Collins, Mears to KC for Angel Zerpa

[Jim Goulart]

12 minutes ago, Jim Goulart said:

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

 

[liveforoctober]

1 hour ago, wiguy94 said:

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.

Yelich? Bauers?

[TURBO]

I do not believe that Yelich is in any plans for LF, even sparingly.  To be honest, I hope that is the case.  Let him hit, keep him healthy, and hope for the best.

Adam is correct, had the trade been reversed, this board would have loved it.  Having been here for a while, I also know that any trade we make, the board goes out of it's way to justify it, which is what we are seeing now.

I'm not saying that''s a bad thing, but Adam has a point, even though there will be a lot of people refusing to admit it...

[young guns]

In regards to the if the trade was reversed talk, I don't know if "the board" would have loved it.  I think there would have been plenty of people pointing out his age, lack of pedigree, and is poor play to end the year as reasons to not like it.

Before the trade my own personal thoughts about Collins was doubt he was going to return to form, but hope he wasn't as bad as he ended the season.

[Thurston Fluff]

On a pure player talent evaluation it seems lopsided. When factoring in things like service time, roster space and options it looks closer to even. We may be short of starting outfielders but had a lot of 4th outfielder types. We freed up a spot on the 40 man roster by trading a redundant player. I might be reading too much into this but with all the lefties in the pen it sure seems like they're viewing at least one, more likely two, as starters. With Woody, Priester and Miz locks I think Peralta's time here is over. 

[markedman5]

Well considering the track record of “ the board” in reacting to trades we should all be ecstatic right now! 

[liveforoctober]

37 minutes ago, TURBO said:

I do not believe that Yelich is in any plans for LF, even sparingly.  To be honest, I hope that is the case.  Let him hit, keep him healthy, and hope for the best.

Adam is correct, had the trade been reversed, this board would have loved it.  Having been here for a while, I also know that any trade we make, the board goes out of it's way to justify it, which is what we are seeing now.

I'm not saying that''s a bad thing, but Adam has a point, even though there will be a lot of people refusing to admit it...

I'm not doubting you, but can you link to where you got that information? Yelich was 12th in MVP voting this past season and he played roughly 10-12% of his games out in LF. Unless it was acknowledged elsewhere that he is hitting only - I would think we want to just copy/paste that plan (sans playoffs).

[wallus]

I don't grade any off-season move entirely by itself. I think there is a good chance we bring someone in yet, probably by trade that will be an outfield option this season.

With that said, I think Zerpa is gonna be very good for us.

[StearnsFTW]

I'm fine with this.   I don't believe in Collins and never really did.

 

Good luck to him though.

[BallFour]

42 minutes ago, TURBO said:

Adam is correct, had the trade been reversed, this board would have loved it.  Having been here for a while, I also know that any trade we make, the board goes out of it's way to justify it, which is what we are seeing now.

I'm not saying that''s a bad thing, but Adam has a point, even though there will be a lot of people refusing to admit it...

The board justifies it because the Brewers don't lose many trades. 

I like Collins the player but I don't like his fit on this team. I keep reading posts that they could just send Collins down because he has options. Well then he loses any trade value he has. 

Mears stuff declined last year at the expense of more command. With zero options there could have been a decent chance he was off the roster by June if he didn't start strong out of the gate. Maybe the Royals find a way to bring back the juice on his fastball. 

Zerpa's Sinker-Slider profile matches what the Brewers do well with. I am concerned about his ability to keep the ball in the yard vs. right handed hitters. 

Decent chance we lose this trade just on these players WAR with the service time they have left. But if you look under the hood Brewers are confident in replacing a Collins with a projected OPS+ of 98 with below average defense in left field. 

 

[edfunderburk]

1 hour ago, TURBO said:

I do not believe that Yelich is in any plans for LF, even sparingly.  To be honest, I hope that is the case. 

My sentiments exactly. 

I wish Yelich would have “helped the team” by being an option as LH first baseman to complement Vaughn.

I see him being a great DH option against RH pitching. I hope the Brewers consider others against lefties moving forward. 

[Jopal78]

3 hours ago, adambr2 said:

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.

I’ve been on these boards long enough to recall you thought it foolhardy when Joey Wiemer was traded too 😎. Thats why we’re fans and not working in baseball. 

[sveumrules]

Changing stadiums from AmFam to Kaufmann could maybe help Collins stave off some of that regression that many see as likely after his 2025 season exceeded all realistic expectations.

Isaac's game on offense is mostly built around patience (12.9 BB% was 19th of 215 batters with at least 400 PA in 2025) and hitting line drives (24.6 LD% was 10th on that same leaderboard). 

Going by StatCast's three year rolling park factors (which operate like OPS+ where 100 is average), AmFam is one of the worst parks in MLB for singles (94 rating | 24th) and doubles (87 rating | 27th) whereas Kaufmann is one of the better parks in MLB for singles (103 rating | 8th) and doubles (113 rating | 5th).

With a below average fly ball rate (91 FB%+) and all fields approach (101 Pull+ | 100 Cent+ | 99 Oppo+), Collins batted ball profile was about as poor a fit as possible for AmFam's homer friendly effects (106 HR rating | 7th).

Obviously lots of noise in single season home/road splits, but the awkward fit between Isaac's offensive profile as a line drive hitting singles/doubles kind of guy and AmFam's suppression of those types of hits played out to the tune of a 93 wRC+ over 236 PA at home versus a 156 wRC+ over 205 PA on the road for Collins last year.

[edfunderburk]

14 hours ago, long ball said:

I was hoping maybe they’d try turning Collins into a true utility guy and increasing his reps at third and second

That was my hope as well

I love the Collins type of player - we can all relate to someone like him

[edfunderburk]

2 hours ago, JohnBriggs12 said:

How about Peralta to the Red Sox for Duran?

