Brewers sign Josh VanMeter to minor league deal with ST invite

[Brock Beauchamp]

A no-hit lefty-bat outfielder who can play all around the field. Don't see this being anything more than minor league depth and almost no way he fits into this roster.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/01/brewers-sign-josh-vanmeter-to-minor-league-deal.html

[damuelle]

Cue Wayne’s World voices:

- The signing could mean nothing; OR

- It could mean that Eddy Alvarez has an early opt-out. OR that Andruw Monasterio is injured. OR that Brice Turang will make the Opening Day MLB roster!

- But it probably means nothing.

[monty57]

This is someone who can sit in the minor leagues and come up when someone gets a short-term injury. When the player is healthy, Van Meter can get DFA'd. No big loss if they lose him.

Saves burning an option, some service time, and a 40-man spot on a more highly-regarded prospect. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

21 minutes ago, monty57 said:

This is someone who can sit in the minor leagues and come up when someone gets a short-term injury. When the player is healthy, Van Meter can get DFA'd. No big loss if they lose him.

Saves burning an option, some service time, and a 40-man spot on a more highly-regarded prospect. 

That's the thinking. But boy, if the Brewers find themselves in a situation where they need to call up VanMeter, things have gone completely off the rails.

[umphrey]

I was excited about this because I remembered him as a promising player from a few years ago. Checked his recent stats and no longer excited. 

[brewmann04]

Another blah move 

[CheeseheadInQC]

They needed another hitter or two at Nashville. This fills one of those spots.

[MNBrew]

2 hours ago, brewmann04 said:

Another blah move 

The guys the Brewers sign each year for Nashville generally all evoke a similar reaction.  That's why they're mainly signed to AAA contracts.  As Stearns said a few times over the years, they have to field a full team in Nashville, too -- and the AAA roster's never made up entirely of prospects.

[Robocaller]

He's played more 2B than outfield. Can also play 3B. Seems like an ideal AAAA guy; don't know how he stayed in the majors for most of the last few seasons. If he gets more than 40 ABs, something went very badly for the team, or very well for him.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

10 hours ago, brewmann04 said:

Another blah move 

Every year the team signs a handful of these types. And every year fans negatively overreact. As mentioned above, a lot of bad stuff would need to happen for VanMeter to impact the MLB club.

[monty57]

There will be a point in the season where a couple of guys are banged up and some others need a day off. That's where a player like Van Meter is nice to have around.

If there is a significant injury, I hope there is a better option. For example, if something happens to an OF that keeps him out for a long time, I would think that they would call up Wiemer, but if it's going to be for a few sporadic PAs over a 10-day stint, they may just start Taylor and have Van Meter (or Perkins) as the 4th OF. That way they wouldn't have to add Wiemer to the 40-man and burn an option when they send him down. If they lose Van Meter to a waiver claim after the short MLB stint, so be it.

We all like to discuss the big moves a team makes, but most moves are pretty irrelevant. It's likely that Van Meter won't see the MLB playing field this year, and if he does, we all hope that guys like this aren't going to be required to play a big role this season.

I guess he's probably better insurance for the role he'll play than Alexander was in his role last year. Having some extra depth is always a good thing. On a final note, having a guy with some MLB experience to play alongside our AAA prospects could be helpful to their development.

[clancyphile]

Van Meter has pretty good OBP skills and flashed some decent power and versatility. Great AAA depth at worst, but he's 27, so he could break out and put it all together.

[dlk9s]

18 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

But boy, if the Brewers find themselves in a situation where they need to call up VanMeter, things have gone completely off the rails.

So you're saying VanMeter could be the measuring stick as to how the season is going?

[sveumrules]

4 minutes ago, dlk9s said:

So you're saying VanMeter could be the measuring stick as to how the season is going?

When they called up Pablo last year I knew any Reyes of hope were all but gone.

[Brock Beauchamp]

7 minutes ago, dlk9s said:

So you're saying VanMeter could be the measuring stick as to how the season is going?

[umphrey]

Still not excited about him at all but a bright spot is that he hasn’t really played much since 2019 and he has bounced around a lot. So maybe we can stick him in AAA for the year and by June he is crushing minor league pitching again. 

[TURBO]

8 hours ago, Ron Robinsons Beard said:

Every year the team signs a handful of these types. And every year fans negatively overreact. As mentioned above, a lot of bad stuff would need to happen for VanMeter to impact the MLB club.

Negatively overreact?

Just curious, are we supposed to do cartwheels for a signing like this?

The fact we even have a thread with almost 20 posts is amazing to me.  I read it happened, then dismissed it from my mind completely, not even giving it a second thought until this thread popped up here.  I had no reaction, certainly not positive, but not negative either.

Just another blah move that means nothing in the grand scheme of  things.