Brewers Acquire Sergio Mitre from Yankees

We have our trade for pitching depth. According to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, the Brewers have acquired Sergio Mitre from the New York Yankees.

In terms of long relievers/spot starters, you could probably do worse than Mitre. In 54 innings last year (24 relief appearances, 3 starts), Mitre posted an ERA of 3.33, but that appears to be mostly luck — he had a FIP of 4.69 and was the beneficiary of a .226 BABIP. He was essentially replacement level for the Yankees, with an fWAR of 0.0 last year and 0.3 the year before, but he did have a solid year for Florida in 2007.

With a career K/9 of 5.38, he won’t strike many guys out, but he does a good job of forcing groundballs. He has a career GB/FB ratio of 2.37 (although it was much lower at 1.58 last season), and has a career GB% of 58.7. If he’s going to be pitching in Miller Park, that’s going to come in handy.

In terms of stuff, it appears as though his changeup is his best pitch, rating at 7.0 runs above average according to FanGraphs. The past few years, his curveball has also been slightly above average.

He’s not a world-beater, but considering some of the other options out there on the trade market, he’s probably one of the most affordable. The Yankees had no use for him with the emergence of Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon this spring, and the signing of Kevin Millwood this morning to a minor league deal. No word yet on what the Brewers gave up to get Mitre, but it can’t be much.

At the very least, as a former Cub, the Brewers have another player that could drive Chicago fans nuts.

EDIT: Tom Haudricourt reports that the Brewers traded Chris Dickerson to the Yankees for Mitre. That certainly changes things.

Dickerson was very impressive this spring, and with Corey Hart seemingly starting the year on the DL, he figured to be a valuable part of the team to start the year. This probably says more about the club’s faith in Brandon Boggs (and Carlos Gomez, as Dickerson was seen as a possible platoon mate) than anything else, but it’s still not a move that I quite get. It probably also guarantees that we’ll see Mark Kotsay in the outfield more than we would care to.

So, to recap — Chris Dickerson: not a Brewer. Sergio Mitre and Mark Kotsay: Brewers.