Shelby Miller opts out of minors contract with Brewers to become free agent

It will be a few more days until we learn which players will receive September call-ups to the Milwaukee Brewers, but in the past few days we have discovered at least two veteran pitchers who won’t be with the team down the stretch. Yesterday, the club officially released Opening Day starter Jhoulys Chacin, who had been on the Injured List with a lat injury. This afternoon, the club announced that Shelby Miller has opted out of his minor league contract in order to join the open market ahead of roster expansion.

Miller, 28, signed with the Brewers on July 18th after a disastrous first half with the Texas Rangers. After one appearance with Triple-A San Antonio, he spent some time at Milwaukee’s “pitching lab” within their Spring Training home in Maryvale. Miller made three appearances in the Arizona League before rejoining the Missions. Overall, he produced a 4.79 ERA in 20.2 innings at the highest level of the minors, including a 3.1 inning, six-run stinker in his final outing for San Antonio on August 26th. He struck out 20 while walking 16. With the Brewers seemingly unwilling to give him a big league roster spot in September, Miller will now hope to hook on somewhere else with an MLB shot.

Statistics courtesy of Fanraphs