"We're definitely active"

[LouisEly]

“I’ve been on the phone a lot,” said Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold, who cannot discuss specific trade targets and teams. “We’re definitely active.”

https://www.mlb.com/news/brewers-potential-approach-to-2026-trade-deadline

Teams are also asking the Brewers about their young Major League starters, who include right-hander Brandon Sproat, left-hander Shane Drohan and Wednesday’s starter Logan Henderson, all of whom are controllable through 2031.

Assuming this is true, I don't think the Brewers are going to move any of their young, controllable starters for a rental.

[adambr2]

8 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

“I’ve been on the phone a lot,” said Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold, who cannot discuss specific trade targets and teams. “We’re definitely active.”

https://www.mlb.com/news/brewers-potential-approach-to-2026-trade-deadline

Teams are also asking the Brewers about their young Major League starters, who include right-hander Brandon Sproat, left-hander Shane Drohan and Wednesday’s starter Logan Henderson, all of whom are controllable through 2031.

Assuming this is true, I don't think the Brewers are going to move any of their young, controllable starters for a rental.

Why would this make you think they’re not going to? They have a surplus of young, controllable starters. If they can use one for a rental that is a major upgrade because of the less control, I can see the logic in making that move. 

[TURBO]

Gosh, I'd hate to lose Henderson or Drohan...

[Dadbauer]

Yeah and last year I'd have hated to have lost Quinn Priester. Pitching is so fickle and one injury can derail an entire career. Tobias Meyers in 2023 looked like our ace of the future. Sell high if it makes sense. Drohan has been great for us but he was also kind of the throw in of the Caleb Durbin trade. 

[nate82]

1 hour ago, TURBO said:

Gosh, I'd hate to lose Henderson or Drohan...

It’s the Tigers who probably asked on them.  Current rumor is they want an MLB pitcher back in return for Skubal.

I would be fine giving up Henderson he just seems like a ticking time bomb on when he will be injured again.  Not sure I would give him up for about a half of a year of Skubal.

[cragi]

Skubal's numbers this year arent necessarily going to outperform Henderson's, so I'm not sure the Brewers would make move for a pricier player with no more future control and similar risk & results this year. Not sure it moves the needle enough to be worthwhile, unlike simply adding Skubal and pushing a starter to the pen and reliever out.

Maybe Drohan.. but we really should be dealing from our minor league positional depth. If we swap pitchers, then I'd also like to see a younger arm for a younger bat

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

I’d probably be willing to trade Sproat or Gasser, both of whom have potential, but really haven’t put it together yet.

Not sure I’d be willing to trade from the Big 4 though - Miz, Harrison, Henderson, Drohan.

[Lathund]

You can never have too much controllable starting pitching. Not overly keen on trading that away for a rental, just leaves another hole to be filled next year. Henderson in particular is someone whose loss will hurt us this year already. Sproat is a project, but I share the teams apparent belief that the potential merits patience, and ideally you'd not give up on the upside yet. So I'd rather hang on to him.  Gasser or Crow I'd be more OK with, even if I like them too. If teams view Chad Patrick as a starter, I'd be OK with that too. 

Ideally though I'd prefer to trade using prospects further away from contributing. Makes sense to try to avoid trading away players who will contribute this year; obviously the net gain to our chances this year will be bigger if we manage to avoid that. But we're also looking to win next year, and the year after, so trading players right on the brink of the majors will also hurt us in the near future. I'm a prospect hugger, but if we have to give up legit prospects I'd rather it be someone with much more uncertainty. Even if they also have a lot of upside. So for rentals I'd try to make deals using some of the toolsy rookie and A-ball guys. Even if they turn out great, it won't affect the team for several more years. 

Naturally, would be hard to get a deal done without giving up MLB-ready talent to a team looking to contend in the near future, like the Tigers. 

