Milwaukee Brewers History of SP Additions: Are Starters Worth It?

It seems that nearly every offseason, the thing at the top of every Milwaukee Brewers fan’s wish list is a shiny new starter. This year is no exception, in spite of a stellar 2018 for the Crew.

The trouble with wanting a top tier starter is that starting pitchers don’t exactly come cheap, a lesson that front offices in Milwaukee have experienced more than once. The astuteness of the Milwaukee Brewers pursuing a top of the line starter heading into 2019 is up for debate.

Certainly the pitching was much better in 2018 than years prior, with the whole staff accumulating a 3.73 ERA. Much of that is attributable to the stellar bullpen, but legitimate starting prospects have emerged. Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, and Freddy Peralta all made known that they are Major League ready, though only Peralta made his mark as a starter.

Therefore, it’s worth a look back at some of the expensive acquisitions Milwaukee has shelled out for, in cash or in prospects, to fill a hole in their rotation. You can judge for yourself who was worth it and who was not.

Matt Garza, Free Agent, 4-Years/$50 Million

Garza was coming off of a 2013 season in which he went 10-6 with a 3.82 ERA in time split between the Cubs and Rangers. This was pretty much exactly in line with his career line as well, as the at the time 30-year-old had a career 67-67 record and a 3.84 ERA. While an innings eater from 2008-2011 in Tampa Bay and Chicago, Garza had been limited to 18 starts in 2012 and 24 in 2013 by injury.

Apparently that spoke well to then-Milwaukee Brewers GM Doug Melvin, as he signed Garza to a four-year, $50 million contract, with a vesting option for a fifth year that thankfully did not come to fruition.

Garza started out okay in 2014, maintaining his .500 career mark a 3.64 ERA. His FIP came down as well, to 3.54 from 3.88 the year prior. However his innings total continued its trend away from his workhorse days in Tampa Bay, as he logged a respectable but far from remarkable 163.1 innings.

This was the year the Brewers absolutely collapsed down the stretch to finish with the rare disappointing season winning season in Milwaukee at 82-80. Garza pitched just 23 innings across five starts from August through October, missing time due to a left oblique strain.

For the next two years it was a sharp downhill for Garza and the Brewers. Garza’s WHIP topped 1.50 in 2015, the first time since his two partial seasons with the Twins to begin his career, and again in 2016. His ERAs of 5.63 and 4.51 matched dismal statistic for dismal statistic, as he went a combined 12-22.

The Brewers fell back to losing ways as well, in part burdened by Garza’s high and underserved salary, finishing fourth in the Central both years. Garza finished off his contract in 2017 with a 4.94 ERA in 114.2 innings, finishing with 3.5 walks per nine innings for the second time with the Crew.

It was with a huge sigh of relief that the Crew bid goodbye to this contract. David Stearns quickly put that money and other salary relief to good use, bringing in Lorenzo Cain, Christian Yelich, and Jhoulys Chacin to bring the Crew within one game of the World Series.

CC Sabathia, Trade with Cleveland – Rob Bryson, Zach Jackson, Matt LaPorta, Michael Brantley

There’s little debate that this trade was worth it for Milwaukee’s long-suffering fan base, as 2007 AL Cy Young winner CC Sabathia almost single-handedly pushed the Brewers to the 2008 NL Wild Card and their first playoff appearance since 1982.

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a costly trade though. Rob Bryson never made the majors, while Zach Jackson and centerpiece of the trade, Matt Laporta, both finished their short careers in Cleveland as replacement players.

Instead, it is player to be named later Michael Brantley who makes the Milwaukee faithful wince and wonder. Brantley has accumulated three All-Star selections and 22.7 WAR in ten years in Cleveland, even as injury plagued as he has been. His slash line from 2013 on of .306/.363/.458 compare pretty favorably to post-Biogenesis Ryan Braun.

Sabathia was a miracle worker for an ’08 Brewers squad desperately in need of one. His seven complete games and three shutouts in 17 starts stands little chance of being repeated. In just half a season in the National League he did enough to finish fifth in the Cy Young race and sixth in MVP voting. But there’s still…

Jeff Suppan, Free Agent, 4-Years/$42 Million

There’s just something about Doug Melvin, an average-at-best free-agent starter, and four-year contracts. Jeff Suppan was a big name pretty much only because of his 2006 NLCS MVP performance for the hated St. Louis Cardinals. The 31-year-old’s 0.60 ERA in 15 NLCS innings was far from a representative sample.

For his career in the regular season, Suppan had a 4.60 ERA and a WHIP much closer to Garza’s awful years than anyone’s good years. Suppan had never topped 130 strikeouts in a year, though he had averaged more than 204 innings pitched for the past eight seasons.

Suppan would go 22-22 across 2007-08, following that up by going 7-14 in 32 starts and some bullpen work the next two seasons. He couldn’t perform in the 2008 playoff either, which the Brewers reached despite his inflated salary. His elimination game start against the Phillies ended after just three innings, as he served up five runs on three homers. His ERA climbed every year of his contract, settling at 7.84 in 2010 before the Brewers finally cut him loose on June 7. He accumulated -0.8 WAR across four seasons, finishing below replacement each of the last three.

The worst part is the Brewers paid him millions of dollars to play the second half of 2010 on the cheap for the Cardinals, where he returned to a sort of form, achieving a 3.84 ERA in his return to St. Louis. The $2 million owed on his 2011 buyout wasn’t easy to swallow either.

Pete Vuckovich (and Fingers and Simmons) – Trade with St. Louis – for Dave LaPoint, David Green, Sixto Lezcano, and Larry Sorensen

Greinke might have come alongside Yuniesky Betancourt to Milwaukee, but it’s hard to argue that Betancourt was of equal import to the Crew in the trade for the Royals’ ace starter.

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The 1981 trade that pushed the Brewers to their only World Series is a little harder to dissect, as Pete Vuckovich was the third player in this trade. Vuckovich had finished third in ERA in the NL in 1978 with a 2.54 mark, and he finished in the top ten in strikeouts twice.

But Rollie Fingers was a five-time All Star closer. He’d won three World Series with the Athletics, and received MVP votes in five straight seasons from 1974-1978. Ted Simmons was a six-time All Star catcher, and received MVP votes in six seasons in St. Louis.

Vuckovich really put everything together in Milwaukee for two amazing years as a starter though. In an abbreviated 1981, he led the league with 14 wins and finished fourth in AL Cy Young Voting behind teammate and winner Fingers. In 1982 he won it outright, going 18-6 with a 3.34 ERA, working around a sub-par 1.50 WHIP and helping the Milwaukee Brewers to their first division crown, and to date, only pennant and World Series appearance. Fingers’ and Vuckovich’s Cy Young Awards are still the only two won by Brewers.

Injuries would derail his career after 1982, but the 4.8 WAR Vuckovich accumulated in his first two seasons in Milwaukee nearly put the Brewers ahead in the trade by itself. Dave LaPoint and David Green each lasted four seasons in their first stints in St. Louis, accumulating 2 WAR and 4.5 WAR respectively. Sixto Lezcano and Larry Sorensen totaled 1.1 WAR between them in 1981 before they were shipped out in major trades that put together the final pieces of the Cardinals team that beat the Brewers in 1982, including one Ozzie Smith.

The Brewers may indeed be discussing bringing in Dallas Keuchel or Madison Bumgarner. It is to be hoped however that David Stearns continues to look for proper value in those trades as he has done for the most part thus far in his tenure. Milwaukee doesn’t want to see San Francisco with the 2022 World Series unless the Brewers have at least one before then.