The Milwaukee Brewers made two separate transactions late in the night on Monday, February 5. Right-handed pitcher Jakob Junis, who last pitched for the San Francisco Giants, was signed to a one year, seven million contract. He will earn $4 million as a base salary in 2024 and have a $3 million buyout option attached to the 2025 season.
Secondly, former first round draft pick Ethan Small, who was designated for assignment following the Corbin Burnes trade, was coincidentally dealt to the Giants for cash considerations.
Let’s take a look at three reasons to be excited about newest Brewers pitcher Jakob Junis.
Jakob Junis will give the Milwaukee Brewers pitching flexibility.
Although Junis is no Corbin Burnes replacement, he can be an effective innings eater. He has worked both as a starter and long reliever throughout his career. With the Royals in 2018 and 2019 he had back-to-back seasons of 30 starts, but with the Giants he started 17 of 23 games in 2022 and just four of 40 games in 2023 In last years role he covered 86 innings and pitched to a 3.87 ERA.
A wipe out slider is the best pitch in Jakob Junis’s arsenal.
Last year Junis threw his slider more than he ever had before in his career as its usage was upped to 62.5%. This pitch averaged 13.1 innings of horizontal movement last year and caused opposing batters to whiff on it 32.5% of the time. He pairs this nicely with a mid 90’s fastball and a changeup.
Jakob Junis excels at limiting walks.
Limiting free base runners is a great trait to have and Junis is one of the best at it. Specifically over the past two seasons he has had walk rates of 5.2% and 5.7%. MLB average is 8.4%. Looking at this from another perspective in 2022 he threw 111 innings and walked just 25 batters whereas in 2023 he walked just 21 in 86 innings.
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