[Dadbauer]

5 hours ago, cragi said:

Skubal's numbers this year arent necessarily going to outperform Henderson's, so I'm not sure the Brewers would make move for a pricier player with no more future control and similar risk & results this year. 

I'm not with saying they should trade Henderson for Skubal but you can't honestly think that Henderson is gonna be better than Skubal. Even if the numbers are remotely close, who would you rather start a playoff game? Who could realistically pitch into the 8th? Who is gonna sell boatloads of tickets? Who is gonna motivate an entire roster of guys when the front office says "alright, we're getting the best pitch on the market, let's go win a World Series." It's not Henderson even if their ERA is approximately the same.

[MrTPlush]

Trading a guy with a sub 3 FIP, sub 1.000 WHIP, a 11+ K/9 through his first 13 MLB starts for a rental is insanity.

We traded an entire season of Freddy Peralta and Corbin Burnes before and got nowhere near a Logan Henderson back. Logan Henderson, as he sits now, arguably is more valuable than the entire trade packages of Peralta+Burnes combined (at the time of those trades).

[Dadbauer]

Yeah but he's also been injured quite a bit already and Skubal has won 2 Cy Youngs and you have the knowledge of your team having the 2nd best record in baseball. I'm not saying they SHOULD do it, but the price is what the market dictates and the 1st best team in baseball will certainly be ready if we don't meet the price.

[cragi]

Henderson’s underlying numbers are on par with skubal this year, which is my point, so it’s not the massive team upgrade we should be looking for
 

And both have health questions. I’ve already said I want skubal, but makes little sense to trade for our away from our bigggest weakness (long term playoff-capable starting pitching), when we’ve accumulated such quality upper minor depth elsewhere. Unless maybe a multi team deal can be made.

[Lloyd330]

Wonder what the Tigers would want for Mize?  Numbers looks good - FA after this season

[tmwiese55]

I'm sure teams are asking for those guys, but I'd have to think MKE would say No on them.  Having guys like that for the next 5-6 years is vitally important for them.  And it becomes a bit self defeating to give up a current MLB starter for another MLB starter.  Sure, the guy you're getting is probably better but not by so much to cost you 5 more years of these guys.   We have so many guys in the minors that if you can't get it done with them, then move onto a different target.

[igor67]

Henderson as a sell high candidate makes a lot of sense to me, but I agree not for a pure rental. Especially because while health is a concern he absolutely looks like someone I want trying to pitch big innings in the playoff right now. If a team wants a big leaguer though I could see Gasser or Crow for sure in a package.

[TURBO]

2 hours ago, Dadbauer said:

Yeah but he's also been injured quite a bit already and Skubal has won 2 Cy Youngs and you have the knowledge of your team having the 2nd best record in baseball. I'm not saying they SHOULD do it, but the price is what the market dictates and the 1st best team in baseball will certainly be ready if we don't meet the price.

Skubal was hurt THIS year, and sat an extended period of time THIS season.

I think you can paint this any way you want, but if we trade for him, and that injury shows up again, we are screwed, SCREWED I SAY!

There is tremendous risk in a guy like Skubal if we don't get exactly what we need out him, due to the fact he is a pure rental, a total rental since there is less than a zero % chance we can resign him.

Skubal is no sure thing, there is risk, and a move like this could absolutely devastate us this year and beyond if what we give up for him is substantial.

[TURBO]

46 minutes ago, Lloyd330 said:

Wonder what the Tigers would want for Mize?  Numbers looks good - FA after this season

He is injured SO frequently though, and in fact, is battling 2 injuries (wrist and groin) right now that could jeopardize his next start or more...

 

[owbc]

I believe in our ability to keep finding these guys. Sproat, Gasser, Drohan are all free to go in a deal that returns us a top starter or bullpen arm. Way better to lose a known entity in a position of surplus than lose one of our high ceiling prospects. 

Henderson is the youngest of the bunch at 24 and has shown the most impressive stuff albeit in limited time. I'd only accept him going in a Mason Miller trade. Not for a rental. 

