Brewers starting pitcher makes decision on mutual option

Veteran starter Wade Miley is declining his end of a $10M mutual option with the Brewers, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. It isn’t known if Milwaukee had accepted its end. In either event, he’ll receive a $1M buyout and become a free agent.

Miley, 37 later this month, turned in solid results over 23 starts during his second stint with the Brew Crew. Signed to a $4.5M guarantee last offseason, he worked 120 1/3 innings of 3.14 ERA ball. As is often the case with the soft-tossing southpaw, that success came in spite of a modest strikeout rate. While Miley punched out 16.1% of opposing hitters, he kept the ball on the ground at a solid 46.3% clip.

Despite the lack of missed bats, Miley had posted a sub-4.00 ERA in three straight seasons. He was limited by injury to only 37 innings in 2022. The year before that, he worked 163 frames of 3.37 ERA ball for the Reds. When healthy, he turns in solid results. The veteran had a pair of injured list stints this year on account of a lat strain and elbow discomfort but took the ball every fifth day from August on.

Milwaukee has one remaining option decision, a borderline call on outfielder Mark Canha. The club holds an $11.5M provision with a $2M buyout. They’ll need to make that call by Monday afternoon.