Milwaukee Brewers option Ronny Rodriguez, Ryon Healy, Mark Mathias, and David Freitas to Triple-A

There is not any actual baseball happening right now or for the forseeable future, but that has apparently not stopped MLB teams from making some house-cleaning moves. As pointed out by the venerable Jim Goulart of Brewerfan.net earlier this morning, the Milwaukee Brewers have optioned four players down to Triple-A San Antonio. The club’s official transactions page confirms these moves.

Prior to the suspension of the season, Ryon Healy, Mark Mathias, and Ronny Rodriguez were all competing for spots on the bench as utility players while David Freitas was in the mix as a possible third catcher, depending on how David Stearns and Craig Counsell decide to use the new 26th roster spot this season. None of the four players were particularly impressive with the bat during Cactus League play; Freitas finished with a .566 OPS in 19 at-bats, Mathias at .497 in 23 ABs, Rodriguez at a .475 OPS in 27 at-bats, and Healy with a .469 OPS in 23 at-bats.

So now all four players will project to begin the regular season in Triple-A, whenever that happens. As Jim alluded to, it is unclear what the motivation to make these moves now was. All 40-man roster players (and non-roster invitees with at least one day of MLB servce in 2019), should be earning an $1,100 stipend as announced by the league and MLBPA.