Report: Albers heading to Brewers on two-year deal

Matt Albers has reportedly agreed to a two-year contract with the Brewers, parlaying his career season in the Nationals bullpen into a $5 million deal in Milwaukee.

Albers' deal, reported by The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, is still pending a physical. Once that final step is completed, the veteran right-hander will become the first prominent free agent who played for the Nationals last season to sign elsewhere for 2018.

Though the Nats had some interest in attempting to re-sign Albers, he was lower on the club's priority list than Howie Kendrick and Brandon Kintzler, two free agents who already have re-signed with Washington this winter. As important as Albers was to the club's bullpen in 2017 - he had a 1.62 ERA and 0.852 WHIP in 61 innings - internally there was skepticism about the 35-year-old ability to repeat his dominant performance and hesitation to offer him a multi-year contract.

Originally signed to a minor league contract last winter, Albers didn't actually make the Nationals' opening day roster despite tossing 11 scoreless innings in spring training. Briefly released, he wound up re-signing with the organization and opened the season at Triple-A Syracuse. Within a week, he was promoted to the major league roster and remained there the rest of the year.

A journeyman who has pitched for seven different big league clubs in 12 seasons, Albers impressed from the outset and slowly worked his way into more prominent roles within the Nationals bullpen. He recorded the first save of his career May 14 and eventually settled in as one of former manager Dusty Baker's most trusted late-inning relievers.

For now, the Nationals' bullpen consists of closer Sean Doolittle, setup men Kintzler and Ryan Madson, returning-from-injury right-handers Shawn Kelley and Koda Glover, and some combination of left-handers Enny Romero, Sammy Solís and Matt Grace or right-handers Austin Adams, Trevor Gott and A.J. Cole.

The club is expected to sign several veteran relievers to minor league contracts and give them an opportunity to make the roster this spring, just as Albers did last year.