White Sox Ink Versatile Reliever John Brebbia To One Year Deal

The Chicago White Sox have signed right-handed pitcher John Brebbia according to MLB Network’s Jon Morosi.  Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that Brebbia agreed to a one year deal. 

The 33-year old will make $5.5 million in guaranteed with the deal including a $4 million salary for 2024 with a $6 million option of $1.5 million buyout for 2025, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports. He can also make up $1 million in incentive bonuses if he reaches 45 appearances next season. 

Brebbia has surpassed that mark in four of his last six seasons pitched. He underwent Tommy John surgery in June of 2020 which forced him to miss the entire season and was still recovering by the time the 2021 campaign rolled around. A lat strain also landed him on the shelf for 2.5 months which limited him to just 18 ⅓ innings that season.

The 6-foot-1 200-pound right-hander owns a career 3.42 ERA, 4.0 WAR, and 1.188 WHIP in his six seasons in the MLB. His 25.5% career strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate  are both slightly better than the league averages. 

Brebbia posted a 3.99 ERA  in 40 appearances with the Giants last season. He made 10 starts in 38.1 innings of work. The Boston native had a career-high 29.2% strikeout rate but walked nearly 9% of batters he faced. 

Brebbia’s versatility out of the bullpen is one of the things that makes him an attractive signing for Chris Getz and company. During his three seasons in San Franciso, he started 21 games, (usually as an opener for bullpen games) and also worked as a middle reliever and a setup man. Brebbia posted a 3.83 ERA in 134 appearances, while also posting a 1.307 WHIP and a 23% strikeout rate in a Giants uniform. 

He also has ties to the White Sox  recently-hired senior pitching advisor Brian Bannister. Bannister spent the last four seasons in the Bay area and worked with Brebbia as he was deployed in a variety of different bullpen roles. In 2022, Brebbia appeared in a career-high 76 games while producing a 3.18 ERA in 2022 under Bannister’s watch. He also produced a 37.2 ground ball rate that season, which is the highest mark of his career. 

During Banninster’s tenure in San Fransico the Giants ranked third in the MLB with a 3.15 strikeout-to-walk ratio, allowing the fewest home runs in baseball and the second-fewest walks (1,452). They also posted a 3.82 ERA which was the sixth-best mark in the majors, and a 1.24 WHIP which ranked ninth. Last season the Giants had a team ERA of 3.85 which was the seventh best in the National League. 

The Yankees selected Brebbia in the 30th round of the 2011 amateur draft. He was released by the organization two years later before being scooped up by the Arizona Diamondbacks in September of 2015.  Nearly three months later he was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the Rule 5 Draft. 

He made his MLB debut with the Cardinals in 2017. In three seasons in St. Louis, he owned a 3.18 ERA and averaged 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings. During his rookie year his 5.3% walk rate ranked in the top seven percent in the MLB. He threw 51.2 innings that season, posting a career-best 2.44 ERA. 

In 2018 he ranked in the top ten percent in the league in expected batting average (.197), expected weighted on-base average (.265), hard hit percentage (28.6%) and expected ERA (2.92). 

Given the current state of the White Sox bullpen, Brebbia will likely serve as the primary setup man. He may even get a few save opportunities early in the season while Gregory Santos recovers from elbow inflammation. But don’t be surprised to see him deployed in a variety of different roles throughout the season like he was in San Fransisco.