The Brewers have agreed to a minor-league deal with right-hander Brad Boxberger, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel reports (via Twitter). Boxberger will receive an invitation to Milwaukee's major-league spring training camp.
After signing a minors contract with the Marlins last winter, Boxberger posted a 3.00 ERA over 18 innings with Miami, plus 3 1/3 scoreless frames during Miami’s playoff run. It was a nice bounce-back performance for Boxberger in terms of pure results after he struggled in 2019 with the Royals, although there wasn’t much difference between the two seasons from an analytical perspective.
Boxberger’s 22.8K% and 10.1BB% were both below average, and there weren’t a lot of positives within his Statcast numbers, with the exception of a fastball spin rate in the 90th percentile. For added pluses, Boxberger posted a career-best 51% grounder rate, and his fastball averaged 92.5-mph for his highest velocity since 2015.
It was during that 2015 season that Boxberger achieved All-Star status for a 41-save season with the Rays, but he then battled some injuries and became something of a journeyman since Tampa traded him to the Diamondbacks in November 2017. Since Opening Day 2018, Boxberger has now been a member of six different organizations, counting Milwaukee. The right-hander will compete for a job in a Brewers bullpen that has plenty of talent but relatively little MLB experience, soBoxberger could add a veteran element to the mix.
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