Collins, Mears to KC for Angel Zerpa

[adambr2]

1 hour ago, TURBO said:

The fact that we still have Lockridge and Perkins does nothing for my confidence level.

Don't be so sure that Baddoo doesn't get an extended look at regular playing time unless we have another OF in mind that isn't yet on our roster.  Nothing would surprise me when it comes to Murphy's line-ups.

No, I'm not forgetting Mitchell...

Baddoo getting anything more than an occasional IL call up would be disastrous.

Lockridge and Perkins are just guys. Nice 4th and 5th outfielders, but there’s nothing else there.

Mitchell is the only possible answer outside of a trade. Seems like hoping for a miracle for him to stay healthy, though.

[BrewCrew8675309]

19 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Mears struck out 7.3 batters per nine innings last. Way down from 2024 and his career norms.

Statcast doesn’t seem to like Collins launch angles or exit velocity and gave him .349 xSLG last year. Collins benefited from some generous BABIP during his hot streak, too.

I wouldn't be surprised if new Royals hitting coach/ former co-hitting coach for the Brewers, Connor Dawson, had some words in the ear when the Royals were choosing a hitter in this deal.

 

Isn't this a typical Milwaukee deal? We trade for someone who has some dings, who has some flaws... we polish them up in the pitching lab and they contribute.

 

If anything this tells me that Gasser and Ashby and maybe Hall are going to get significant looks in the rotation and they will be stretched out for the entire year in 2026. Z and Z and Koening among others maybe Connor Thomas and some Triple A left-handed pitching will be in the bullpen.

 

Maybe DL Hall gets traded because of this move?

[rickh150]

An improvement to the pen….and Mitchell takes Collins spot.

[Frisbee Slider]

30 minutes ago, BrewCrew8675309 said:

maybe Connor Thomas

The Connor Thomas experience has ended. 

[BrewerFan]

5 minutes ago, rickh150 said:

An improvement to the pen….and Mitchell takes Collins spot.

Turbo's fingers are twitching right now to tell us how Mitchell won't make it to April without an injury.

 

As much as I'd like to agree with him(because I'm getting SO tired of seeing it)... it's pretty hard to. I am still holding out some hope for Tyler Black maybe. As a 4th OFer, he's athletic... for a LFer and I think he can get on base at a high level. Luke Adams, I still believe he'll get reps there. 

I have no confidence in Lockridge, he just looks like an athlete, don't know much about this new guy we signed. 

I do know... I may be physically ill if I have to see that Steward Berroa in the OF. Watching him pretend to bunt until he gets 2 strikes like that distracts MLB pitchers would get old REAL quick... but we have other options. Imperfect options.

If Mitchell can stay healthy for a full year... he needs to not strike out 40% of the time(or... 34% whatever it is) on top of staying healthy. It seems like what he's done is play so little, have a couple big games, get injured and then his season line looks markedly better than it was. 

 

Also... Luis Lara. I'm a fan. Preferably another year in the future, but... he's talented. 

[Redd Vencher]

There's a lot of talk of Baddoo, but there's more room for Black to get a chance now.

[BrewCrew8675309]

Called strike three from Angel happens...

 

Announcers probably: "He got Zerped!"

[long ball]

Mears was a guy i expected to be non-tendered. So losing him doesnt really mean much to me. 
 

I was hoping maybe they’d try turning Collins into a true utility guy and increasing his reps at third and second, but I guess that dream is gone. Ultimately Collins’ best skill was drawing walks. I’m not going to get too worked up about trading a 4th outfielder though. 
 

I’ve never heard of Zero before tonight, but I have some faith in our pitching development and our infield defense to turn him into a useful reliever. The option certainly helps with roster construction and flexibility. 
 

the only thing that makes me nervous is that our pen is leaning very heavily left handed. I don’t think we head into the season with 5/8 relievers being left handed so I expect some more stuff to happen. 
 

I do wonder if we will be more willing to play Bauers in a corner OF spot next year. His bat showed some real promise down the stretch 

[Weirdos19]

3 hours ago, adambr2 said:

If this trade were in reverse we would be absolutely raving about getting 5 years of control of Collins.

I disagree. Collins will be 29 this year and last year could easily have been his peak. Very few peak after they turn 30, without needles. He was a rule 5 pick last year for a reason. He wasn’t on the playoff roster. 

Mears wasn’t on the NLCS roster either. This is his last year of arby and could easily make 5-8 million dollars next year. They almost didn’t even tender him a contract. I think they even tendered him, knowing they were dealing him. This could just be a salary dump after they didn’t get any offers for him.

[Jim French Stepstool]

This may increase the possibility of Ashby starting, which I'm not exactly nuts about. As mentioned, lots of LH talent in the BP now, probably more than you'd go into a season with. So certainly not done.

