Free Agents – Shaw and Nelson


The Brewers have non-tendered Travis Shaw and Jimmy Nelson this week. They could be good fits for low cost bounce back candidates.

Nelson in 2017 was one of the better pitchers in the league. CY-Young candidate who put up some darn fine numbers. However at the tail end of this great run he suffered career threatening injuries that sidelined him through 2018.

Making a comeback bid in 2019 failed horribly making it through only 22 MLB innings and those innings where not pretty. A great player recently someone will pick him up quickly on a minor league deal on the chance they can help him reclaim some of the talent he had before.

The power bat in Shaw is something the Pirates can really use if he can find that power again. In 2017 and ’18 he was a 30HR guy with a 120 wRC+ and a 3.5/3.6 fWAR. Last season his offense took a major hit with a 47 wRC+ with the other stats supporting it. It was pretty bad. On the upside his defense still played well.

Both Nelson and Shaw look like they could be strong bounce back candidates that we should offer Minors deals with spring invites along with a sizeable MLB roster bonus along with player opt outs early in the season if they don’t crack the roster.

Someone should be calling their agents