Over the weekend, the Brewers grabbed their former ace, Yovani Gallardo, via free agency. Wednesday, they appear to have added more rotation depth in the form of right-hander Jhoulys Chacin. Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com reports the deal will be worth $8 million over two years.
Given some of the starting pitcher deals -- not to mention reliever deals -- we've seen these past few years, this has the chance to prove very cost-effective for the Brewers.
Chacin, 29, was 13-10 with a 3.89 ERA (106 ERA+), 1.27 WHIP and 153 strikeouts in 180 1/3 innings last season for the Padres. He's a nine-year veteran with a track record that includes some nice highs but overall lots of inconsistency.
A possible red flag on Chacin is that he was pretty heavily dependent on Petco Park. He had a 1.79 ERA there compared to 6.59 on the road. We've seen him pitch well on the road in the past at times, however, so maybe it was a one-year anomaly.
A good sign in the age of launch angle and increased home run totals is that Chacin ranked 14th in the majors in groundball rate last season (49.1 percent). He trailed, among others, two Brewers starters in Jimmy Nelson and Zach Davies, by the way.
Speaking of, the Brewers best rotation for 2018 isn't really possible to start the season. Nelson suffered a major injury toward the end of last season and is expected to miss a chunk of next season.
Still, the Brewers bring back Davies along with Chase Anderson. Other candidates for the rotation are Brent Suter, Brandon Woodruff, Junior Guerra, Gallardo and Chacin. Perhaps Josh Hader is moved from the ace relief role into the rotation.
Take note of the number of viable rotation options. If we include Nelson, that's nine pitchers for five spots. Most come with question marks, of course, but having so many options is a good way to make sure a flop like Guerra suffered last season can be covered up with depth. That's why this Chacin signing is a good one -- especially at this price -- even he doesn't pan out.