The door is open for Mitchell. But it really always has been, he just needs to stay healthy enough to walk through.

[brewmann04]

Maybe hall to starter ?

[Lathund]

8 hours ago, liveforoctober said:

Zerpa slides in as the 5th to last name in Brewers' history alphabetically only ahead of the Zimmerman's, Pete Zoccolillo and your A level trivia answer... Eddie Zosky.

Will be the 8th player with a last name starting with Z in team history.

If Zastryzny can hold his roster spot we would have quite the lefty combo. "The Sleep Brothers" "Double Nyquil" "ZZ Top"... something something snore?... I dunno I need a drink.

This is the trade analysis we truly needed. 

[brewcrewdue80]

7 hours ago, RobertCrawley said:

Maybe with some better gloves behind him, he has a lot more success.

To be fair, Royals SS and 3b were Gold glove winners.

[brewcrewdue80]

7 hours ago, BrewCrew8675309 said:

I wouldn't be surprised if new Royals hitting coach/ former co-hitting coach for the Brewers, Connor Dawson, had some words in the ear when the Royals were choosing a hitter in this deal.

 

Isn't this a typical Milwaukee deal? We trade for someone who has some dings, who has some flaws... we polish them up in the pitching lab and they contribute.

 

If anything this tells me that Gasser and Ashby and maybe Hall are going to get significant looks in the rotation and they will be stretched out for the entire year in 2026. Z and Z and Koening among others maybe Connor Thomas and some Triple A left-handed pitching will be in the bullpen.

 

Maybe DL Hall gets traded because of this move?

If Hall is traded, that player had better be significant. Burnes trade would be flop 

[Lathund]

Mears was basically always going to be gone. His stuff declined, and the strikeouts went with them. That in itself might have been fatigue/injury related, but when you also run out of options (In a pen that needed optionable middle relievers) and enter arbitration.. you're gone. Based on those same things, he would not have had a lot of trade value. 

Collins then. I'm a little bit in two minds about this. On one hand, I think hardly anyone expects him to ever have that kind of season again. Can look at his Savant page and you'll see. Plate discipline is great, he doesn't chase. But he also got way better batted ball outcomes than he should have to go with it, and that isn't going to continue. But he would still be a pretty useful player even at around league average offense, so what gives? Well, mainly the roster fit. Chourio and Frelick are playing more or less every day. Yelich and Bauers will play some LF against RHP. The issue is that Collins is LF only, and the Brewers would rather have a CF-capable player or two to go witht he above four, And in Mitchell and Perkins they have a couple of elite defenders. 

So Collins might well be a 1-2 WAR type player still, even with some regression. But he was never going to be that here. You'd still think 5 years of that had more value though. But then it comes down to whether the value of the players involved is absolute or relative to the teams involved. What I mean by that is that the Brewers didn't need Collins, but he has value to others. Should the focus then be to get the most value still, or just get something you want for something you don't? I think this is a difference we see between Stearns and Arnold. Stearns seem to have sought value in literally everything. Arnold is obviously still value-focused, but I look at trades for players where the value clearly lies in what is there to unlock rather than the present, and see that those trades have been, seemingly, at a price that takes the potential into account. Successful example would be Priester, partially successful or delayed success would be Bauers or Mears, and unsuccessful would be Oliver Dunn. I don't think Stearns makes those trades unless the other team totally didn't see the value in them. Which is safer, but might miss out on guys too. 

Anyway, Zerpa. Of all pitchers with 50 IP, his Stuff+ was 20th with 117. Tied with Uribe and Tanner Scott for instance. The guys ahead are mostly high-end late-inning relievers (Hader, Munoz, Helsley, Duran, Miller, Morejon, R. Rodriguez) or freak starters (Mis, Hunter Greene). Brewers surely use their own Stuff/Arsenal metrics, but I'm sure they're seeing something similar and that's what they think they can use. They like their Slider/Sinker guys a lot too. Which brings me to another name ahead on the Stuff+ list (6th); Aaron Ashby., who strikes me as somewhat similar Hard sinker with big movement, elite groundball rate. Ashby though has the K-rate to go with that groundball rate, and if they can increase that even slightly, that's what will unlock Zerpa.

[SF70]

Post of the thread.

Mears was history anyhow. Collins, doesn’t fit the Brewers run-prevention model, especially late-season with his strange defensive regression likely sealing his fate with this team.

Watched Zerpa a decent amount pitching a lot of HL for KC, and liked what I saw. The makings of a dominant HL arm is there for the Brewers to work their magic with.

This is the type of trade that gets this team closer to winning a WS title. Arnold & co will not be denied.

