Brewers Agree Again With Gonzalez

Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com has learned that the Milwaukee Brewers have an agreement in place to re-sign veteran shortstop Alex Gonzalez.

Gonzalez agreed to a one-year, major-league deal with the #Brewers, source says.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 29, 2013

You may recall that Gonzalez was inked to be the club’s starting shortstop for 2012 but suffered a season-ending knee injury in early May.

The two sides have been linked all winter because the Brewers obviously like what he brings to the club (or else they wouldn’t have signed him a year ago) but the sticking point was that Gonzalez wanted a starting job if he could find one.

Apparently he wasn’t able to and agreed to a one-year deal to back up now-incumbent shortstop Jean Segura.

The positives for the Brewers are two-fold. First, he provides a proven option should Segura struggle and end up needing a break or demotion for any length of time.

Also, it’s certainly palatable from a financial perspective as Rosenthal tweeted:

Alex Gonzalez gets $1.5M from #Brewers plus the chance to earn nearly $1 million in performance bonuses.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 29, 2013

That’s a good deal for the money and so long as it doesn’t result in a major stunting of the growth of Segura, which it won’t as many members of the Brewers decision-makers have told us all winter, then I’m happy to welcome Gonzalez back. Furthermore, I can’t imagine that Gonzalez returned to Milwaukee for that small a dollar amount if he was expecting to be the everyday shortstop.

Welcome back, Sea Bass!

This signing will necessitate a 40-man roster move and could have significant impact on the composition of the 25-man roster. Jeff Bianchi, Bobby Crosby and Donnie Murphy won’t exactly be at the forefront anymore, especially with the need to carry a competent backup 1B due to Corey Hart’s injury.

This signing will also not be made official until Gonzalez passes a physical, but I’m told privately that the Brewers want two opinions on Gonzalez’ knee before the contract gets signed. Though given how assistant GM Gord Ash said that Gonzalez was doing so well toward the end of last season that they were considering activating Gonzalez, I’d think that probably a formality.

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Early reaction on Twitter came from Brewers pitcher Chris Narveson:

Pumped to get Alex Gonzalez back!! Great teammate and clubhouse presence #pumped

— Chris Narveson (@sleep_trick) January 29, 2013

And later from Brewers starting catcher Jonathan Lucroy:

Gonzo’s coming back! Guys a stud shortstop.

— Jonathan Lucroy (@JLucroy20) January 29, 2013