A few former Milwaukee Brewers players have recently been in the headlines after signing contracts for the 2024 season.
Victor Caratini joining the Houston Astros was perhaps the biggest signing. Other free agents who put pen to paper include Jake Cousins signing with the Chicago White Sox, Mike Brosseau the Kansas City Royals, Angel Perdomo the Atlanta Braves, Mark Mathias the Cincinnati Reds, and Payton Henry the Toronto Blue Jays.
Outside of these players two former left-handed relievers for the Brewers also signed with new teams. For these two bullpen arms they also will be reuniting with teams that they previously pitched for.
Former Milwaukee Brewers relievers Will Smith (Kansas City Royals) and Andrew Chafin (Detroit Tigers) have signed contracts for the 2024 season.
Will Smith, who pitched for the Brewers during the 2013-2016 seasons, has had a very unique past three seasons. He pitched for three different organizations (Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros, and Texas Rangers) during that time and each of them ended up winning the World Series. No other player in MLB history has won three consecutive World Series with different teams.
His decision to sign with the Royals, which is the team that he made his MLB debut with in 2012, doesn’t mean that Kansas City is going to be the 2024 World Series champions. Rather this one year, $5 million deal will allow the Royals the ability to build up his trade value early on and then potentially trade him when an enticing offer comes around. This is what they did with Aroldis Chapman a season ago.
Andrew Chafin, who was acquired by the Brewers from the Arizona Diamondbacks last summer, is returning to the Detroit Tigers. He previously had success with them as recently as 2022 when he had a 2.83 ERA over 64 appearances and 57.1 innings pitched.
Contract wise the Tigers and Andrew Chafin agreed on a one year, $4.25 MM deal with a 2025 club option. His contract option is worth $6.5 MM, but he also has the ability to earn an additional $2.25 MM in incentives. Last winter Andrew Chafin was still an available free agent in the middle of February after declining his portion of a contract option with the Tigers. This year he was able to sign a contract much sooner.
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