Brewers: Matt Arnold Makes Two Roster Moves In First Days In New Role

The Matt Arnold Era is officially under way for the Milwaukee Brewers.

On Thursday, David Stearns stepped down from his role as Brewers President of Baseball Operations. His former right hand man, Matt Arnold, who was often involved in the decisions Stearns made, has taken over. Arnold now has the responsibility of making all the decisions by himself.

That being said, Matt Arnold has made his first moves as the Brewers new President of Baseball Operations.

Two of his first decisions involved removing players from the 40 man roster.  Occurring first was pitcher Miguel Sanchez being outrighted to Triple-A.

A day later, Pablo Reyes met the same fate.

Over the past two seasons, Sanchez has pitched just 39.1 innings for the Brewers. During that time he posted a 4.12 ERA. Unfortunately, he finished the 2022 season on the injured list with UCL discomfort, which may have played a role in why he was outrighted and removed from the 40 man roster.

Reyes joined the Brewers in 2021 via a minor league deal with an invite to big league camp. He made his Brewers debut that season, but appeared in just six games for the Crew in 2022. The 29 year old is out of minor league options, so he no longer has value as an emergency fill in/shuttle player.

Arnold also made a few other moves by signing players to minor league deals with an invite to Brewers big league camp.

Whether or not this was in the works before Stearns stepped down or not, signing, or essentially bringing back JC Mejia will go down as Arnold’s first official move. Mejia was acquired via trade from Cleveland last off season, but spent most of 2022 serving a suspension. It is possible that Arnold played a big role in acquiring Mejia in the first place, but he should be an interesting player to watch next season.

Andruw Monasterio spent time with both the Biloxi Shuckers and Nashville Sounds in 2022.  Overall, the 25 year old infielder hit .271/.364/.406/.770 and spent time at second base, third base, and shortstop. This will be his second season in big league camp with the Brewers and given his positional versatility, he fits the profile of players that the Brewers like to have around.

These types of moves are typical for this part of the off-season. Major league free agency does not begin until after the World Series concludes. Following that, there will be more moves leading up to the non-tender deadline in November and Winter meetings in December.