Brewers: 3 Remaining Free Agents Who Could Still Address the Crew's Bullpen

Next week, pitchers and catchers for the Milwaukee Brewers will report to spring training. Among them will be some familiar faces as well as some new members to the organization.

Within the pitching group, specifically, the Brewers made a number of moves to add depth to the staff. A couple of those moves bolstered the starting rotation, while many more gave the team a bunch of new arms to consider for the bullpen.

And while Milwaukee now may have a deeper bullpen than last season, it's possible they could still use one more arm to be deployed in the late innings. After all, Josh Hader is gone after last year's infamous trade deadline deal, Devin Williams has moved to the closer's role, and Brad Boxberger now pitches for the rival Chicago Cubs after having his option declined by the Crew this offseason.

Though the free agent market has mostly thinned out with the offseason nearly over, there are still a few quality bullpen arms still out there. Some could even slot in as effective late inning options for the 2023 season.

Here are three remaining free agents who could still address the Brewers' bullpen.

1. LHP Andrew Chafin

Not only could the Brewers use a pitcher who could be inserted in the late innings of games, it wouldn't hurt for them to add a little more left-handed depth as well. Andrew Chafin could satisfy both of those needs in one signing.

The 32-year-old Chafin is coming fresh off of a one-year deal with the Detroit Tigers. It was a very solid showing for him in 2022, as in 64 games he put up a 2.83 ERA, 1.169 WHIP, and 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings.

Chafin mostly has a history of success, having only had a season ERA over 4.00 in two of his nine years in the league, which has also seen him pitch for the Diamondbacks, Cubs, and A's. And he has done it on the back of a three-pitch mix that includes a sinker, slider, and four seamer.

Chafin's slider is particularly deadly. Opposing batters hit just .085 off of the pitch last season and their 60.4% whiff rate against it was the fifth highest of any pitchers slider in the entire league in 2022. Now imagine seeing that before having to face a Devin Williams Airbender.

Here are three remaining free agents who could still address the Brewers' bullpen.

2. RHP Michael Fulmer

The Brewers don't necessarily need to go with a left-hander should they add another reliever to the pen. With that in mind, their next best option would also be a bit younger of one in 29-year-old right-hander Michael Fulmer.

Fulmer is also a former Tiger, which is the team he'd spent his entire career with before being dealt to the Minnesota Twins at last year's trade deadline. Unlike Chafin, bullpen work is a bit of a new thing for the righty.

Fulmer was purely a starter for the first few seasons of his career, winning AL Rookie of the Year in 2016 and becoming a first-time All-Star in 2017. Sadly, Tommy John surgery knocked out his 2019 season and after returning to start 10 games in the shortened 2020 season and compiling an 8.78 ERA over that span, it was pretty much all bullpen work going forward.

The results have been positive since the switch. Fulmer has a 3.17 ERA over the last wo seasons with 115 of his 119 appearances coming out on in relief. He has also seen his strikeout rate rise from a career 6.9 K/9 as a starter to 9.5 as a reliever.

One of the keys to his success last season was limiting hard contact. His allowed hard hit rate of 36.8% put him in the 61st percentile among MLB pitchers while his allowed barrel rate of just 4.4 % had him in the 91st percentile.