Brewers acquire Jake Woodford for KC Hunt

[patrickgpe]

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/03/brewers-to-acquire-jake-woodford.html

 

doesn't seem to make sense from the outside looking in, but I'm sure the brewers know something we do not. 

[markedman5]

 

[patrickgpe]

I think this balances out the pen a little. If I'm Koenig or Hall, I'd be concerned for my 26 man spot. Also it does seem that the brewers normally had a pen arm right before the season almost every season so this is on character for Arnold. 

[liveforoctober]

I know Rob Z is starting on the DL but the '5 lefties in the pen' thing never made sense. I know Easton was on schedule to start up with us but I'd still be taking calls on Koenig. He feels like a regression candidate to me.

Always need a mop up guy that can eat 4 innings in a blowout. Welcome to the squad Mr. Woodford.

[Frisbee Slider]

Woodford was quite good in 2022 but reliably below replacement level since then. I'm sure we can turn him into Nick Mears 2.0 with length 🙂

[OldHeidelberg]

1 hour ago, patrickgpe said:

I think this balances out the pen a little. If I'm Koenig or Hall, I'd be concerned for my 26 man spot. Also it does seem that the brewers normally had a pen arm right before the season almost every season so this is on character for Arnold. 

Do both Koenig and Hall have options? I think Koenig yes not sure about Hall. I would guess it would be Hall since Koenig has been high leverage the last couple of seasons but I think I read here Koenig has lost velocity this spring. 

 

Edit: Yes, Hall has an option remaining

[duewizard]

Aw man I love KC. Woodward gets plugged into the pitching lab and something wonderful comes out a few weeks from now.

As far as I know he is not on the 40 so no need for any drastic moves yet.

[patrickgpe]

15 minutes ago, duewizard said:

As far as I know he is not on the 40 so no need for any drastic moves yet.

Brewers need to clear a spot on the 40 man roster for him. he has no options. 

[Dadbauer]

Baddoo moved to 60 day IL to clear 40 man spot.

[wallus]

Woodford feels like a Bryse Wilson kind of guy.

I will admit I was excited when I saw his numbers sucked as we seem to do well there.

[long ball]

Who knows if he will stick on the roster all year, but it does make some sense to add a guy who can soak up multiple innings in a mop up role here early in the season while guys like Gasser and Henderson stay stretched out. 
 

if he flops it’s no big deal to Dfa him. Hunt is a decent prospect, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay for a guy who could help the big league roster now. 
 

I like McGee more than many fans, but no harm in him starting in AAA. 

[TURBO]

Quite honestly, this has the feel of one of those trades we will regret a year or two from now...

(Reese Olson type of deal)

I'm a big fan of Hunt, so I hate to see him go.

[Jim Goulart]

Hunt has been assigned to AA Montgomery for now by Tampa, so he'll remain in the Southern League to start 2026.

[StearnsFTW]

12 hours ago, TURBO said:

Quite honestly, this has the feel of one of those trades we will regret a year or two from now...

(Reese Olson type of deal)

I'm a big fan of Hunt, so I hate to see him go.

Olson was a 21 year old in High A.  Hunt is 25 and in AA.

Hunt is almost certainly organizational fodder.   IMO.

[CheezWizHed]

If you trade away young talent, you are going give away good players.  But in the history of our trades, we have sent away very little valuable MLB talent for the number of trades total.  The Yelich trade ended up being grand larceny.  

The ones that I can think of that were more than 1-2 WAR level players would be LoCain (Grienke) and Michael Brantley (Sabathia).  And both of those trades worked out pretty well for the Brewers too. Odorizzi went in the Grienke trade and had a few 3WAR years, but was more often sub-1.0 (11 years, 13.6 WAR).

Personally, I'm not worried about Hunt. 

[Playing Catch]

Original Post - "Seems to me that the Rays needed another AAA pitcher this week, and bought KC Hunt with cash and a guy they planned on releasing.

Later this season, the Brewers will probably use that cash to buy some other AAA starter after Nashville gets their pitching depth raided by the big club.

I don't think Woodford pitches more than 7 innings with the Brewers before being DFA'd."

Edited Post - I'm baffled by this move.

Edited March 25 by Playing Catch
I'm a moron.

[MVP2110]

8 minutes ago, Playing Catch said:

Seems to me that the Rays needed another AAA pitcher this week, and bought KC Hunt with cash and a guy they planned on releasing.

Later this season, the Brewers will probably use that cash to buy some other AAA starter after Nashville gets their pitching depth raided by the big club.

I don't think Woodford pitches more than 7 innings with the Brewers before being DFA'd.

The Brewers sent the Rays cash

[treego14]

I will miss KC Lamar Hunt.

[liveforoctober]

I THINK part of the process of fielding minor league rosters is letting the rosters breathe appropriately so as guys need to be advanced (or sent back) ... there is space to do so. This is the same reason why I think Carlos Rodriguez is going to cost very little for another team to acquire this spring. There is no room at present for any movement or flexibility in that AAA rotation.

Of the 5 guys listed for the AA rotation (Hardin, Wichrowski, DeBerry, Letson, Hunt) Hunt was maybe the least sticky? (that can be argued)

So the thought of the Brewers being able to get any kind of MLB value from Hunt (some right handed MLB mop up innings via trade) while also allowing the AA rotation to be slightly more malleable for guys to move up or down appropriately - seems like a reasonable move.

A good minor league system forces you to alleviate pressure. Just like the Brewers have a lot of + middle infield prospects that caused us to trade away to depth pieces at the big league level AS WELL as move Josh A to LF (alleviated pressure at the position within the organization) ... I have a hunch the same needs to be done amongst our starters top to bottom to a certain extent.

It's an amazing 'problem'.

Now we can argue whether it was a worthy trade or if Hunt was the right guy to move to do the above (and of course acknowledging injuries will happen so depth naturally thins as the season progresses), etc ... but it seems there was another layer to this move beyond just a person for person deal.

Just an observation.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

Should note that KC is rule 5 eligible this offseason.  Not that he was overly likely to be protected but the Brewers will have a ridiculous number of players to protect so don't be surprised to see more trades like this.

[BrewerFan]

On 3/24/2026 at 9:24 PM, TURBO said:

Quite honestly, this has the feel of one of those trades we will regret a year or two from now...

(Reese Olson type of deal)

I'm a big fan of Hunt, so I hate to see him go.

I don't like it either... but I'm just a full on hoarder when it comes to these guys. If they feel he's worth the cost(or Hunt lacks value) I guess I'll defer. 

I'd love it to be and I'm not kidding, but Hicks. I said this a few days ago, but he's the type of guy I'd be watching. He's a guy who I believe is being paid already by Boston for the next couple years(~8M of the 25M remaining). You'd need CHW to pick up probably the same, but I'd trust the staff to get him right. I'd prefer and target a guy who... if you hit on, you hit big. Hicks is just so nasty and... erratic. Lawrence from Col and...IDK, Grant Taylor from the CHW are two other arms... but not exactly a pressing need. 

We kept Megill and Uribe, I like how Sproat looks. We've got others who depth and... a LOT of talent. Today made it look moot, but I agree and hope they can get one more RH power arm to come out of the pen.