Gallardo's option picked up; Weeks' declined

MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers acted on all three of their players with contract options and picked up a new player from the waiver wire during a busy end to the work week Friday. 

As expected, the Brewers committed to starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo for another season by exercising his $13 million club option for 2015. They also exercised their half of Aramis Ramirez's $14 million mutual option, as did Ramirez, to pave the way for the third baseman's return next season.

At the same time, the Brewers declined an option on second baseman Rickie Weeks. His was a vesting option based on plate appearances that Weeks did not reach, so it became a club option instead. 

The decision came as little surprise since Weeks' playing time diminished significantly in 2014, when he formed the right-handed half of a right-left platoon with Scooter Gennett. Weeks was drafted second overall by the Brewers in 2003 and had been a Brewers mainstay since 2005. He finished sixth in the National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2005 and was an All-Star in 2011.

Gallardo, 28, made 32 starts for the Brewers this season, going 8-11 with a 3.51 ERA. He threw 192 1/3 innings, and has thrown at least 180 innings in every season since 2009. 

Ramirez will turn 37 next season and hit .285 with 15 home runs and 66 RBIs in 133 games in 2014. It was the least productive season of his career in which Ramirez played 100-plus games, but the Brewers had no obvious replacement in their own Minor League system, and the market for free-agent third basemen was projected to be relatively slim. 

In addition to those moves, the Brewers claimed catcher Juan Centeno off waivers from the Mets. Centeno, 24, split last season between the Double-A and Triple-A levels, batting .289 with a .342 on-base percentage in 74 games