Should the Brewers Consider Signing Tyler Chatwood?

Tyler Chatwood is coming off of a lackluster three-year deal with the Brewers’ rival, the Chicago Cubs.

Tyler Chatwood ended his time in Chicago in the bullpen, and only pitched in five games in 2020. He had a 2-2 record over 19 innings and a 5.30 ERA. Could the Milwaukee Brewers be Chatwood’s chance at a comeback?

Tyler Chatwood’s Stats

The 31-year-old Chatwood has a career ERA of 4.40. His MLB record is 51-57 over 197 games. Chatwood started his career with the Los Angeles Angels, but was traded to the Rockies in 2011. In July of 2014, he underwent Tommy John surgery and also missed the entire 2015 season

He had a nice year in 2016 after recovery, going 12-9 with a 3.87 ERA. He struggled at home at Coors Field, but was solid on the road. He had a 1.69 ERA and a record of 8-1 in visiting ballparks.

In April of 2017, he pitched a complete game. He put down the first 17 batters in order, and even had a single which brought in two runs against the San Francisco Giants.

Chatwood started in the Cubs rotation in 2018 after signing a three year, $38MM deal. Before being moved to the bullpen, he had a 4.98 ERA and finished with a record of 4-6. Chicago had also acquired Cole Hamels that year to help win the NL Central. Spoiler alert, it didn’t happen.

Tyler then spent most of 2019 in the bullpen, and only had five starts each of the last two seasons. Going into this season, he is an interesting spot on how he will be used and how much his contract will be worth.

The Appeal for Chatwood

Chatwood is mostly known as a ground ball pitcher/out getter. He would be a bottom rotation starter, but has lots of experience if you need an innings eater or middle reliever. His ERA is historically pretty high, but his seasons after Tommy John and a complete game are solid stats.

He has four pretty impressive pitches. His two-seam fastball can reach up to 98 mph, has a curveball, changeup and a high 80s cutter.

Chatwood would be a perfect bounce-back candidate. He will get nowhere near the money he did on his last contract. With this offseason being very different, taking a one-year deal for about $5-7MM might be a good fit. It wouldn’t be hard to add a mutual second year option either. Between Chatwood, Brent Suter, Adrian Houser and Freddy Peralta, two of those pitchers could easily cement themselves in the starting rotation.

The California native has plenty of career left, and is very familiar with the NL Central. Sometimes, a change of scenery and a new team and pitching coach can make all the difference. I don’t know why, but I just really want a Cubs player to come to Milwaukee again and absolutely do amazing.

The only downside is that Chatwood is basically a right-handed Brett Anderson. Anderson is also a ground ball pitcher, and had a better 2020 than Chatwood. Anderson ended the year with a 4-4 record and an ERA of 4.21. So would it make more sense to bring someone like Anderson back instead would might be a littler cheaper? Sure. But taking a chance on Chatwood if Milwaukee doesn’t plan on spending much in pitching free agency would also make a lot of sense.

For some reason, Chatwood has a Wade Miley repeat vibe.

Twitter Thoughts

I asked on Twitter if the Brewers should sign Chatwood. The responses were very split.

So what do you think?

The Brewers could use another veteran arm on their pitching staff, but should Chatwood be the one?