Brewers sign veteran left-handed reliever Rex Brothers to minors deal

The Brewers have signed veteran left-handed reliever Rex Brothers to a minor league deal, per a team announcement. Brothers will receive an invitation to spring training.

Brothers, who turns 34 this month, signed a minor-league deal with the Cubs in February and ended up having an up-and-down season. On June 27, he was sitting on an ERA of 2.63 through 27 1/3 innings. However, it was a steep slide from there, as he struggled down the stretch and finished the season with an ERA of 5.26 over 53 innings. Walks have been an especially troublesome issue for Brothers, as he’s never posted a walk rate lower than 11.4% in a given season and has a career rate of 13.5%. But that also comes with tantalizing strikeout numbers, as evidenced by his 27.6% career strikeout rate. 2021 was even more extreme, with a strikeout rate of 31.8% and walk rate of 14.8%.

The best stretch of his career was with the Rockies from 2011 to 2013, as he threw 175 2/3 innings with an ERA of 2.82, strikeout rate of 29.1% and walk rate of 12.4%. Brothers then endured a miserable 2014, as his ERA shot up to 5.59, and then only saw limited big-league action over the next six years, logging 37 1/3 total innings from 2015 to 2020.

Like most southpaws, Brothers is more effective against lefties, but his splits aren’t drastic. Over his career, he’s held lefties to a line of .214/.336/.321, with righties slashing .253/.351/.418.