2:30pm: The Brewers have made it official, selecting Paredes and optioning right-hander Bradley Blalock as the corresponding move.
2:10pm: The Brewers are calling up right-hander Enoli Paredes, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 on X. The righty is not currently on the club’s 40-man roster, but the Brewers are only at 39 at the moment. They will need to make a move to open a spot on the active roster.
Paredes, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Brewers in the offseason. He’s been with Triple-A Nashville so far this year with excellent overall results, though some slight control issues. He has tossed 20 2/3 innings for the Sounds over 18 appearances, allowing 1.31 earned runs per nine frames. 56.8% of the balls in play he’s allowed have been on the ground and he has struck out a massive 41.5% of batters faced.
His 11% walk rate is on the high side but he’s obviously been able to work around that with those strikeouts and grounders. It will likely be something to monitor going forward, however, as the free passes have been a problem for him before. He pitched 32 1/3 innings in the majors for the Astros over the 2020-22 seasons with a solid 3.90 ERA. In that time, he had a 23.6% strikeout rate and 44.7% ground ball rate but also gave out walks to 19.7% of batters that stepped to the plate. In 141 1/3 minor league innings from 2021 to 2023, he punched out 31.4% of opponents but gave out walks at a 15.7% clip.
The Astros outrighted him off their roster at the end of last season, which allowed the Brewers to land him on a minor league deal. Paredes exhausted his final option last year, which likely played a role in Houston moving on from him.
His strong performance this year will now get him another chance in the big leagues. If he can keep the walks under control, as he has been doing in Triple-A this year, he could be a nice find for the Milwaukee bullpen. He has less than two years of service time and could be kept around for years to come if things click for him. But since he’s out of options, he’ll need to pitch well enough to justify his spot on the active roster.