Gregg Zaun Rumors

Kuh-Chow. Finally something I guessed has gained some ground. If you remember a while back, I speculated that perhaps the Brewers could look to sign a catcher to a one year deal, filling in until Lucroy or Salome is ready. I also figured he would hope to be a more offensive minded than Kendall given the lack of offense, especially power, in the Hardy-Escobar and the Cameron-Gomez switches.

So here is the rumor: Gregg Zaun. Zaun is a switch hitter who most recently played with the Rays where he hit .260 with 8 HR is 90 games. He is a .251 career hitter but has a .344 OBP and should slug near .400. Also a big point is that Zaun still puts up these numbers, Kendall has a .290 career avg and a .380 obp, but as a Brewers has put up a line of .244/.330/.316 (he never was much for slugging). Rumors say that the Brewers would be attractive to Zaun as the team offering the most playing time. Back-up Mike Rivera and waiver claim George Kottaras have big league experience, but won't start. In reality, a signing like this may open up the non-tendering of Mike Rivera who is arbitratoin eligible. Zaun made 1.5 million last year and expects to decline arbitration (he is a type B free agent), so I would expect any deal to be in the low 2 million dollar range, as the Rays did decline his $2 million option. This would be a savings of say 2.5 million over Kendall, and saying bye to Rivera and using either Kottaras or Lucroy/Salome as the back up could save around $250k (depending on Mike's arbitration numbers).

Been super busy, look for articles to start coming up again in the next few weeks. Brew Up.