Done Deal: Milwaukee Brewers Star Player Agree A New Deal

The Royals announced they have signed veteran right-hander Zach Davies to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Omaha. The 31-year-old is a nine-year MLB veteran with the Brewers, Padres, Cubs, and Diamondbacks, with a career 4.36 ERA in 200 starts. He struggled last year with a 7.00 ERA in 18 starts for Arizona.

Davies was originally a 26th-round pick in 2011 by the Orioles out of high school in Arizona. He was traded to the Brewers for outfielder Gerardo Parra, and made his MLB debut with Milwaukee in 2015. In 2017, he won 17 games and was a 3.0 rWAR pitcher. He was traded to San Diego after the 2019 season, and he finished second in the National League in wins in the shortened 2020 season with a 2.73 ERA.

But he has struggled over the last three seasons with a 5.43 ERA and the 12th-lowest strikeout rate among starters. He signed a minor league deal with the Nationals earlier this year, but was released after he failed to make the MLB roster.

Davies has a fastball that doesn’t hit 90 mph on the radar gun, but relies more on his sinker and change up, throwing his four-seamer just 22 percent of the time last year, along with an occasional cutter and curve. He has a career 44.9 percent groundball rate, reaching 50 percent in his prime.

Davies also made headlines when his estranged wife made a post on Instagram, claiming he had ghosted her, leaving her without any communication.

The Reds and the Brewers played a wild one to open up their series on Monday night as Cincinnati jumped out to an 8-0 lead and barely hung on for a 10-8 win. The two teams get back to it tonight with Milwaukee looking to even things up in the 4-game series. First pitch is set for 6:40pm ET.

Oliver Dunn – 3B Jonathan India – 2B
William Contreras – C Will Benson – CF
Christian Yelich – LF Christian Encarnacion-Strand – 1B
Willy Adames – SS Jeimer Candelario – 3B
Jake Bauers – 1B Jake Fraley – RF
Rhys Hoskins – DH Elly De La Cruz – SS
Sal Frelick – RF Spencer Steer – LF
Brice Turang – 2B Nick Martini – DH
Blake Perkins – CF Tyler Stephenson – C
Joe Ross – RHP Frankie Montas – RHP
Starting Pitchers
Pitcher IP ERA WHIP BB% K%
Frankie Montas 11.2 0.77 1.03 6.7% 20.0%
Joe Ross 3.2 0.00 1.91 27.8% 16.7%
Links: Frankie Montas’s Stats | Joe Ross’s Stats
Frankie Montas

Before the season began, Montas noted he was going to win 20 games on his own after hearing about some of the projections that had the Reds below .500. So far this season he’s won every game he’s started, so he’s on his way to that goal.

So far this year he’s been dominant and has allowed just one extra-base hit through two starts. He’s faced more left-handed hitters than right-handed hitters this year. They’ve made more contact and have twice as many hits. Small sample size applies big time here.

Splits

Split PA H 2B 3B HR BB K AVG OBP SLG
RHH 18 3 0 0 0 2 5 .188 .278 .188
LHH 27 6 0 0 1 1 4 .231 .259 .346
Pitch Usage

4-Seam 2-Seam Cutter Slider Split
Velo 95.1 94.3 89.5 84.1 85.4
Usage 32% 17% 17% 7% 27%
Joe Ross

It had been a long time prior to his start last week since Joe Ross pitched in the big leagues. On August 10th of 2021 he pitched against the Mets in a game that got suspended by rain. He has battled injuries since then, throwing just 17 innings – all in the minor leagues – between 2022 and 2023.

During the spring he threw 12.0 innings with a 4.50 ERA and had seven walks with 17 strikeouts. In his regular season debut this season he threw 3.2 shutout innings against Minnesota on April 3rd, but walked five batters and gave up two hits as he walked a fine line during the game to avoid allowing any runs.

No Splits

Given how little he’s pitched since 2021 there’s no use in looking at his past splits.

Pitch Usage

4-seam 2-Seam Curve Slider Change
Velo 93.2 93.6 82.6 85.3 89.0
Usage 15% 41% 2% 39% 4%
When and Where
Game time: 6:40pm ET
Where: Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati
Watch: Bally Sports Ohio, MLB.tv
Listen: 700 WLW AM (Cincinnati area)
Forecast: 64°, cloudy, 35% chance of rain
News and Notes
Updates on Friedl and McLain….

David Bell spoke with the media prior to today’s game and had some updates on some injured players. TJ Friedl is getting another MRI at his scheduled check up just to be sure everything is healing up properly, but he “feels great” according to Mike Petraglia. Bell also stated that it’s realistic that Matt McLain could return at some point in August of this season.