. Guaranteed.

[brewerfan82]

[sarcasm]For all those complaining about the Brewers' slow offseason[/sarcasm]

 

[Lathund]

I never understood the Jace Peterson "hate", or dislike, call it what you want that I saw last year. His 113 wRC+ made him one of the most productive offense players on the team (Sad as that is to say), and he played passable defense at a number of posititions. Was that offensive output sustainable? Would he keep walking at a 25% clip? Most likely not; but for a low salary 1-year signing that didn't matter. He ended up a useful player for us. Will he do it again? Who knows, but he's on a minor league deal so costs (almost) nothing to find out.

 

There aren't a ton of actual position player prospects who will start the year in AAA. So filling up AAA with Lopes, Peterson, Green, Reys, Cozens, Westbrook etc, isn't really blocking any of our top prospects. Most of these guys are still in their mid 20s, and have at one point or another been high draft picks and/or have had success in the upper minors or briefly in the majors. None have had sustained success, or they wouldn't be available to sign on minor league deals, but I like the strategy (Or what seems like one anyway) of finding these guys you think have upside, and see if your player development can help make that happen. They've done so well with sorting out pitching development, hopefully we can start seeing the same thing on the offensive side at some point.

[DR28]

Everyone's favorite from the 2020 season is back on a minor league pact with an invitation to MLB Spring Training, per Adam McCalvy.

 

 

Apparently Stearns has identified middling utility players as the new market inefficiency. Hopefully Peterson is in Nashville, and this is much ado about nothing ... but I think it is appropriate in the Major League forum, as Peterson was a semi-regular for a portion of the abbreviated 2020 season.

 

It is getting to the point now, at least to me, where these signings are getting concerning. I keep hoping that these utility types are all to provide minor league depth, but there's only so many spots in Nashville. I certainly hope that the Brewers aren't signing the likes of Robertson, Lopes, Green, Reyes and now Peterson with the idea that they are going to be big league regulars. I guess I don't mind these signings if they truly are "lightning in a bottle" type signings, and they aren't banking on these guys to be regular contributors.

 

Yep, I will continue saying bargain bin shopping until Stearns makes an ACTUAL move for a legit 3B or 1B.

 

Last year proved we can't win with this cheap shopping... Gonna waste another year of this good pitching we finally have.

[MNBrew]

As long as this isn't his main shopping, only depth work, I'm not too concerned.

 

Right now it seems Stearns is focusing on the "Utility/Fringe Middle Infielder of the Day" plan, a strange if not somewhat necessary phase, though not typically so condensed a process for most GMs.

[Outlander]

I never understood the Jace Peterson "hate", or dislike, call it what you want that I saw last year. His 113 wRC+ made him one of the most productive offense players on the team (Sad as that is to say), and he played passable defense at a number of posititions. Was that offensive output sustainable? Would he keep walking at a 25% clip? Most likely not; but for a low salary 1-year signing that didn't matter. He ended up a useful player for us. Will he do it again? Who knows, but he's on a minor league deal so costs (almost) nothing to find out.

It's not that hard to figure out, he can't hit and has never shown the ability to hit. He can walk, which is certainly a plus but not a guy you want getting too many at bats. Of course he isn't making much so doesn't deserve much criticism, guys like Garcia and Sogard making much more than him and playing worse certainly deserve more criticism than Jace.

[JohnBriggs12]

Where are the fringe veteran arms? Right now they have 19 rostered pitchers and one non roster invitee with maybe 10 or 11 with a full season of major league experience. I'm sure they'll add their better prospects to the invite lists, but they are really short on experience in general on this staff.

[brewerfan82]

Last year proved we can't win with this cheap shopping... Gonna waste another year of this good pitching we finally have.

It didn't work last year, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it "proved" we can't win filling holes that way. It certainly didn't help to have a shortened season going with that approach.

 

A major problem with the "see what sticks" approach is you need to use in-season time to figure out who's sticking and who's flopping and if you only have 60 games to do it, that's going to waste a much larger percentage of at bats in the process. In a normal season we would have had 102 more games where we would have been settled on using Gyorko instead of Sogard/etc., and Vogelbach instead of Smoak/Morrison. On the flip side, we may have also given Holt a longer leash and maybe he would have been a bigger contributor as the season went on.

 

But really, the biggest problem was not getting enough production out of our good players. If Yelich plays like an MVP, Hiura plays like an All-Star, Cain doesn't opt out, Urias doesn't get injured and then have COVID issues, and Garcia and Narvaez just have average offensive seasons, the failed filler signings don't look as ugly.

 

I would definitely like to see a couple stable pickups for 1B/3B in the next month, but I'm not concerned about what they've done to this point.

[PeaveyFury]

Yep, I will continue saying bargain bin shopping until Stearns makes an ACTUAL move for a legit 3B or 1B.

 

Last year proved we can't win with this cheap shopping... Gonna waste another year of this good pitching we finally have.

