Brewers Sign Probable Closer

The Milwaukee Brewers announced Thursday morning that they had signed free agent relief pitcher Neftali Feliz to a one-year contract.

The two sides had been rumored to be negotiating seriously for several days and on Thursday the deal was officially consummated following the completion of a physical exam the day before. That physical is certainly an important step given the fact that Feliz has had Tommy John surgery in his past and finished the 2016 season on the shelf with what has been described by Brewers General Manager David Stearns as “arm fatigue.”

Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports reported that the terms of the agreement are $5.35 million with an additional $1.5 million earnable by way of incentives.

The last part of Passan’s tweet is something that is widely assumed, that Feliz will likely serve as the closer for Craig Counsell’s team come April 3rd and beyond. How far beyond remains to be seen. Feliz’s performance should dictate that timeframe. If he’s great, he’ll likely get traded in July. If he’s horrible, he could very well give way to one of the younger up-and-coming options in the organization. Given that Feliz agreed to incentives, he’s clearly confident in his ability to earn that money so the benefit of the doubt is his.

Bottom line for Feliz signing with the 2017 Milwaukee Brewers though is that he’s almost certainly looking for a place to re-establish his capabilities as a pitcher for the highest of leverages.

Milwaukee will certainly offer that opportunity after trading away all three of the players who primarily filled or were considered for that role in 2016. Jeremy Jeffress and Will Smith were both traded at the end of the July to the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants, respectively, and Tyler Thornburg was dealt in December to the Boston Red Sox. That left the job wide open for a handful of players who had yet to ascend the bullpen depth chart. And while the official word is that Feliz will be considered to be the closer, there’s a lot of equity in the belief that not only wouldn’t the Brewers have guaranteed him so much money to just contribute in the bullpen, but Feliz likely wouldn’t have signed with Milwaukee if not for that aforementioned opportunity.

As for how Feliz performed last year and in the recent past, I’ll cover more of that once “Brewers By the (Jersey) Numbers” gets back underway later this month.