Milwaukee Brewers: Jhoulys Chacin Designated For Assignment Amid Roster Moves

The Milwaukee Brewers made some shocking moves on Saturday afternoon, shaking up this roster before September.

The most shocking move was the removal of Jhoulys Chacin from the Milwaukee Brewers 40 man roster. Chacin was designated for assignment after spending the past few weeks on the injured list. That move cleared room for Cory Spangenberg to get his contract selected from Triple-A.

To make room on the 25 man roster for Spangenberg, outfielder Ben Gamel was optioned to Triple-A.

This was news that no one really expected, especially given the Brewers current lack of starting pitching depth.

Jhoulys Chacin DFA’ed

We talked about possibly DFA’ing Chacin about a month ago when he was still healthy. Chacin had a 5.79 ERA in 19 starts this year, with a 5.69 FIP and 5.24 xFIP showing that he was pitching as bad as his ERA showed.

This was major regression this year from Chacin after dominating through 35 healthy starts last year with a 3.50 ERA. He earned the Opening Day nod for Craig Counsell this year, which has continued the Opening Day starter curse for the Milwaukee Brewers.

It all started with Kyle Lohse in 2015, then Wily Peralta in 2016, Junior Guerra in 2017, Chase Anderson in 2018, and now Jhoulys Chacin here in 2019. All were either cursed with poor seasons, injuries, or in Chacin’s case, both of those two.

Chacin was going to be a free agent at the end of the season, so there’s no long term loss, but the Brewers will be on the hook for the remainder of the $6.75 million salary he had for this season, unless another team picks him up.

Spangenberg up, Gamel down

The way Cory Spangenberg has been playing in Triple-A, it’s a small surprise he wasn’t called up sooner. He’s hitting .309 with 14 homers and a .876 OPS with San Antonio, to go along with 28 stolen bases. He possesses some defensive versatility and can play both infield and outfield.

Gamel has been seeing less and less playing time with the promotion of outfield prospect Trent Grisham. Grisham has burst onto the scene, effectively taking over Gamel’s role as the fourth outfielder on the club, so it’s not too surprising to see him sent down.

In all likelihood, Gamel will be back when rosters expand for September. This way, Gamel can get some regular at-bats down in Triple-A so he can get hopefully get back into a groove by the time he rejoins Milwaukee.

While these moves are a little surprising, the logic in them makes sense. The Milwaukee Brewers are trying to make a push for the playoffs and they need the guys who are performing the best to do that.