Brewers infielder Ryon Healy has rejected an outright assignment to Triple-A and has elected to become a free agent, the team announced. This is the second straight winter that Healy has made such a decision, opting to enter free agency last offseason when the Mariners outrighted him off their 40-man roster.
Healy signed a one-year deal with Milwaukee last December and ended up playing four big league games during the 2020 regular season, though Healy was also the Brewers’ starting designated hitter in Game 2 of their wild card series against the Dodgers. Injuries (most notably to Ryan Braun) and a lack of hitting depth on the Brewers’ roster led to Healy’s unexpected playoff duty, and he went 0-for-3 in what ended up being Milwaukee’s last game of 2020.
It wasn’t long ago that Healy was a potential building block piece by the Mariners, who acquired him from the A’s in the 2017-18 offseason. He couldn’t build on the promising numbers he posted in Oakland, however, and simply couldn’t consistently get on base against Major League pitching. Over 1606 career plate appearances in the big leagues, Healy has hit .261/.298/.450 with 69 home runs. He was also significantly hampered by injuries in 2019, undergoing hip surgery in August of that year.