Brewers 2016 : Blaine Boyer on a MiLB deal

The Brewers signed Boyer to a MiLB deal today with an invite to Spring Training earlier today. Boyer, 34, posted a career-best 2.49 ERA last season with the Minnesota Twins.  Boyer led the Twins last season with 19 holds and a 1.36 ERA in 36 outings last season. This is the seventh team for Boyer who has had stints with the Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Mets, and San Diego Padres. He’s also pitched in Japan in the farm systems for the Royals and Pirates.

Fangraphs Steamer has Boyer posting a 4.00 ERA next season over 10 IP in 10 G with 7 SO, basically an extremely bleak outlook as compared to a 65 IP season with a 2.49 ERA with 33 So and 19 holds. I actually think this is a bit pessimistic, but then again at the time the Steamer projections were made Boyer hadn’t signed with a team at all and the Twins decided to forgo resigning him. In a bullpen that includes Knebel and Smith (not to mention there will be 7 pitchers with non-roster invites at spring training), Boyer has a solid chance to make the bullpen this year, even though he’s going to be 35 in July.

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There are still a large number of bullpen spots open in Milwaukee. The Brewers only have Jeremy Jeffress, Will Smith, Corey Knebel and Michael Blazek. If Boyer can continue his success from 2014 into 2015 he’ll definitely make the big league roster with the Brewers. In 333 major league appearances with six teams, Boyer is 12-21 with a 4.22 ERA. 2014 was his first season since back in the majors since 2011 and Boyer showed that he can still play with the best of them, even at the age of 34.

This is definitely a good move by the Brewers, Blaine Boyer was in the exact same position with the Twins last season, so he already knows what he needs to do to make the 40-man roster, as well it allows the Brewers to sign he for cheap and could possibly get a positive ROI out of him.