BREAKING: Brewers Trade For Dustin May And JoJo Romero

[Brian]

13 minutes ago, Fan Assistance Center said:

I didn’t understand the Peralta trade when it happened, and it looks even worse in hindsight.

Oh please, Freddy Peralta ERA is 5.00   That is worse than Robert Gasser and almost Brandon Sproat bad at 5.27 ERA.

[TURBO]

35 minutes ago, Brian said:

Oh please, Freddy Peralta ERA is 5.00   That is worse than Robert Gasser and almost Brandon Sproat bad at 5.27 ERA.

Read his entire post...

His point was, we traded Peralta for Sproat and Jett.  Now we traded Frias and Ragsdale for May (and JoJo).

May basically replaces Freddy.  What did we actually gain?  We lost Frias and Ragsdale for essentially nothing, and had we just kept Freddy, we would still have Frias and Ragsdale, and be in the same basic position.

I don't think Freddy would have cratered like he did if he had stayed with the Brewers.  I think we would have seen the same basic Freddy we always had seen.

So in a nutshell, would you rather have good ole' Freddy, Frias and Ragsdale, or would you rather have May, JoJo, Sproat and Jett?

To be honest, I'd rather have Freddy, Frias and Ragsdale.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

2 minutes ago, TURBO said:

Read his entire post...

His point was, we traded Peralta for Sproat and Jett.  Now we traded Frias and Ragsdale for May (and JoJo).

May basically replaces Freddy.  What did we actually gain?  We lost Frias and Ragsdale for essentially nothing, and had we just kept Freddy, we would still have Frias and Ragsdale, and be in the same basic position.

I don't think Freddy would have cratered like he did if he had stayed with the Brewers.  I think we would have seen the same basic Freddy we always had seen.

So in a nutshell, would you rather have good ole' Freddy, Frias and Ragsdale, or would you rather have May, JoJo, Sproat and Jett?

To be honest, I'd rather have Freddy, Frias and Ragsdale.

Woulda got an extra pick in the 2027 draft after Freddy signed a FA deal too.

[Lathund]

47 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

I don’t understand the market at all. Why even sell starting pitchers a year out from free agency if they’re worth just as much at the trade deadline? May as well benefit from them for half the season first. 

It's hard to sell at the deadline for a contending team. The timing of the Hader trade didn't exactly play out very well,  Or you might not get the opportunity to trade them due to injuries (to them, or other pitchers on the roster), or due to being in a tight division race and so on. So I feel like you have to decide in the offseason how set you are on trading them, how you'd feel if you didn't manage to. Any player you feel like you have to trade, do it in the offseason. Ones where you'd like to trade them, but would be OK either way, you could leave until midseason. For a non-contending team, it's not as clear cut. 

 

[Brian]

STL Cards Article, they seem happy: 

https://redbirdrants.com/meet-the-cardinals-insane-return-for-dustin-may-and-jojo-romero-from-the-brewers

[TURBO]

GROSS

[narwhalattack]

May and Romero better be as great as Arnold thinks they are…

[MrTPlush]

Let me sum up how a trade for rentals gets perceived:

Team trading rentals: I am happy, we might have gotten the next Mike Trout. (You have no reason to care about anything other than potential)

Team trading for rentals: I am mad, he coulda been the next Mike Trout. (People hate trading for rentals, naturally)

Unless you are trading for/away an All Star player, you are either mad you gave up more than a bag of balls or happy you got more than a bag of balls.

[SeaBass]

55 minutes ago, TURBO said:

So in a nutshell, would you rather have good ole' Freddy, Frias and Ragsdale, or would you rather have May, JoJo, Sproat and Jett?

To be honest, I'd rather have Freddy, Frias and Ragsdale.

Or, they'd have kept Freddy and still did this trade and they wouldn't have Jett and Sproat.

Or are we just assuming they don't make moves at the trade deadline if they keep Freddy? I mean, they traded for 3 pitchers and Freddy is one guy so with the power of math they still would have wanted more pitching.

[Underachiever]

2 hours ago, Brian said:

Brewers are in a good position at this point of the season because if the Brewers went 17-12 (reasonable) the rest of the season it also, means the Cubs would have to go 22-6 to even tie us.  

There are 50 games left. Your math takes them to the end of August, and if the Brewers are tied with Chicago going into September, there will be puckering. 

Magic number remains at 45.

[Samurai Bucky]

14 hours ago, pitchleague said:

For the record, I talked to my boss this morning (Tarik Skubal’s father, by the way.   No, I’m not kidding.). He said from what he heard from Tarik when they spoke on the phone yesterday (Sunday) was that the Tigers asked for Logan Henderson for sure, among other players that he couldn’t remember.  But Henderson was definitely in the deal.

That would have been a big ask, so I get why we didn’t get a deal done.

 

Would you be able to ask if Tarik would have rather have played in LA vs. Milwaukee or Tampa Bay?  I'm sure the answer will be, "It didn't matter."  

