Milwaukee Brewers: Five worst free agent signings

Unlike some of the players on this list, Jeff Suppan never really had a prime during his career. His career was the definition of mediocrity.

Unfortunately, one hot stretch lured the Milwaukee Brewers into signing Jeff Suppan to a four-year deal worth $40 million. Capitalizing on a strong postseason with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006, the Brewers were somehow convinced that his 4.60 career ERA was worth this contract.

Prior to 2007, he was 106-101 while averaging 25 starts and only 87 strikeouts per season before joining the Brewers. The Milwaukee Brewers were just at the start of a stretch of contention, something the fan base needed, and vastly overpaid for Suppan. However, he must have used some mighty Jedi mind tricks or something  on Doug Melvin. How else can you explain that contract?

If Suppan signs for half of that amount, Brewers fans would probably feel different about him. However, expectations are heightened when you’re making $10 million a season. Suppan never came close to delivering on those expectations, about all he delivered were headaches every fifth day.

How bad was Suppan in Milwaukee?

For his career with the Milwaukee Brewers, Suppan was, as you would expect, mediocre at best. Search the word ‘mediocre’ in Google Image and Suppan’s picture would probably be at the top. Not counting his 15 games in 2010, Suppan was 29-34 with a 4.93 ERA and a paltry 4.7 K/9.

However, Suppan was durable for that three-year stretch with the Milwaukee Brewers. He never had fewer than 30 starts over that time. Milwaukee always seems to need all the pitching they can get, so the durability was nice.

It’s unfortunate because those Brewers teams could have used more from Suppan. This organization broke a 26-year playoff drought in 2008 and Suppan was part of that. The only real regret is that it cost $40 million for that to happen, to go along with the four years of frustration.

Therein lies the biggest hurdle in being a small market team. Milwaukee is usually overlooked by top-tier free agents so they’re forced to overpay for mediocrity. Thankfully for Suppan, Matt Garza has stolen the “wow what were they thinking” crown away from him.