[Outlander]

Was never a huge fan of Mears so to be able to get age 26-28 of Zerpa in return is a win. I would lean toward Collins never being an overly productive MLB player again so probably selling high on him. However, if the last month and a half was the fluke for Collins and not the other way around then the Royals get a steal.

[Jopal78]

Collins doesn't play CF and Frelick is going to play RF most days. The Brewers have a laundry list of players to cycle through LF, so the trade really is a player the Brewers didn’t need (Collins) and a player they didn’t want (Mears) for a lefty pitcher they like who may still have some upside, with a slight reduction in payroll. Zerpa < Collins + Mears.

[liveforoctober]

I know a lot of people don't like evaluating trades in the aggregate with domino effect... But our 40 man was crunched and this also opens a spot. 

Many will just plug Baddoo in and call it Mears/Collins for Zerpa/Baddoo.. but in my eyes this opened 2 major league roster spots and we have only filled one of them 

So Mears/Collins for Zerpa/? 

Stay tuned.

[umphrey]

Yeah I feel like LF is pretty light on depth now, unless all 3 starters stay healthy all year (including Mitchell). If they don’t add someone, I think we see Perkins in CF and Chourio in LF a lot, and Bauers in LF a few days per week. The good news is, after following the trade deadline for many years, the easiest type of player to get is an outfielder with a decent bat that you could stick in LF.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

Mears was a regression candidate so no concerns with losing him. I disagree that Collins did not fit on this team.  He had options so if there was not a spot we could send him to AAA. Plus, we need LF depth and he has the best potential bat of the group of Perkins, Baddoo, Berroa, and Lockridge.  I think the defense would have come around to at least average.  I'm sure there are more things in the works and am hoping we acquire another starting LF or CF.  Maybe this was the first step in multiple moves to upgrade the starting OF.

[wiguy94]

37 minutes ago, umphrey said:

Yeah I feel like LF is pretty light on depth now, unless all 3 starters stay healthy all year (including Mitchell). If they don’t add someone, I think we see Perkins in CF and Chourio in LF a lot, and Bauers in LF a few days per week. The good news is, after following the trade deadline for many years, the easiest type of player to get is an outfielder with a decent bat that you could stick in LF.

Yes the OF situation is a bit testy right now. You’re a Garrett Mitchell injury away from someone like Perkins, Lockridge, Baddoo, or Black getting every day reps.

I’ve been a vocal fan of Perkins but he’s certainly at his best getting ideal matchups and being a late inning defensive replacement.

[adambr2]

10 hours ago, Weirdos19 said:

I disagree. Collins will be 29 this year and last year could easily have been his peak. Very few peak after they turn 30, without needles. He was a rule 5 pick last year for a reason. He wasn’t on the playoff roster. 

Mears wasn’t on the NLCS roster either. This is his last year of arby and could easily make 5-8 million dollars next year. They almost didn’t even tender him a contract. I think they even tendered him, knowing they were dealing him. This could just be a salary dump after they didn’t get any offers for him.

I’m not disagreeing with any of the logic. And I can’t say that the FO hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt.

If someone had proposed this exact deal two days ago in the transaction proposals forum, they would have been roasted. Collins’ control and vast surplus value would have been cited as a reason for the hard no.

I'm just saying — I’ve been on this board long enough to know — if we had traded an underperforming lefty reliever for a decent reliever and a switch hitting 2.1 WAR outfielder who finished 4th in ROTY voting last year, has options and control — we would all be absolutely ecstatic right now. I think we all know that to be true.

[JohnBriggs12]

How about Peralta to the Red Sox for Duran?

[Jim Goulart]

Pretty impressive trade tree!

The Milwaukee Brewers acquired outfielder Gerardo Parra from the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 31, 2014, at the trade deadline, sending out minor league prospects outfielder Mitch Haniger and left-handed pitcher Anthony Banda.

The Milwaukee Brewers traded outfielder Gerardo Parra to the Baltimore Orioles on July 31, 2015, for right-handed pitching prospect Zach Davies.

The Milwaukee Brewers traded pitcher Zach Davies and outfielder Trent Grisham to the San Diego Padres on November 27, 2019, for infielder Luis Urías and left-handed pitcher Eric Lauer and cash

The Milwaukee Brewers traded infielder Luis Urias to the Boston Red Sox on August 1, 2023, for minor league pitcher Bradley Blalock

The Milwaukee Brewers acquired relief pitcher Nick Mears from the Colorado Rockies, sending pitching prospects Bradley Blalock and Yujanyer Herrera to Colorado on July 27, 2024

(Pending official announcement) - The Milwaukee Brewers traded outfielder Isaac Collins and right-hander Nick Mears to the Kansas City Royals for hard-throwing southpaw and ground ball specialist Angel Zerpa