[gregmag]

10 hours ago, Branyanisthegoat said:

On the bright side if Frias hits 50% of his potential we wont have to hear the 1st time long time crowd cry about "going for it" quite as much for awhile. 

If only that were true. These are the same folks who would have traded Turang, Chourio, Mitchell, etc. for rentals at past deadlines. The only way we won’t have to hear them cry about “going for it“ is if we keep doing it their way, deplete our development pipeline, and drop out of contention. We’re not close to there yet, but yesterday was a great start.

[Brian]

1 hour ago, Underachiever said:

There are 50 games left. Your math takes them to the end of August, and if the Brewers are tied with Chicago going into September, there will be puckering. 

Magic number remains at 45.

Thanks, I guess I was using fuzzy math this morning, 

Yes 45 to win the NL Central and 39 to clinch a playoff spot of any kind. 

[FVBrewerFan]

5 hours ago, adambr2 said:

How is any agent for a rental player without any no-trade clause able to not only have veto power over a trade partner but actually determine a singular destination?

This is either completely false or MLB is ruined until the next CBA. If the Tigers are taking an inferior offer to send Skubal to his preferred destination because of agent pressure. If a NTC is essentially pointless because an agent can just strong arm anyway. If any of that is true, there can be no baseball again after 2026 until the system is overhauled.

Not any agent, just Boris.  Yes, baseball is ruined until the next CBA.  You didn’t realize that until now?

[Playing Catch]

1 hour ago, FVBrewerFan said:

Not any agent, just Boris.  Yes, baseball is ruined until the next CBA.  You didn’t realize that until now?

If the Tigers want to have a shot at signing Skubal in FA (probably not), it would behoove them to throw them this bone. Is that unethical? It may be a bit blurry, but it would be hard to prove and I suspect it plays a role in these decisions all the time even if the public aren't really privvy to it.

I suspect the Tigers wanted Pena and Henderson and more, and the Brewers weren't willing to include them. We may feel like that would "win" the sweepstakes, but as has been discussed over and over, different folks, different strokes, so who knows. Perhaps sending him to LA keeps the door-of-opportunity open for them in negotiations --- even if Boras said nothing at all.

Also, side-note, but all of the doom 'n gloom about the next CBA needs to hit pause until any real negotiations start. Media fear-baiting is real in the sports world.

[RWeeksFan23]

I know it's not ideal that May is a rental, but I don't know, maybe he pitches really well for us down the stretch, he likes pitching here, and we re-sign him in the off-season.

 

[BCF]

I understand people hating the cost but I also think people don’t understand how good May has been this year

Skubal: 96.2 IP, 2.60 FIP, 2.9 WAR

May: 108 IP, 3.14 FIP, 2.6 WAR

Harrison: 83.2 IP, 3.10 FIP, 2.2 WAR

Drohan: 88.0 IP, 3.03 FIP, 2.0 WAR

 

May is a good #3 starter and much better than Sproat.

[BrewerFan]

15 hours ago, Fan Assistance Center said:

Would you rather have Frias/Ragsdale or Jett/Sproat? I think this was a panic trade (of sorts) that was forced because of the 1-2 punch of the pitching injuries plus trading Peralta. 
 

I didn’t understand the Peralta trade when it happened, and it looks even worse in hindsight since we had to trade away high upside prospects for what roughly a lateral move (Peralta + comp pick vs May). Competing teams should never trade away competent starting pitching unless the return is insane value.  I’d argue that neither Jett nor sproat count as insane value. Because the cost to acquire pitching midseason is punitive for the buyer. 

The Peralta trade looks better in hindsight if anything.

You're conflating the Peralta trade and getting back an arm like Sproat... who I don't care what he's doing the first half of his first year, he's got TOR stuff... for the Brewers getting desperate and giving up Frias.


I don't know why I have to pick Frias/Ragsdale or Jett/Sproat.

I'd pick a better, more proactive trade and we keep Frias if I had the authority and then we get Sproat and Jett. 

I also do think May, especially with the Brewers very likely prevailing upon him that his sinker is a more effective pitch, that he'll be throwing that more and induce more Groundball.

We got plenty back for Peralta. That's a separate issue from giving up too much for May(and Romero). 

[BrewerFan]

On 8/3/2026 at 3:56 PM, ToolShed55 said:

Frankly, this board does WAY MORE criticizing the front office than praising it. Which seems weird given how they've positioned the smallest market team in the league year after year. 

This is just... insane.

I don't know if ANYONE hates this trade more than me(and I quite literally said in the Soriano thread Frias is EXACTLY the type of prospect I would NOT trade)... and I'm pretty effusive in my praise of the front office. 

I don't know how long you've been on this board, but no, it's about 95% positive, 5% negative... irrespective of the deal such as this one that was obviously a massive overpay. 

[adambr2]

18 hours ago, FVBrewerFan said:

Not any agent, just Boris.  Yes, baseball is ruined until the next CBA.  You didn’t realize that until now?

if Boras bribed the Tigers to influence them to trade Skubal to the Dodgers, that would be highly illegal.