Brewers By the (Jersey) Numbers ’17 — #33 Tommy Milone
We’re 33 days away from Opening Day!
I’m back in Milwaukee after a wonderful five days in and around Phoenix, Arizona at Brewers Spring Training. It snowed today which, as odd as it may sound, was a worthwhile occurrence. It immediately distracted my mind from all the baseball I saw. Without a snap back to reality, these 33 days might have felt even more unbearable since I just got done seeing the boys of summer preparing for the same.
Now, after a long day of catching up at work, I have a chance to write about…
Tommy Milone.
Let’s be honest. Despite all of the inches in newspapers around the country and websites around the world, there really aren’t too many jobs that can actually be won in Spring Training. Established players are often pushed by waiver claims or motivated by a free agent pick-up, but for the most part the guys you think likely have the jobs going in to Cactus or Grapefruit League play are the guys who do have jobs when camp breaks.
Take a look at last year’s starting rotation competition. Matt Garza, Wily Peralta, and Jimmy Nelson were established in years prior. Taylor Jungmann had previously earned an opportunity to see what he could do, and Chase Anderson was brought in via trade. That was going to be the starting five. If not for an injury to Garza, who knows how things would have shaken out.
Zach Davies and Junior Guerra ended up getting their chances, sure, but the former due to an injury to Garza and the latter due to ineffectiveness of a counterpart. It is a little curious to think what would have happened if not for the injury to Garza too. Would Davies have then come up when Jungmann struggled? Would we never have gotten to see the brilliance of Guerra?
Alternate histories aside, this column is about a man who reportedly has a shot at the big league rotation.
Tomaso Anthony Milone is a veteran of six Major League seasons with three different franchises. Recently 30, Milone first broke into the bigs in 2011 with the Washington Nationals, the team who drafted him in 2008.
Now twice traded — first to the Oakland Athletics and then to the Minnesota Twins — Milone elected free agency on October 18 last year after being outrighted by the Twins. Milone was eligible for salary arbitration, likely contributing to his 40-man roster removal. As demonstrated in Milwaukee just this past off-season, rebuilding teams don’t like to pay a lot of arbitrated dollars. Several players were jettisoned one way or another from Milwaukee over the past few months and there are a lot of arbitration-eligible players on that list.
It’s not that jobs are never won in Spring Training. It happens. So how much of a chance does Milone really have?
The presumed starting five for the Brewers are Davies, Guerra, Garza, Nelson, and Peralta. That already would leave out Chase Anderson who made 30 starts last year. Jungmann and Suter have already been told that their chances to make the club are as relievers. Cravy is generally considered a swingman and starter fill-in. The non-roster invitees would have to go above and beyond and likely have someone else (or maybe even two or three) falter badly or get injured. And a guy like top organizational pitching prospect Josh Hader still has some seasoning to get but there are also contract and service time considerations which can factor in.
But Milone is in a different situation. He’s new to the team, has plenty of MLB experience so he’s not anything close to a prospect at this point, and is already on the 40-man roster. He’s got the right combination of factors to conceivably push the would-be 5th starter to a bullpen role with a strong camp.
Milone is entering this competition having made 19 appearances for the Twins in 2016. Of those, 12 were starts. Milone’s issues last year came in the form of the long ball (15 allowed in just 69.1 innings) and an arsenal that hitters didn’t have a ton of difficulty against (10.9 H/9 & 2.9 BB/9) that added up to a 1.529 WHIP and 5.71 ERA, all good for a 73 ERA+.
For the sake of comparion, Garza’s numbers in those categories are:
19 G, 19 GS, 101.2 IP, 11 HR, 10.4 H/9, 3.2 BB/9, 1.505 WHIP, 4.51 ERA, 95 ERA+.
Garza had the same number of games, more innings, a worse BB/9, comparable WHIP and H/9 but allowed far fewer home runs per nine and, in part, fewer runs. Garza is on the last year of his contract in Milwaukee. He’s probably not going to lose his gig.
There’s not much of a reason for the Brewers to commit any time to Garza either. He’s incredibly talented and has performed thusly in the past, but certainly won’t be a part of the next contending team in Milwaukee. If there’s a guy, even a 30-year-old like Milone, that could give the Brewers a better chance to win during 2017, then why not? Milone is under team control next year if they want him. So why not see what he could do?
That’s all you really need to know. I could tell you that Milone made his Cactus League debut today and pitched a perfect inning with one strikeout, but it likely is inconsequential for his chances to be in the rotation at the beginning of the season.
But like manager Craig Counsell said when I was down in Arizona, guys that don’t break camp on the 25-man are not out. Chances are good that Milone will be needed to make a start or starts in 2017 for the Brewers at some point.
Then again, Milone might start in the bullpen. That’s where his performance this spring can really matter. The bullpen is always a more open competition than the rotation is. There, however, the Brewers already have a few likely options and maybe only one spot up for grabs.
Personally, my too early prediction is, assuming he has an option remaining, that we end up seeing Milone begins the year at Triple-A to stay stretched out and will eventually spend some time pitching at Miller Park.
But it’s still early.
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Follow Tommy on Twitter: @TommyMilone_33
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Looking to catch up on this season’s BBtJN? Just click on a name below:
#59 Carlos Torres
#57 Chase Anderson
#56 Ryan Webb
#54 Michael Blazek
#53 Jhan Mariñez
#52 Jimmy Nelson
#51 Damien Magnifico
#50 Jacob Barnes
#47 Jett Bandy
#46 Corey Knebel
#45 Tyler Cravy
#41 Junior Guerra
#38 Wily Peralta
#37 Neftalí Feliz
#35 Brent Suter
