Milwaukee Brewers left-handed pitcher Eric Lauer has cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Nashville, MLB’s Adam McCalvy said on Twitter on Friday afternoon. Lauer has been with the crew since an offseason trade in 2019-2020.
The Brewers waived Eric Lauer to see if any other club would pick him up with one more arbitration year remaining. He cleared and was outrighted to Triple-A Nashville.
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) October 20, 2023
Former Brewers Starting Pitcher Outrighted to Nashville
Truthfully, 2023 was not the season for Lauer. After amazing 2021 and 2022 pitching campaigns, things started to come crashing down early in the 2023 season for the left-hander. Through eight starts and nine total appearances, Lauer was posting a 5.48 ERA and had given up 13 home runs. He then had some injuries creep up and he was eventually placed on the injured list at the end of May.
He was placed on the injured list with right shoulder impingement and spent some time in Arizona to work out the kinks. Lauer told media just a couple of weeks ago that mechanics were a part of the issue as to why he was absent for so long. He said it was described to him like “you can’t cock the gun, you can’t shoot the bullet,” and that he would “get to that cocking phase and it would just fall off.”
He was then activated by the Brewers on June 14, and optioned to Triple-A where he joined the Nashville Sounds. But just a week later, the Sounds placed him on the inactive list. To this day, we still don’t know why he was there in the first place.
The Sounds then activated Lauer on August 1 where he made his first appearance with the team that same day, the first time in nearly two months Lauer had been on the mound. In his first outing back, he went two innings, giving up two hits and was charged with an earned run.
The southpaw spent all of August and September with the Sounds but got an opportunity to make one last start with the Brewers against the Chicago Cubs. This was his chance to prove that he was better than what fans remember seeing from him at the beginning of the season.
Unfortunately, it didn’t go his way. The Cubs scored six runs off of Lauer, three of those being home runs. He finished his night with eight earned runs, nine hits, and four walks, a career low for him.
The Brewers make an off-season decision on Eric Lauer ahead of his final year of Arbitration.
2024 marks Eric Lauer’s final year of arbitration, and the Brewers had waived Lauer to see if any other club in the league would pick him up. He then cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Nashville.
His final 2023 MLB stats are comprised of nine starts (10 games total), an ERA of 6.56, 16 home runs allowed, and a WHIP of 1.67. Just one season ago, Lauer was posting a 3.69 ERA in 29 starts with the crew.
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