Milwaukee Brewers agree to one-year deal with Yasmani Grandal, per report

Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Milwaukee Brewers are ready to ink a one-year deal with free agent deal Yasmani Grandal, pending a physical.

Tim Brown from Yahoo! is reporting that the deal is worth $18.25 million for the year. Grandal’s qualifying offer from the Los Angeles Dodgers was worth $17.9 million. Because the Dodgers offered him a qualifying offer that he did not sign, the Brewers will forfeit their round three pick in the 2019 first-year player draft. That’s the second 2019 pick the Brewers have given up in one way or another this offseason, after trading their Round A Competitive Balance pick to get Alex Claudio from the Texas Rangers.

Grandal is one of baseball’s best catchers, both behind and at the plate. Last season, he hit .241/.340/.484 with 24 HR, a 13.9% K-rate and a 13.9% BB-rate. He was second in all MLB catchers in wRC+ with 125, behind on JT Realmuto’s 126.

While most Brewer fans will remember him for his defensive difficulties during the playoffs with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he has consistently ranked as one of the best defenders in baseball. Last season, he was ninth in the MLB with nine defensive runs saved. Those runs are three more than Manny Pina, and much higher than Wilson Ramos or JT Realmuto, the top two available catchers besides Grandal this offseason.