The Brewers announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of veteran right-hander Brad Boxberger. He’ll join the club for their matchup against the Cubs and take the recently traded Orlando Arcia’s spot on the active roster. Righty Justin Topa was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Boxberger, 32, is a veteran of nine big-league seasons who has ample experience as both a closer and setup man. He spent the 2020 season setting up for Brandon Kintzler in Miami, pitching to a 3.00 ERA with a 22.8% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate. It’s been awhile since his peak at this point, but Boxberger posted a 2.94 ERA through his first 177 1/3 MLB frames from 2012-15 and led the American League with 41 saves for the 2015 Rays.
In the five seasons since that stretch, Boxberger’s entire body of work has been solid enough, but he’s lacked consistency on a year-over-year basis. He’ll look to continue last year’s success while hopefully putting a rocky spring training effort behind him; in nine spring frames with the Brewers, Boxberger was tagged for eight earned runs on 10 hits, although his 14-to-1 K:BB ratio was certainly more encouraging.
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