Article: BUZZER BEATER: Brewers Trade Luis Urias to Red Sox

[Matthew Trueblood]

Fully 20 minutes after the actual MLB trade deadline passed, the news leaked out that the Brewers had executed a last-second trade. It involves saying goodbye to a player who looked integral to the team just four months ago.

Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

Pushed out of the team's plans by an Opening Day injury and poor performance upon his return, Luis Urias is now en route to Boston, where he can help patch the Red Sox's porous infield mix. The Brewers are receiving a pitching prospect in return.

Don't expect anything exciting here, of course. To a large extent, this move is about clarifying the Brewers' position player group and giving them greater 40-man roster flexibility. Urias has earned the right to test himself against big-league pitching again, but the Brewers feel better about their defense-first approach to the middle infield, and Andruw Monasterio has blossomed into a more reliable clone of Urias, with more team control remaining. We'll have to wait and see whether the Red Sox took on all of Urias's modest salary in the exchange, but if so, that would also be a benefit to the Brewers, who appear to have added some salary in the trade earlier today for Andrew Chafin.

UPDATE: Impressively, the Brewers actually a pitcher with some meaningful promise here. Bradley Blalock, 22, is only in High A, but after missing all of 2022 due to a torn ligament and a resulting Tommy John surgery, he's impressed scouts and put up fine numbers this year. He has three pitches that look likely to be average or better, and a changeup that could round out a strong starting pitcher's arsenal. Given that he hasn't reached Double A and has already gone under the knife, there's tons of risk here, but Blalock could be the Brewers' next solid arm on the farm. Urias netted the team a solid prospect, proving that a brutal half-season didn't torpedo his trade value.

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[Trax]

I hope they didn't give him away for nothing...

[adambr2]

Really dislike this. Was he just a total malcontent in Nashville or something? A few months ago, this guy looked like one of our infield building blocks, and we already are thin on middle infielders. A couple rough months and we end up basically just giving him away? Hate it.

It Turang was impressing I would sort of get it but yeah...I don't understand this at all. 

[True Blue Brew Crew]

They must feel good enough about Blalock that they anticipate adding him to their 40 man roster this winter. Or they think since he's still in high A that he'll go unselected in the rule 5. But if they leave him unprotected and he gets picked they'll have given Urias away for nothing. Something to watch

[jay87shot]

Blalock ranked #17 on the Red Sox rankings for fan graphs.

Here is a red sox site scouting report

https://soxprospects.com/players/blalock-bradley.htm

Looks like a good get if management didn't plan for him to return and the non tendered next year.

[jay87shot]

24 minutes ago, True Blue Brew Crew said:

They must feel good enough about Blalock that they anticipate adding him to their 40 man roster this winter. Or they think since he's still in high A that he'll go unselected in the rule 5. But if they leave him unprotected and he gets picked they'll have given Urias away for nothing. Something to watch

He probably would pass through unprotected even if we send him to AA a some point.