The Brewers continue to add inexpensive pieces to their bullpen, today signing former Mets reliever Sean Green to a one-year contract. Adam McCalvy reports that Green’s salary will be a non-guaranteed $875,000. Along with the official re-signing of Craig Counsell, the Brewers now only have one open spot remaining on the 40-man roster.
Green missed nearly the entire 2010 season with an intercostal strain, an injury Brewers fans know all too well thanks to Ryan Braun’s struggles with it in the past. He was able to return to action in September, throwing 9.1 innings in 11 appearances. In his career, Green has put up an ERA of 4.36 (4.04 FIP) in 258 innings.
His stuff isn’t great — he’s mostly a fastball-curveball guy, with the fastball averaging 88-90 for much of his career — but he has shown an ability to produce a ton of groundball outs. His career GB% of 63.0% is great if you’re worried about home runs at Miller Park, but equally terrifying if you think about an infield of McGehee-Betancourt-Weeks-Fielder.
In the end, there’s nothing terribly exciting about Green, but that’s the case with most relievers. On a non-guaranteed deal, he’ll have a chance to make the bullpen out of spring training, and as Toby from Brewerfan.net points out, it could give the Brewers the opportunity to stash Mike McClendon in Nashville to ensure depth. If he can’t hack it, the Brewers can let him go without it hurting too much. At the very least, it’s probably worth taking a flyer, especially with only a few bullpen spots being locked down heading into camp.
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