Milwaukee Brewers should considering claiming Nick Goody

The New York Yankees officially announced their signing of Aroldis Chapman yesterday, and to make room for him they designated righty reliever Nick Goody for assignment, as discussed by Jeff Todd on MLB Trade Rumors. Goody has had excellent results in his five minor league seasons, but not so excellent numbers for the Yankees.

As reported by Todd, Goody isn’t a hard thrower - about 91 mph - but throws a very good slider that has been a good strike-out pitch in both the minors and the bigs. He has fanned 13 batters per each nine innings pitched in the minors - um, that’s really good - and in 34.2 innings in the show he has 37 k’s, 9.3/9.

Goody has walked 3.9 per 9 for the Yankees, with 3.0 per 9 in the minors. His minor league WHIP is 1.04 - up to 1.47 for New York. Of greatest concern is the 7 homers that Nick allowed in his 34.2 innings for the Yanks. However, he has only allowed 11 in his 152 minor league innings.

An ERA of 2.19 over his minor league career is in stark contrast to his 4.67 with the Bronx Bombers, but of course, small sample size.

Nick’s 2016 season for Scranton/Wilkes Barre was really good - in 23.1 innings he allowed only 12 hits, walked 4, and struck out 35(!). (Four of those hits were homers, so there’s that...) He recorded 5 saves.

Of course, other teams have the opportunity to claim Goody before the Brewers, and the Yankees might be able to trade him before he hits waivers. I’m not so keen on trading for Goody, but if the price is right, that’s a maybe. Goody could be a long-term piece for the Brewers bullpen- he isn’t arbitration eligible in 2019, with Free Agency available to him in 2023.

Here might be another opportunity for Brewers GM Slingin’ David Stearns to add a quality arm to the Brewers minor or major league staff. If available, I’d be very surprised to see Milwaukee pass on claiming him.

Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs