Notebook: Brewers working to buy Class A Carolina affiliate

Tom Haudricourt and Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio said Sunday that the Brewers are in negotiations to purchase the high Class A Carolina Mudcats.

If you can’t beat them, buy them.

Tired of the affiliate shuffle that has landed their farm teams in places not of their liking, the Milwaukee Brewers are in negotiations to buy the high Class A Carolina Mudcats.

Principal owner Mark Attanasio revealed that news Sunday at the “Brewers On Deck” annual fan festival at the Wisconsin Center. The Brewers currently do not own any of their farm clubs.

The Brewers signed a two-year player development contract with Carolina after losing their longtime affiliation with Brevard County, Fla., a franchise that moved to Kissimmee, Fla., and realigned with the Braves. By buying the Carolina club, the Brewers would secure that affiliation for as long as they desire.

“You have a little bit of musical chairs in the minor leagues,” Attanasio said. “You can’t just add teams. There are a prescribed number of teams. There has been a bit of a wave in baseball of teams owning their affiliates."

By buying the Mudcats, located in Zebulon, N.C., Attanasio said it “will allow us to better train players at the high Class A level and not looking every two years for another place to play.”

The Brewers got stuck in an undesirable location at Class AAA Colorado Springs – a poor place to develop pitching – in 2015 when their Nashville affiliate realigned with the Oakland A’s. They were unable to find another open franchise after two years there and therefore signed on for two more seasons for 2017-’18.

Injury update: Several Brewers players on the mend from various surgeries and injuries reported progress heading into the spring.

Outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who was sidelined for the final month of the season with what was believed to be a sports hernia, eventually had a more extensive procedure done on Nov. 15 to correct multiple problems in his abdomen.

“It ended up being nerve issues,” he said. I had some nerves that were kind of criss-crossed, going the wrong way, that were causing the pain. Structurally the muscles were fine.

“As far as I understand they cleaned up some scar tissue in there and then re-routed the nerves. They were getting caught up in some fascia.”

Nieuwenhuis indicated he’s fully healed at this point and doing all baseball activity. He enters what looks to be a crowded outfield picture after the Brewers brought him back on a one-year, $900,000 contract on Dec. 2 to avoid arbitration.

“I’m hitting, throwing. All that stuff is good,” he said. “Running took the longest. But spring training I’ll be good for sure.”

Right-hander Adrian Houser, who underwent Tommy John surgery last July, began throwing on flat ground from 45 feet on Jan. 9 and is hoping to be able to get onto a mound by May or June.

He’s been rehabbing in Maryvale along with fellow pitchers Yhonathan Barrios (shoulder) and Sean Nolin (elbow), and is rooming with childhood friend and Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Archie Bradley.

“Just taking it day by day,” said Houser, whose pre-injury 2016 season was spent at Class AA Biloxi. “I’ve got a paper down there that tells me what to do every day, and I just do what they want me to do.”

Right-handers Junior Guerra and Michael Blazek both said they were fine health-wise after missing time in 2016 with elbow and forearm injuries, respectively. Guerra was held out of the Venezuelan winter league by the Brewers as a precaution.

Business is good: Brewers chief operating officer Rick Schlesinger said season ticket sales are slightly ahead of 2016, when the team drew 2.3 million fans in the first year of its rebuild. He also said the massive overhaul of concession areas at Miller Park is “on time and on budget.”

So, Schlesinger said signs are good on those fronts as the team gets closer to spring training.

"The construction is going very well," he said. "We have dialogue with the contractors every day and they keep us up to date on everything. And affordability (of concessions) is still the benchmark.

"Individual game tickets will go on sale in February. I'm very bullish and optimistic about ticket sales, in terms of where we're going to be. I'm extremely pleased with sales to date."