Brewers trade for RHP Quinn Priester

[edfunderburk]

4 minutes ago, Matt said:

Has anyone seen whether or not they're adding him to the ML roster right away? Seems like a guy you'd want to get ironed out in AAA or in the Lab before just letting him go against MLB hitters. 

He will probably start Wednesday 

[liveforoctober]

It seems he will be getting the ball in one of our TBD slots in Colorado and oh boy ... what a night that will be. If he shows well all will be forgiven. If he shows poorly this place will be in flames. I'm excited for the drama.

[Outlander]

20 minutes ago, edfunderburk said:

I like the trade if for no other reason - we may never see another Elvin Rodriguez start 👏👊🙌💪⚾️

Intrerested to see what he can do in the bullpen still and if they tinker with his pitch selection when he relieves.

[sveumrules]

Longenhagen write up from FanGraphs...

"The Red Sox augmented some of Priester’s pitch usage after they acquired him, as he used a cutter and curveball mix against lefties and sinker/slider mix against righties. To say his changeup took a back seat to the other pitches would be an understatement — it’s in the trunk at this point. It has put Priester in better position to succeed and be a good team’s no. 4/5 starter.

Is that enough to cough up a late first round pick, which is essentially what Milwaukee did here? There are somewhat disparate opinions about the upcoming draft class. I think it’s slightly better than average in the 50-75 range; the tier of player you’d find in a typical second round extends into the third. That sort of depth doesn’t really have an impact on pick 33, but the Brewers’ draft picks are valuable to them because they’re in a smaller market and need to grow their own talent, and their dev group is good at doing exactly that. That’s also part of why this trade should excite Red Sox fans. Boston’s dev group has been sensational since Craig Breslow arrived and now they get to apply that magic to another first round talent in the near future.

Rodriguez is a fine lower-level outfield prospect. He isn’t super toolsy or projectable even though he’s very young, but he has advanced feel for the strike zone and good (if awkward looking) plate coverage. He can spray pitches from foul line to foul line with his punchy all-fields swing, and he projects as a complementary corner outfielder (he’s fast but isn’t a skilled center field defender) with roughly 45-grade contact and power. The main return in this trade is absolutely the draft pick."

[wiguy94]

Interestingly Pipeline actually bumped Yophery down from a 50 Overall to a 45 Overall grade which is why he's 11th in the Red Sox system. If Yophery was a 45 Overall grade before the trade then he would have been at best 11th in the Brewers system. Still think it's an overpay but trading a fringe Top 10 prospect, comp A pick, and a PTBNL for 6 years of a potential SP feels a lot more fair.

[brewcrewdue80]

2 hours ago, adambr2 said:

Wow, putting “sounds like” and “Burnes” in the same paragraph of this thread is, uh, optimistic to say the least. I think his ceiling is the middle of the rotation. 

He’d need to add some pretty good velocity to his fastball to be mentioned in the same sentence as Corbin Burnes, who, not for nothing, was a 4th round pick.

The comparison towards Burnes rough start and that all it took was ditching a type of pitch he threw for HRs against to ditching it and throwing another pitch more often.  

What I'm suggesting is rather his 5pitch arsenal, they identified like with Burnes a better pitch to lead his combo.

 

I'm sorry you took the suggestion as he's the next Burnes. It was more initial results and then turning a page 1 season later due to the pitching lab effects.

[wallus]

As I have mentioned in other threads, we have a clear need for cost controlled starting pitching this season and the next. With that said, it could be debated whether or not this is a good value. 

[duewizard]

Giving up 3 million in slot money is what really sucks. I don't particularly care for the pick per se. Given the recent success acquiring talent in later rounds it really hurts

[edfunderburk]

23 minutes ago, Outlander said:

Intrerested to see what he can do in the bullpen still and if they tinker with his pitch selection when he relieves.

I assume the he you reference is Elvin Rodriguez?

[TURBO]

This reeks of desperation and just handing over anything the Sox wanted to get it done.

Severe overpay,

Yophery alone and I still would have hated it but that pick and cash just makes me want to puke.

Just another consequence of giving Shane Smith away.

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[sveumrules]

Just now, wallus said:

As I have mentioned in other threads, we have a clear need for cost controlled starting pitching this season and the next. With that said, it could be debated whether or not this is a good value. 

Right. Sounds like we'll have a pretty good idea what the Brewers have in mind for Priester starting in the Colorado series. With him last pitching on April 3rd should be lined up for Wednesday or Thursday.

Red Sox side of the deal will take a couple two tree years to start to materialize at the MLB level on even the most accelerated timeline. If they take a high school guy with the pick could be half a decade plus down the road yet.

If Priester can throw around 100 some innings of league average-ish work this year I'd say we're off to a decent start anyways.

[Playing Catch]

51 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

Digesting this.

Here are my thoughts.

Primarily, we're starting from a position of deep need, so that means we're in the weaker negotiating position. The result is about what you would expect. We gave up a lot for a former top prospect with some really strong potential and a lot of team control. As others have pointed out, that's expensive.

As individual pieces, I'm not that upset about the give here. We're pretty deep in the outfield, and Rodriquez is years away. The comp pick is the comp pick. Valuable if you hit big, but it's hard to hit big. PTBNL, cash, whatever. All three at once is a little hard to swallow, though.

If Priester hits and becomes a rotation piece for 3 years, that's a big win, almost regardless of what happens with Rodriguez or the comp pick.

What I like is this: If we're out of it around the deadline, we can build back a lot of the capital we traded away. If we're in it, you've got the kind of arm you might want to add, plus the return of Woody et al. I am sure the org budgets something for deadline deals, so maybe we're just taking that capital and spending it now. 

Would I have done that? I don't know. I have no idea how far away our IL pitching army is. This makes me think we need the depth now, or that Cortes' injury is quite concerning.

This is exactly my take on it, @Cool Hand Lucroy.  

I would add that these days, the volume of scouting available after just a few weeks of spring could have put Priester right back near the top of the prospect ladder.

Kid's only 24; he's a first-round pick by Pittsburgh out of high school in 2019. Covid happens after his draft year. He has really strong minor league performance. In 2023, he makes his debut, and is traded from the Pirates to the Red Sox. Flash forward to spring of 2025, and he fails to make the Red Sox opening day roster, soon being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers.

I'm not predicting any outcomes for the trade, but it's reasonable to think that after having his minor league career disrupted, (and perhaps being rushed by the Pirates in the process, in order to put on a show for a future trade?)*, that Priester has finally developed into his previous promise.

As far as the return for Priester is concerned, it's a lot, but I don't think a significant overpay, especially if the team sees this as a season-saving type of move.

*purely my own speculation

[edfunderburk]

What a challenging weekend for Grant Wolfram - the excitement of being called up to the major leagues, calling his wife & parents with the promotion news & getting them to Milwaukee for a game in which he did not play - then being demoted & DFA’d all in the same few days.
 

What a difficult ending to a dream come true experience. 

I hope he is retained but I would understand if he opted to become a free agent & try his luck elsewhere if unclaimed.

[BrewCrew8675309]

17 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Seems like this whole scenario could have been avoided by adding Shane Smith to the 40 Man in the offseason though. 

I loved Shane Smith and his journey (I am from near WFU) and put him up there with KC Hunt (rightly or wrongly). There was a real argument for keeping Shane Smith and now it seems to be coming to bear. It is my hope that they see something in QP that they can jump on with the pitching lab AND know that they will be drafting OFs in June as this this team drafts over tradeable players. 

[brewcrewdue80]

The comp future thought in regard to Burnes could bear merit. 2019 4seam fb he threw the most. Cutter the least. 2020 he nearly stopped throwing the 4 seamer altogether and the Cutter became nearly his #1 pitch.

Priester began throwing a cutter last season and didn't in 2023.  The FB gave up HRs. His Changeup has been above avg.  Just saying, sounds like Burnes. We get to develop that with team control for at least 5 seasons.

[wntrtxn21]

On paper to me this looks like the Brewers got swindled. Our #7 PLUS int. money PLUS a PTL for a guy who is below average with a low ceiling. Maybe the Brewers see something they think they can work on with him. I guess he can't be much worse than what they've gotten from Rodriguez and Thomas on the mound. 

[patrickgpe]

The Red Sox won the day, but obviously it won’t matter much if Priester becomes a middle of the rotation starter for 5 years. This trade shows the price of mlb ready talent with that much control. I think this trade will go down as a disaster or one of Arnold’s best moves. 

[patrickgpe]

6 minutes ago, wntrtxn21 said:

On paper to me this looks like the Brewers got swindled. Our #7 PLUS int. money PLUS a PTL for a guy who is below average with a low ceiling. Maybe the Brewers see something they think they can work on with him. I guess he can't be much worse than what they've gotten from Rodriguez and Thomas on the mound. 

I don’t think they do this if Cortes doesn’t get hurt. Red Sox dealt from a position of strength and got a good haul. That means this won’t be a great trade though. 

[Matt]

I think calling Priester MLB ready is debatable (at best) because as of right now he hasn't shown that to be true. 

[SF70]

6 hours ago, markedman5 said:

 

Yeah the pick & $3M is a bigger loss than YRod with the way this team has been manipulating the draft lately.

After reading FG & BA articles on Priesters recent velo increase this spring after being worked with by Boston’s fantastic PDS since they acquired him last summer I feel pretty strongly in my team’s PDS being able to identify an up arrow SP prospect so I’m good with this trade.

We have tons of teenage & 20 year old SP prospects that should hit MKE sometime after the 2026 season, and 3-4 upper-minors starters that could reach MKE starting next season, but outside of Patrick, no one that doesn’t still need work in the minors this year so the trade gets us help when we need pitching help the most  — this season.

[markedman5]

BA discusses the trade

 

[edfunderburk]

23 minutes ago, wntrtxn21 said:

I guess he can't be much worse than what they've gotten from Rodriguez and Thomas on the mound. 

My thoughts exactly

[SF70]

6 hours ago, KCBrewerfan34 said:

Is there a cost saving angle to this deal? Trading that Comp A pick is ridiculous. This draft is extremely important to stock our system with arms. Ugh 

The team has added 24 pitchers in the last 2 draft-classes, many of them teenage, so the system has lots of arms for the PDS to work with regardless of arms drafted in ‘25.

[edfunderburk]

19 minutes ago, patrickgpe said:

I think this trade will go down as a disaster or one of Arnold’s best moves. 

Again … I completely agree 

[edfunderburk]

19 minutes ago, patrickgpe said:

I don’t think they do this if Cortes doesn’t get hurt. Red Sox dealt from a position of strength and got a good haul. That means this won’t be a great trade though. 

I’ve wondered if they already know that the Cortes injury is significant (hopefully not season ending TJ)