Milwaukee Brewers: Anthony Swarzak signs with the Mets

MILWAUKEE, WI - JULY 28: Anthony Swarzak
MILWAUKEE, WI - JULY 28: Anthony Swarzak

The Milwaukee Brewers have lost one of there most productive acquisitions of 2017.  Reliever, Anthony Swarzak has reportedly agreed to a deal with the New York Mets for 2 years and 14 million dollars.  Here at RTB, we speculated Swarzak would land a deal in the range of 2 years and 12 million.

According to Mets beat writer Marc Carig, who broke the news on Twitter,we weren’t far off.

Swarzak, at 32 years of age owns a career ERA of 4.22.  He is coming off of a career year in which he posted an ERA of 2.23 in 41 games with the White Sox before being acquired by Milwaukee for minor league outfielder, Ryan Cordell. The PTBNL in the Jonathan Lucroy trade.

Swarzak performed as advertised with the Milwaukee Brewers.  He posted an ERA of 2.48 in 29 appearances for the crew.  He struck out 39 batters and surrendered just nine walks.

Swarzak did a tremendous job setting up for 2017 All-Star, Corey Knebel.  Swarzak was arguably one of the biggest reasons the Milwaukee Brewers stayed in the playoff chase until game 161.

Why Didn’t the Brewers make an offer?

Apparently, the Brewers did make an effort to re-sign their stud set-up man. But according to Adam McCalvy, the Brewers came up short money wise. The Crew did not offer as much money due to Swarzak’s desire to remain in Milwaukee.

Now that the Brewers have officially lost one of its biggest pieces of 2017, does this get the tires rolling on a potential signing, possibly for a reliever?

There are still plenty of interesting targets on the market. Such as former Brewer, Brandon Kinzler, who is coming off a career year of his own in which he posted a 3.03 ERA and saved 29 games between the Twins and Nationals.

According to Adam McCalvy, Steve Ceshek, Addison Reed, Seung Hwan Oh, and the bigger fish Greg Holland and Wade Davis, are also still available.

Next: Assessing the 2018 outfield situation

Stearns did say he made multiple offers to free agents, could the players mentioned be one of the offers made?  I guess we will just have to wait and see.

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