The Brewers made a move to address their starting rotation woes today, getting RHP Jeremi Gonzalez from the Mets in exchange for reliever Mike Adams.
As you may have noticed, Adams had fallen out of favor with the Brewers, being passed over about fifty times for promotion, twice in the last week by guys from AA.
Presumably, Gonzalez will join the rotation and will make his first start on the 30th at Pittsburgh.
To me, Jeremi Gonzalez is "just a guy," one with rather uninspiring K and BB numbers, but I guess the organization preferred him to the possibility of starting an admittedly combustible Jorge de la Rosa. Me, I would have liked to see what Jorge could do after being stretched out--he's got four pitches that are at least average.
If Gonzalez is going to immediately join the rotation, then someone is going to have to be optioned back to the minors, since Mike Adams wasn't on the 25-man roster. Andy "Don't Call Me Adam" Jasner's initial report on the trade doesn't say who the lucky guy is, but my guess is that this is the last we'll see of Carlos Villanueva for a while.
Okay, so let's get to know our new favorite Brewer. Jeremi Gonzalez is 31 and was originally signed by the Cubs in 1991, when I was freaking seven years old and still really into matchbox cars. His minor league numbers are pretty dull, but certainly better than his major league ones; including this year, he sports a 4.92 career ERA. He's struck out 318, walked 221, and given up 538 hits in 530.2 career innings. The H/IP ratio is almost interesting until you realize most of the good stuff was posted with the Cubs back when Bill Clinton was President.
It's certainly not a bad trade, since the Brewers were never going to use Adams for anything anyway, but Jeremi Gonzalez? Ah well, this is a completely middling trade and you've read enoug about it already.
Tags: Carlos Villanueva, Jeremi Gonzalez, Mike Adams, Miilwaukee Brewers, New York Mets