 

I still think this is premature. None of these guys has signed for anything other than a minor league deal with an invite or a non-guaranteed contract. Last year's guys were major league deals, some with option years. Until there's a clear sign that one of these guys is signed with the intention of them being significant contributors, I'm going to assume that this is nothing more than the typical roster-filler moves you see every year.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Yep, I will continue saying bargain bin shopping until Stearns makes an ACTUAL move for a legit 3B or 1B.

 

Last year proved we can't win with this cheap shopping... Gonna waste another year of this good pitching we finally have.

 

I still think this is premature. None of these guys has signed for anything other than a minor league deal with an invite or a non-guaranteed contract. Last year's guys were major league deals, some with option years. Until there's a clear sign that one of these guys is signed with the intention of them being significant contributors, I'm going to assume that this is nothing more than the typical roster-filler moves you see every year.

 

This is also where I am, although I admit that I'm starting to get a small case of happy feet. I mean, how many utility infielders does one team need on its depth chart?

[PeaveyFury]

I think that's a fair point, Ron. But the answer is probably more than one. One on the ML roster out of spring, and at least one in AAA for the inevitable roster move following either an injury or the waiver of guy #1...

[LouisEly]

Can we stop getting our undies in a bundle over minor league deals?

 

The main reason for big league camp invites are to be able to give the starters rest and not have to play a lot of innings in spring training games. I can assure you they aren't counting on them for any meaningful production; best case scenario, as disaster planning so they can have at least a replacement level player in case of a few injuries.

[CheeseheadInQC]

This is also where I am, although I admit that I'm starting to get a small case of happy feet. I mean, how many utility infielders does one team need on its depth chart?

To be fair, even if only one of the utility infielders makes the MLB roster, it isn't that tough to fit the rest on the AAA roster so long as you're fine with less than optimal shortstop defense at Nashville. But yah, I'm getting a little closer to that place, too.

[sveumrules]

Last year proved we can't win with this cheap shopping.

 

Last year didn't prove anything, it was sixty games. That is too small of a sample to draw many meaningful conclusions from.

 

That said, in 2020 the Brewers still won the 17th most games despite only having the 23rd highest payroll. In 2019 it was 11th wins/17th payroll, in 2018 it was 5th wins/22nd payroll, in 2017 it was 10th wins/30th payroll, in 2016 it was 22nd wins/30th payroll.

 

The Brewers have finished every season of Stearns & company's tenure ranked higher in wins than they did in payroll. If anything, there's 709 games showing that the Brewers can win despite their payroll limitations.

[sveumrules]

Last year Jace took 61 of the Brewers 2,188 PAs, which comes out to about 2.8% of the team total.

 

I'd expect him to get a similar percentage in 2021.

[TURBO]

Last year proved we can't win with this cheap shopping.

 

Last year didn't prove anything, it was sixty games. That is too small of a sample to draw many meaningful conclusions from.

 

That said, in 2020 the Brewers still won the 17th most games despite only having the 23rd highest payroll. In 2019 it was 11th wins/17th payroll, in 2018 it was 5th wins/22nd payroll, in 2017 it was 10th wins/30th payroll, in 2016 it was 22nd wins/30th payroll.

 

The Brewers have finished every season of Stearns & company's tenure ranked higher in wins than they did in payroll. If anything, there's 709 games showing that the Brewers can win despite their payroll limitations.

 

But still no world series...All the justification in the world doesn't change that fact.

 

I get it, winning is better than losing, but just one single time, I'd like to see the Brewers win it all!

 

I mean, you can throw those kind of stats and numbers in our faces all day long, but the bottom line is, we have nothing to really show for it.

 

Someday though...

[brewerfan82]

But still no world series...All the justification in the world doesn't change that fact.

 

I mean, you can throw those kind of stats and numbers in our faces all day long, but the bottom line is, we have nothing to really show for it.

 

Someday though...

We have very different definitions of "nothing to really show for it". I'd love to tack on a championship someday, but overall, the last decade plus has been a very enjoyable time period to be a Brewer fan for me. Since 2007, the Brewers have had the 10th most wins in MLB and 5th most in the NL, that's unbelievable considering the financial disadvantage they have.

[brewmann04]

I wonder if David looking to field a team of utility players.

[RockCoCougars]

I was hoping this was last year's thread bumped up, maybe with an update that he'd signed with the Seibu Lions today or something.

 

What exactly does the braintrust see in this guy?

[brewmann04]

Utility players abilities

[djoctagone]

have you heard rick sweet lament about how long it takes an optioned player to report back to his class aaa club? when a player is recalled by the brewers, he gets there right away. when he's optioned back, it takes days for him to report back.

 

having utility players on the class aaa roster gives that team flexibility when such vacancies occur.

[stoutdude04]

have you heard rick sweet lament about how long it takes an optioned player to report back to his class aaa club? when a player is recalled by the brewers, he gets there right away. when he's optioned back, it takes days for him to report back.

 

having utility players on the class aaa roster gives that team flexibility when such vacancies occur.

 

Not just that, but having players that can play multiple positions may be wise this year due to Covid. How many times are guys going to have to quarantine and the Brewers need a body for a few days or whatever.