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The Milwaukee Brewers announced that they have added 1B/3B Ryon Healy to the team on a one-year contract.
Free agent 1B/3B Ryon Healy has been signed to a 1-year contract. pic.twitter.com/UCKd7CkxNE
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) December 17, 2019
Healy spent the last two seasons with the Seattle Mariners. In 2019, he played just 47 games before going on the Injured List with back inflammation. He received an epidural for spinal stenosis and eventually underwent surgery for a right hip debridement, which ended his season.
Ryon Healy is coming off hip surgery but the Brewers expect him to be healthy for Spring Training. He has Minor League options but will have a chance to make the team out of camp, David Stearns said.
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) December 17, 2019
Before going down with injuries, Healy hit .237/.289/.456 for the Mariners in 187 AB. His best season came as a rookie when he was with the Oakland Athletics in 2016. He his .305/.337/.524 for the A’s with a 132 wRC+. The offensive production has slipped since then.
Healy makes fairly hard contact, with only a career 17.4% soft-hit percentage and a 33.3% hard-hit percentage. He’s a big fly ball hitter, which could benefit him greatly heading to Miller Park. Both Seattle and Oakland aren’t exactly hitter-friendly stadiums. Oakland has historically ranked towards the bottom of the league in run factor for right handed hitters, while Seattle tends to be toward the top of the bottom half of the league. Miller Park is annually in the bottom 15 for righties creating runs.
The issue for Healy is a recurring theme for the Brewers’ class of new acquisitions so far: walks. His best BB% was 7.0 last year, and 5.2% the yer before. He hasn’t had an OBP over .300 in either of those seasons.
If Healy’s healthy, he has split time in each of the last three seasons between first and third. He’s a negative defender at either location, but can be “fine” overall.
Since he’s only played 3.5 seasons, Healy actually has a few years remaining of team control and an option. According to FanGraphs, he can be a free agent in 2023. Occasionally, teams will sign a player to a deal that negates that, but it’s more common in international free agents like Eric Thames and Nori Aoki.
Most importantly, Healy fills an important vacancy for the Brewers: Mayor. Turns out, the power hitting corner infielder also goes by the “Mayor of Dongtown.”
the Mayor of Dongtown has resumed office pic.twitter.com/rl3uYgkb9Q
— Lookout Landing (@LookoutLanding) April 19, 2019
Statistics courtesy of FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus