Brewers trade for RHP Quinn Priester

[benji]

I believe Priester is more about 2026. They are potentially losing Woody, Civale, Nestor and Quintana. Priester if developed is a cheap replacement.

[biedergb]

36 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

Lets be clear about something: Daniel Norris did not make an impact with the Brewers, but Olson was a 13th round pick in A+ ball with an ERA over 4.50 across a total of 160 total pro-innings  when he was traded. If that’s the type of player, you’re reluctant to trade at the deadline for major league veteran talent. It probably means one is not cut out to be a GM.

That we can all agree on - as I am clearly not cut out to be a GM.

But in seriousness, that trade was an example of losing asset (21 year old arm with good K rate in high A who was projectable) for a LHP that gave us no value. So in that sense it was an example of a traded asset (higher upside, young arm) for a player with no value to the club. Now that trade was only bad value in retrospect, and understand the idea of making a trade and that one made sense at the time, but aged poorly.

I was not comparing the rationale, but that this trade (a lot of assets for a potential back of the rotation pitcher) could age that way. I see it still as a poor use of resources as Yophery/CBA pick/Wichrowski for example is not far off in value (albeit less but not too far) from what we got for one season of Burnes, and I would rather have had those assets used for a proven pitcher at this time point.

Yes Myers (minor league FA, not a trade) and Patrick were low cost adds, and they panned out, but Taylor Clarkes, Garrett Stallings, Tyler Jay among others didn't pan out. And I think the best adds were winter 22 through early 2023. The pure Arnold trades have been lackluster at best outside of Megill. A sleeper one could be the Taylor/Houser for Crow, which I thought was a salary dump, but like what I see from Crow.

See his trade history:

https://brewerfanatic.com/forums/topic/44283-a-retrospective-part-2-of-3-matt-arnolds-first-40-trades-as-brewers-gm/#comment-1634696

https://brewerfanatic.com/forums/topic/44407-a-retrospective-part-3-of-3-matt-arnolds-first-40-trades-as-brewers-gm/#comment-1637208

[Jopal78]

6 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

I mean they traded away someone who had a really good season for someone that is already out of the org.

Erceg I get the context but it was still a missed evaluation of his talent. They would have never traded him away if they thought he would be as good as he has been especially as quickly as he was.

I do not want to hijack the thread, but Erceg was drafted as a position player. Totally flamed out at 3B, then tried pitching had a ERA over 5 as a minor league pitcher.
 

Erceg was Rule 5 eligible multiple times, was  never selected then, went over to Oakland 3 months before he would’ve been a minor league free agent. It’s easy to criticize with hindsight, but there wasn’t some miss of an evaluation. Erceg was a non-prospect with poor stats but threw hard. . A non-contending team was willing to give him a shot based on that. Simple as that. 

[Matt]

4 minutes ago, benji said:

I believe Priester is more about 2026. They are potentially losing Woody, Civale, Nestor and Quintana. Priester if developed is a cheap replacement.

I think if that's the case and the Brewers didn't like their options among Myers, Henderson, Gasser, Patrick, Ashby, Hall, Rodriguez, Misiorowski, Woodruff (potentially), and Peralta, there would be another MLB ready(ish) guy available for trade when it comes to a package like Priester cost.

[wiguy94]

5 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

I do not want to hijack the thread, but Erceg was drafted as a position player. Totally flamed out at 3B, then tried pitching had a ERA over 5 as a minor league pitcher.
 

Erceg was Rule 5 eligible multiple times, was  never selected then, went over to Oakland 3 months before he would’ve been a minor league free agent. It’s easy to criticize with hindsight, but there wasn’t some miss of an evaluation. Erceg was a non-prospect with poor stats but threw hard. . A non-contending team was willing to give him a shot based on that. Simple as that. 

I'm well aware of Erceg's history. Also you're underselling Erceg . He was good in AAA in 2022 then got off to a slow start in 2023. Him being a minor league FA is irrelevant because they could have added him to the 40 to prevent that from happening. It was just an evaluation miss same as with Shane Smith.

[liveforoctober]

MLB player development and major league roster manipulation will forever fascinate me because it is such an imperfect science that few to none master. It is an awesome conversation because I am not sure it has a correct answer.

Is the purpose of minor league development to get all of the guys to the big leagues or is it actually to just get them to a place where they become coveted enough to be tradeable?

With the flame out rate so high each time guys graduate each level... is it always or almost always worth trading excess value from the minors to get major league experience?

Would you rather take a chance on a young major league player who hasn't figured it out at the MLB level but has the tools vs a rising MiLB player who is outperforming his projection? 

I don't want to make this a novel ... but there is so much more. It's one of my favorite conversations around baseball.

[Jopal78]

10 minutes ago, biedergb said:

That we can all agree on - as I am clearly not cut out to be a GM.

But in seriousness, that trade was an example of losing asset (21 year old arm with good K rate in high A who was projectable) for a LHP that gave us no value. So in that sense it was an example of a traded asset (higher upside, young arm) for a player with no value to the club. Now that trade was only bad value in retrospect, and understand the idea of making a trade and that one made sense at the time, but aged poorly.

I was not comparing the rationale, but that this trade (a lot of assets for a potential back of the rotation pitcher) could age that way. I see it still as a poor use of resources as Yophery/CBA pick/Wichrowski for example is not far off in value (albeit less but not too far) from what we got for one season of Burnes, and I would rather have had those assets used for a proven pitcher at this time point.

Yes Myers (minor league FA, not a trade) and Patrick were low cost adds, and they panned out, but Taylor Clarkes, Garrett Stallings, Tyler Jay among others didn't pan out. And I think the best adds were winter 22 through early 2023. The pure Arnold trades have been lackluster at best outside of Megill. A sleeper one could be the Taylor/Houser for Crow, which I thought was a salary dump, but like what I see from Crow.

See his trade history:

https://brewerfanatic.com/forums/topic/44283-a-retrospective-part-2-of-3-matt-arnolds-first-40-trades-as-brewers-gm/#comment-1634696

https://brewerfanatic.com/forums/topic/44407-a-retrospective-part-3-of-3-matt-arnolds-first-40-trades-as-brewers-gm/#comment-1637208

I think you’re overvaluing the prospects, but that goes on around here so it’s not that surprising.

Take a look at A+ clubs on Baseball Reference and see how many of a team’s draftees from a squad 4-5 years ago even went on to play in the major leagues. &nbsp

The value in these trades is the player who has played in the major leagues, the minor league players overwhelmingly never contribute in the majors and that’s why it’s 2 or 3 of them for one major leaguer: quality over quantity, and hey sometimes a team ca  get lucky. 

[Jopal78]

19 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

I'm well aware of Erceg's history. Also you're underselling Erceg . He was good in AAA in 2022 then got off to a slow start in 2023. Him being a minor league FA is irrelevant because they could have added him to the 40 to prevent that from happening. It was just an evaluation miss same as with Shane Smith.

I‘m not underselling a thing. College player who spent 7 years between draft and debut never sniffing the 40 man toster and changed from hitting to pitching: definition of an organizational soldier. If you want to argue different thats okay. 

[wiguy94]

6 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

I‘m not underselling a thing. College player who spent 7 years between draft and debut and changed from hitting to pitching: definition of an organizational soldier. If you want to argue different thats okay. 

Him transitioning to a pitcher really has nothing to do with it. I get you love to do the whole contrarian spiel but you're way off here. The Brewers did Erceg a solid because they didn't think he was good enough to be rostered at the end of the season. That showed pretty clearly to be a mis-evaluation of Erceg's talent considering Erceg immediately went to MLB and had good underlying numbers. It's a clear miss.

[biedergb]

49 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

I think you’re overvaluing the prospects, but that goes on around here so it’s not that surprising.

Take a look at A+ clubs on Baseball Reference and see how many of a team’s draftees from a squad 4-5 years ago even went on to play in the major leagues.

Overvaluing them? Probably some as I am much more the minor league watcher / fan. Have been since the early 1990s (well not watching back then)

But they are assets. Most do not make it which it is always wise to trade a prospect for a MLB anyday of the week. But highly rated prospects, particularly those who are young have a lot of volatility but still have a lot of worth, and it's how you use them. Anyway, I value the prospects a lot, maybe too much, but it is also how you use them (identify those who fit your team and you believe will succeed, and trade out of the areas of depth)

[TURBO]

I think you guys are cherry picking all the trades that worked out, or kind of worked out, and ignoring the ones that didn't.

Chafin

Rosenthal

Bush for Antoine Kelly at the time was highway robbery.  Man that one really p'd me off.  lol

Reece Olson for Daniel Norris is a HUGE miss, HUGE!

 

[benji]

1 hour ago, Matt said:

I think if that's the case and the Brewers didn't like their options among Myers, Henderson, Gasser, Patrick, Ashby, Hall, Rodriguez, Misiorowski, Woodruff (potentially), and Peralta, there would be another MLB ready(ish) guy available for trade when it comes to a package like Priester cost.