This is the trade I want to see

[markedman5]

 

[liveforoctober]

27 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

 

The Brewers got a cheap controlled rotation piece and all it cost us was Mears and Collins?!?

[adambr2]

1 hour ago, Jopal78 said:

I’ve been on these boards long enough to recall you thought it foolhardy when Joey Wiemer was traded too 😎. Thats why we’re fans and not working in baseball. 

I’ve been on long enough to also remember when you thought Jhoulys Chacin had solid value shortly before he got DFA’ed. ;) We all miss sometimes.

Anyway, it’s fair to say Wiemer was worth nothing, so if I missed, that’s fine. 🤷‍♂️  My thought process on that one was more though that Montas had no real value.

[adambr2]

32 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

The Brewers got a cheap controlled rotation piece and all it cost us was Mears and Collins?!?

“Open to looking at Angel Zerpa as starter” seems like a little bit of a leap from “cheap controlled rotation piece.”

We don’t know if he will be in the rotation let alone if he will succeed there.

[Brewcrew82]

3 hours ago, TURBO said:

I do not believe that Yelich is in any plans for LF, even sparingly.  To be honest, I hope that is the case.  Let him hit, keep him healthy, and hope for the best.

Adam is correct, had the trade been reversed, this board would have loved it.  Having been here for a while, I also know that any trade we make, the board goes out of it's way to justify it, which is what we are seeing now.

I'm not saying that''s a bad thing, but Adam has a point, even though there will be a lot of people refusing to admit it...

To be fair, “going out of the way to justify a trade” this FO makes, as you put it, would be pretty dang accurate position to take.

Think people are mainly just are trying to see things through the FO’s lens, and generally when they do, they understand it and are more in favor of it given their track record.

[adambr2]

1 minute ago, Brewcrew82 said:

To be fair, “going out of the way to justify a trade” this FO makes is a pretty dang accurate position to take.

Why can’t we just say, “I don’t like it on the surface, but we will have to see what happens because this front office has been correct more often than wrong?”

I don’t think anyone has taken a position that is contrary to that.

Why do we need to go out of our way to make it sound like we like it?

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Collins screams regression. They got what we could have hoped for out of a AAAA player for a bit, reality settled in, and we got something out of him via trade. 

I liked Mears. I am a bit disappointed about that. It'll probably work out fine though. 

[Brewcrew82]

1 minute ago, adambr2 said:

Why can’t we just say, “I don’t like it on the surface, but we will have to see what happens because this front office has been correct more often than wrong?”

I don’t think anyone has taken a position that is contrary to that.

Why do we need to go out of our way to make it sound like we like it?

or Why can’t people just say whatever they want to say….

If you struggle to see the logic of the trade, you’re fine to express that. I personally like this trade because we took two guys who really struggled at the end of the season and are likely to have significant regression into a controllable elite stuff pitcher who is likely to experience some degree of positive regression

[wiguy94]

4 hours ago, liveforoctober said:

Yelich? Bauers?

DH and 1B. Both are part time OF not guys who would start consistently in the OF if there were injuries.

[SoCalBrewfan]

A thing I don't love is when we trade away a guy and then suddenly he's flawed and over performed and whatever, and the FO are geniuses who saw the future that nobody else could. The Brewers clearly have their evaluation criteria and are right more than they are wrong, but that doesn't mean we only give away trash and get gems in exchange. This is not necessarily directed to anyone in particular, more to a vibe you seen sometimes. 

It should also be noted that there are a lot of differing opinions expressed, and I don't think it's accurate to say the whole board ever thinks X about much of anything (save maybe dislike of certain rivals). Of the many answers, sometimes the extreme ones get more play because that's how people feel a need to push back. Nuanced answers don't fire up the blood in the same way, I guess. 

Personally, I'll miss Collins, and he was a big part of one of the most fun Brewers seasons for a long time. He did some things well but there is definitely reason for caution in assessing his future. As well, as much as he was just what the doctor ordered in 2025, his long term fit on the Brewers was questionable. The team didn't seem to see him as a defensive option in the infield or CF, which is likely appropriate given his skills and the team's emphasis on run prevention. So it's hard to see him as a full time corner OF, and while it is fun to dream on him as a supersub who gets a near-regular's worth of above average plate appearances while playing all over the field, that's apparently not how the Brewers saw things.

Interestingly, this article (for whatever it's worth) suggests that KC really suffered from poor defense (other than the excellent left side of the infield) and base running, so getting one of our guys was the right call for them. (Maybe they should have opted for Perkins instead?) Collins should help, nevertheless, and I hope he does well for them. 

https://www.royalsreview.com/royals-analysis-sabermetrics-stats/88114/the-2025-royals-failed-on-the-fundamentals

Zerpa could be really valuable, with a skillset that seems made for the Brewers. The Brewers clearly don't care what ERA someone put up last year, and their track record is good with this kind of move, but pitchers are volatile so of course this could go bust. We do seem to have a lot of lefty options at the moment with only Gasser clearly best suited for the rotation. It will be interesting to see whether Zerpa ends up in leverage roles, as a multiple inning option, or possibly as a rotation candidate. 

Not that anyone seems too sad to lose him, but Mears was himself a pitcher that hadn't put it together and then gave us a year of good value. Or, perhaps, a fractional year of great value and then whatever was left after his arm nearly fell off? There was a stretch where he was on fire, but the workload never seemed sustainable. Without options his utility was more limited and moving him seemed kind of inevitable. Getting a good season to three from a second tier relief arm and moving on is just how this team rolls.