The rebuilding Brewers bolstered their bullpen Thursday with a relatively big name, adding an established player who not only becomes their probable closer right away, but also could have a larger impact beyond saving however many games the club is in position to win in 2017.

Milwaukee signed free-agent right-handed pitcher Neftali Feliz to a one-year contract, general manager David Stearns announced, making official a deal – for a reported $5.35 million – that had been expected and in the works since last weekend.

"We are excited to add a pitcher with Neftalί’s stuff to the back end of our bullpen," said Stearns. "Neftalί has a long pedigree of getting high-leverage outs, and we believe he has the capability to help anchor our young relief corps."

The Brewers needed a late-inning reliever after they traded closer Tyler Thornburg to the Boston Red Sox in early December (in exchange for two prospects and the Mayor of Ding Dong City). Thornburg had taken over that job from Jeremy Jeffress, who along with catcher Jonathan Lucroy, had been dealt to the Texas Rangers on Aug. 1, the same day Milwaukee sent setup man Will Smith to the San Francisco Giants.

Those moves netted the Brewers eight players in return, including five promising prospects, but they also left a huge hole at the back end of the team's bullpen. Though Feliz wasn't a closer last season, he's plenty proficient in that role.

The 28-year-old Feliz brings experience and success to the young Brewers. He has a 19-14 record with a 3.22 ERA and 99 saves in 308 games – all but seven as a reliever – with the Rangers (2009-15), Tigers (2015) and Pirates (2016). He's held opponents to a .202 batting average during his Major League career with 326 strikeouts in 343.1 innings pitched.

He went 4-2 with a 3.52 ERA and two saves in 62 appearances for Pittsburgh last season. His final game of 2016 was against Milwaukee on Sept. 3 – he missed the last month with right arm discomfort – and he took the loss, allowing two runs and getting just one out before exiting because of the injury.

So why did the Brewers sign Feliz? Why does a reconstructing club that has taken great, and many, steps to offload nearly all of its veterans with any value – thus far excepting star outfielder Ryan Braun and stock-plunged pitcher Matt Garza – and has focused on acquiring, as Stearns likes to say, "young, controllable talent," need an eighth-year closer with health concerns? Why is a team that is transparently not contending for the playoffs this season potentially jeopardizing its prospective high draft position by even attempting to protect late-inning leads? All good questions. Mostly.

First there's the obvious and oft-stated fact that Stearns and manager Craig Counsell are not actively trying to lose ballgames; both said after the season that the team’s surprising 14-13 record in September, after dealing away several productive players and giving opportunities to unproven youth and journeymen, was encouraging.

The Brewers can’t do a Philadelphia 76ers-style tank job – and given the elusiveness of the MLB Draft, that would be an even more precarious plan than it was for the process-trusting (and perhaps regretting) NBA team. The Brewers don’t want to be horrendous; they have to be watchable, or at least intriguing.

Last year, even after jettisoning fan favorites like Lucroy, Jeffress, Smith and others and finishing with a 73-89 record, they ranked 16th out of 30 MLB clubs in average attendance. Milwaukee’s tailgate-loving fan base is sophisticated enough to temper its expectations for the team, but it still doesn’t want to see 9-1 losses every day.

Do you know who else doesn’t want to experience 9-1 losses every day? The players, particularly young pitchers who could potentially feel the heavy burden of responsibility for bad defeats. There’s no reason to thrust a Jacob Barnes or Adrian Houser into a high-leverage, late-inning situation with the game on the line – players don’t care about rebuilds; they want to win – only for him to potentially lose the game, lose his confidence and have the struggles snowball. A demoralized baseball player is not a good baseball player.

Signing Feliz not only takes some pressure off the rest of the bullpen and gives the young pitchers a veteran to learn from, but also allows them to establish themselves while not accumulating saves, a statistic that’s become less important practically but is still weighed come arbitration time. On a macro level, the Dominican figures to help the club by keeping other players’ confidence high and costs low.

And speaking of costs, Feliz’s one-year deal is reported to be for $5.35 million guaranteed, with incentives up to another $1.5 million. That’s well within the going rate for a proven, successful Major League relief pitcher, and perhaps even on the cheaper end of Feliz’s worth. Feliz becomes the third-highest paid Milwaukee player under contract for 2017, behind Braun and Garza, but his salary ranks 42nd in the majors among relief pitchers. Milwaukee still has the lowest total payroll in the game, at a little less than $53 million.

After the undisclosed – and still ambiguous – arm discomfort that prematurely, unofficially ended his season last September, the righty might have been considered a risky proposition for some teams. The injury likely raised eyebrows because Feliz underwent Tommy John elbow surgery – a red flag for a pitcher that doesn’t really ever go away – after moving into the Rangers’ starting rotation in 2012. But five days after rumors first surfaced that the Brewers were getting close to a deal with him, Feliz had passed a physical exam, and Stearns was clearly comfortable enough with his medical status to sign him. According to reports, Feliz's injury in September was fatigue-related and not structural.

Conversely, the Brewers were surely an appealing destination for Feliz, because he’d have a chance to win the wide-open closer job. If he stays healthy and pitches well, he’ll be able to reenter the open market next year and garner more lucrative offers. This was a win-win for both sides.

In 2010, Feliz was the American League Rookie of the Year and an All-Star for a campaign in which he had 40 saves, which is the second-most all-time among rookies. And in September of that year, Feliz threw the third-fastest pitch that's ever been recorded, at 103.4 mph. The next season he had 32 saves.

Feliz was the flame-throwing closer for Texas on both its 2010 and 2011 AL Championship seasons, making him one of the only players on the Brewers' current roster to have appeared in a World Series. His velocity declined after Tommy John surgery, he hasn't yet hit 100 mph again and he had a particularly forgettable season in 2015, but last year was heartening.

After joining the Pirates in 2016, Feliz’s fastball jumped back up for the first time since his operation, to an average of 96.1 mph. His strikeout and swinging-strike rates – 10.2 and a career-best 14.2, respectively – also increased, while his walk rate decreased to 3.5 per nine innings.

The signing of Feliz likely moves right-handers Michael Blazek, Corey Knebel and Carlos Torrez up to earlier innings, while pushing Barnes, Houser, Taylor Jungmann, Jhan Marinez, Tommy Milone and Rob Scahill into competition for middle relief, long-man and specialist work.

Presently sitting on 99 career saves, Feliz is a strong bet to get No. 100 in Milwaukee. All things considered, this is a very good signing for the Brewers. Feliz is relatively low-cost, low-risk and high-upside, especially given his new team’s 2017 outlook.

He also has the potential to augment his impact in less-tangible ways, giving fans a (mildly familiar) name to cheer for and helping nurture younger pitchers. And, like the dearly beloved and thrice-departed Francisco Rodriguez, if Feliz performs well early in the season, the Brewers could flip him in a trade for more "young, controllable talent."