I get it. But none of those are proven. Woody coming off injury unsigned. Freddy last year of contract. Brewers always are thinking 8 starters for a season minimum. I am excited to see the young guys come up and to see if Priester can improve.

[ghostdrew]

13 minutes ago, TURBO said:

I think you guys are cherry picking all the trades that worked out, or kind of worked out, and ignoring the ones that didn't.

Chafin

Rosenthal

Bush for Antoine Kelly at the time was highway robbery.  Man that one really p'd me off.  lol

Reece Olson for Daniel Norris is a HUGE miss, HUGE!

 

And where is Kelly now the trade was a wash neither good or bad nice try 

[TURBO]

1 minute ago, ghostdrew said:

And where is Kelly now the trade was a wash neither good or bad nice try 

That's why I said "at the time."

Do you refuse to use punctuation, or what's the story?  No commas, no periods, it's like reading the work of a 2nd grader...Geez.

[ghostdrew]

1 minute ago, TURBO said:

That's why I said "at the time."

Do you refuse to use punctuation, or what's the story?  No commas, no periods, it's like reading the work of a 2nd grader...Geez.

Bro relax seems like ur getting angry about punctuation😂

[Sugarrayray]

Now that Holobetz is involved with the trade, I like it even less. Didn’t like it to begin with.

[wiguy94]

1 hour ago, TURBO said:

I think you guys are cherry picking all the trades that worked out, or kind of worked out, and ignoring the ones that didn't.

Chafin

Rosenthal

Bush for Antoine Kelly at the time was highway robbery.  Man that one really p'd me off.  lol

Reece Olson for Daniel Norris is a HUGE miss, HUGE!

 

I was going by trades Arnold made. He only made 1 of those trades. Chafin trade didn't work out but Strzelecki wasn't good either so that trade was just meh. The other 3 were Stearns so I don't know why that would be relevant.

[Jopal78]

12 hours ago, wiguy94 said:

Him transitioning to a pitcher really has nothing to do with it. I get you love to do the whole contrarian spiel but you're way off here. The Brewers did Erceg a solid because they didn't think he was good enough to be rostered at the end of the season. That showed pretty clearly to be a mis-evaluation of Erceg's talent considering Erceg immediately went to MLB and had good underlying numbers. It's a clear miss.

It has everything to due with it. The guy was in their organization for seven years, and as a college player not a high school kid. Do you honestly think there were coaches or front office folks in the Brewers organization who didn’t see him perform during those 7 years and 650 games he played? 

When he switched to pitching did the Brewers simply hand him a ball and tell him to head out to the bullpen? Despite what the movie Major League would have you believe, before making space for Eeceg on any pitching staff there would have been immeasurable amounts of time coaching him up. 
 

That Erceg somehow flew under the radar, or the Brewers mis-evaluated him is a preposterous notion given the sheer amount of time he was in the organization and the amount of instruction he necessarily would have received while there. 
 

You want to bang on the organization for dropping a player they invested a huge amount of time and effort into as some sort of misevaluation just because he went somewhere else and performed? Talk about low hanging fruit.

 

 

 

[Matt]

4 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

That Erceg somehow flew under the radar, or the Brewers mis-evaluated him is a preposterous notion given the sheer amount of time he was in the organization and the amount of instruction he necessarily would have received while there. 

The Brewers literally did just that with Shane Smith. 

[Portage Plumber]

the comp pick was simply a salary dump for attanasio.  sand can get expensive.

[trwi7]

On 5/5/2025 at 10:07 PM, Sugarrayray said:

Now that Holobetz is involved with the trade, I like it even less. Didn’t like it to begin with.

Me neither and I ain't no Holobetz girl.

[ghostdrew]

Wow that priester  trade is a steal for the brewers yophery  is bad and holobetz  can't pitch to save his life 😂

[Team Canada]

Not sure what you mean. Sure, Yophery is not doing great, but also has a .215 BABIP, so that's probably due for some regression upward.

Holobetz has been decent.

[Frisbee Slider]

Priester has been above replacement level and has not had a bad start since May 2 against the Cubs.

[endaround]

5 hours ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Priester has been above replacement level and has not had a bad start since May 2 against the Cubs.

He had a good game against Pittsburgh even taking into account that Pittsburgh has the a better offense than only Colorado.  But Priester was bad against Baltimore though not technically a start and while he did not give up many runs he wasn't good against Houston or Cleveland either.