[TURBO]

33 minutes ago, igor67 said:

Henderson as a sell high candidate makes a lot of sense to me, but I agree not for a pure rental. Especially because while health is a concern he absolutely looks like someone I want trying to pitch big innings in the playoff right now. If a team wants a big leaguer though I could see Gasser or Crow for sure in a package.

I'd be willing to deal both Gasser and Crow for Skubal, but I'm not throwing Henderson into the deal.  I'm just not.

[Brewcrew82]

The Brewers biggest need at the deadline is a veteran post-season caliber starter. Because can you really trust that each of Miz, Harrison, and Henderson are going to be healthy and pitching at their best come October? Considering their youth, injury histories and/or innings totals? You maybe could've when Woody was still an option, but not with him out of the picture imo. 

Skubal obviously fits the bill better than anyone out there. Skubal's teammate, Mize, is another sneaky (less expensive?) rental option. Otherwise, I'd probably prefer that they get someone with multiple years of control remaining, especially if they're going to deal from the very top of their prospect pool. 

[Playing Catch]

I mentioned this in another thread, as have others, but I really do think there's an impending roster crunch, and at the big-league level, you only have 26 spots. They will need to pick who they want on the field using up playing time, and on the 40-man, using up their options.

I don't know how they'll approach this deadline, but I think that the roster 'rythmetic will play a role in their decisions, and may encourage them to sell high on this sky-high system. The funny thing is, is that I trust them to decide who they keep.

Listening to McCalvy on the broadcast last night really surprised me, as one could kind of hear it in his voice that he believes the team is genuinely in on some of the bigger trade pieces this season. I thought Brian and Rock were kind of pumping up the possibilities, too. That was really a new tone, I thought, from previous deadlines where it seemed like the message was about how happy they were with the roster they had.

Maybe I'm making something out of nothing, though.

[owbc]

7 minutes ago, Playing Catch said:

I mentioned this in another thread, as have others, but I really do think there's an impending roster crunch, and at the big-league level, you only have 26 spots. They will need to pick who they want on the field using up playing time, and on the 40-man, using up their options.

I don't know how they'll approach this deadline, but I think that the roster 'rythmetic will play a role in their decisions, and may encourage them to sell high on this sky-high system. The funny thing is, is that I trust them to decide who they keep.

Listening to McCalvy on the broadcast last night really surprised me, as one could kind of hear it in his voice that he believes the team is genuinely in on some of the bigger trade pieces this season. I thought Brian and Rock were kind of pumping up the possibilities, too. That was really a new tone, I thought, from previous deadlines where it seemed like the message was about how happy they were with the roster they had.

Maybe I'm making something out of nothing, though.

Strongly agree, all signs point to them making at least one splashy move. What we don't know is if they will go against recent history and trade for a true rental like Skubal or if it will still have a "Brewers" tilt to it where they go for someone who can help them in at least 2027 as well. 

[MrTPlush]

Our World Series odds are like 9% right now. If we swap Henderson for Skubal, how much do you really think that goes up? To 12%?

Our consistent success over the years is because we haven’t chased these type of marginal improvement.

Now I could see us giving it a shot for once since we are getting a bit deep between MLB and MiLB…but I’m pretty sure it won’t come at the expense of a potential huge impact player like Henderson. It just doesn’t make a ton of sense to go big on a rental by giving up a big MLB piece. That’s just a terrible gamble.
 

Reminds me when people thought we should trade Prince Fielder to get an ace pitcher. Addition by subtraction is just a bad route to take.

[wallus]

We should be extending Henderson, not trading him.

[wildcat2237]

The market is an extreme sellers market this year.

Im hoping the Brewers avoid any big splash bidding war this year, just as they have the past few years. Maybe one or two minor moves around the edges like what they have done so far. 

No reason to to give up 2030-2035 for a little shot at beating the Dodgers in 2026.