The Brewers agreed to a minor league deal with the right-handed Brad Boxberger, ESPN Kiley McDaniel reports (via Twitter) Boxberger will receive an invitation to the Major League Spring Training team camp.
After signing a minor contract with the Marlins last winter, Boxberger posted an ERA of 3.00 out of 18 entries with Miami, plus 3 1/3 frames without goals during the team’s playoff. It was a good recovery performance for Boxberger in terms of pure results after fighting in 2019 with the Royals, although there was not much difference between the two seasons from an analytical perspective.
Boxberger’s 22.8K% and 10.1BB% were both below average and there were not many good points in their Statcast numbers, except for a fast ball rotation rate in the 90th percentile. For additional advantages, Boxberger posted a 51% grounding rate, the best of his career, and his fastball averaged 92.5 mph for its highest speed since 2015.
It was during the 2015 season that Boxberger achieved All-Star status for a season of 41 lifesavings with the Rays, but he has struggled with some injuries and has become something of a newsboy since Tampa traded him with the Diamondbacks in November 2017 Since the opening day of 2018, Boxberger is now a member of six different organizations, including Milwaukee. The dexter will compete for a job in a Brewers bullpen that has a lot of talent but relatively little MLB experience, so Boxberger could add a veteran element to the mix.