Activity in baseball has been crazy this year leading up to the non-tender deadline. This is solely due to ongoing collective bargaining agreements in which all signs are pointing to a lockout this off-season. Due to this, the non-tender deadline was moved up to November 30th.
This year, the Brewers elected to non-tender first basemen Daniel Vogelbach and pitcher John Curtiss.
Vogelbach was a fan favorite while in Milwaukee. Unfortunately for him, he ended up losing the first base job last year due to injury. As a result of his injury, the Brewers traded for Rowdy Tellez who ended up providing a big spark offensively. Both Tellez and Vogelbach were arbitration eligible this off-season and Vogelbach ended up getting the short end of the stick.
Curtiss was also acquired via trade last season. In a short sample size, he struggled and eventually underwent Tommy John Surgery. An interesting side note regarding Curtiss is that he was not arbitration eligible this off-season. Rather, non-tendering him now in a pre-arbitration year is a strategy to remove him from the 40 man roster and avoid having him go through the waiver process. It is possible that the Brewers bring him back on a minor league deal.
Neither one of these moves comes as a big surprise. There was some optimism among Vogelbach fans that the Brewers would retain him with hopes of the DH coming to the National League in 2022, but the organization elected to let him go.
Of the remaining players who were tendered a contract, Jace Peterson was the most surprising. Peterson and the Brewers ended up signing a one year deal to avoid arbitration. With no minor league options remaining and the Brewers recently trading for super utility infielder Mike Brosseau, most thought that meant the end of the Peterson era. For now, the legend of “on base Jace” will continue.
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