A Retrospective, Part 3 of 3 - Matt Arnold's First 40 Trades as Brewers GM

Reminder: our list is chronological. When you click on the date of the trade, you'll be brought to the MLB Trade Rumors post for the deal, which will provide the "immediate reaction" national perspective, while the links associated with the players' names brings you to their Baseball Reference page showing both MLB and MiLB stats where applicable.

02/06/24    Milwaukee Brewers traded LHP Ethan Small to San Francisco Giants for cash.

When fans are surprised at the overall high volume of Matt Arnold trades since November of 2022, we need to realize, as has been a theme throughout this series, that deals associated with DFA's (designated for assignment) placements make up a significant number. These trades are both associated with incoming and outgoing talent. In this instance, the former 28th overall pick of the 2019 draft found himself heading west, as San Francisco jumped the waiver wire line to take a chance on prior prospect pedigree, pedigree that never fully took hold for the Brewers' organization despite a promising 2021 (sub 2.00 ERA in 18 starts split primarily between Biloxi and Nashville). Small has a 4.8 career BB/9 at the AAA level. Here's Small's lone big-league save to date.

A right oblique strain sidelined Small from the beginning of the 2024 season through August 16th, allowing him to earn the major league minimum during that stint. While activated by San Francisco on that August date, Small was also optioned to AAA, and he has yet to pitch for the Giants in the big leagues. That was Small's final minor league option. San Francisco circled back to Small and signed him for the 2025 season on a new minor league deal. He turns 28 on Valentine's Day.

02/14/24     Milwaukee Brewers traded LHP Clayton Andrews to New York Yankees for RHP Joshua Quezada.

Before the Brewers acquired 5'6" infielder Caleb Durbin from the Yankees recently, they had previously dealt their own 5'6" over-achiever to the Bronx.

Clayton Andrews did well to wind his way through the Brewers system from humble roots as a 17th round pick in 2018, overcoming Tommy John surgery along the way. Suddenly a remarkable fireballer out of the bullpen, Andrews few big-league Brewers appearances were not positive at all, putting it mildly. He found himself on a DFA ride, with the Yankees stepping up, and rather than accept a pure cash benefit, the Brewers reviewed their Yankees prospect rolodex on file and determined that they'd prefer to land a then-19-year-old righty.

Joshua Quezada hails from Nicaragua, where the Brewers have focused recent international signing efforts on the pitching front. Apparently one that got away from the Milwaukee contract writing implement at the time, Quezada posted good numbers in 11 appearances (four starts) for the Yankees at the Dominican Summer League level in 2023. Quezada repeated the level with the Brewers in 2024, with similarly solid but not eye-popping numbers, and has yet to debut stateside.

Andrews saw both MLB and MiLB action with New York in 2024, eventually choosing free agency after a June outright. San Francisco signed him to a minor league deal, but his Giants' stay was limited to two rookie-level appearances, followed by an August 1st release. It appears that Andrews, who turned 28 in January, has signed with a Mexican League team entering 2025.

How is this for an MLB Trade Rumors paragraph regarding one Andrews transaction during his Yankee tenure, quite the trifecta of names considering Milwaukee just signed Josh Maciejewski to an MiLB contract.

The Yankees announced today that they have selected the contract of left-hander Josh Maciejewski. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Jake Cousins and designated lefty Clayton Andrews for assignment.

04/18/24     Milwaukee Brewers traded RHP Vladimir Gutierrez to Boston for cash.

Ah yes, the Vladimir Gutierrez regime as a member of the Milwaukee 40-man roster. He was claimed off waivers from the Miami Marlins on April 5th. The Cuban-born righty, primarily a starter throughout his pro career, which included significant big-league time as a division rival with the Reds in 2021-2022, would make two April appearances with Nashville that even the most ardent of Brewer Fanatic Minor League Link Report followers would barely remember before his DFA by Matt Arnold.

The Red Sox subsequently released Gutierrez by late May, and he finished 2024 in the Mexican League.

As the MLBTR write-up indicates, Gutierrez' removal from the Milwaukee 40-man roster triggered one positive effect. It allowed the Crew to add RHP Tobias Myers in his stead. That worked out well!

05/10/24     Milwaukee Brewers traded cash to San Francisco for RHP Mitch White.

We suppose you can look at this as LHP Ethan Small (see above) for RHP Mitch White, separated by a few months. It's quite remarkable that the fine folks at MLBTR were able to put together eleven paragraphs on this move and the accompanying DFA of RHP Corbin Martin (eventual waiver loss to Baltimore), whose own Brewers resume will show all of seven relief innings with the AAA Sounds.

White's six Brewer outings (6.48 ERA, 1.440 WHIP) did not make for lasting memories. On May 30th, White was dropped from the 40-man but escaped waivers and was outrighted to Nashville where he toiled for the remainder of the season, including a fantastic final couple of AAA months (see splits). Those efforts led to White securing a $1 million deal to pitch in Korea for the upcoming 2025 season. Good for him...

05/25/24    Milwaukee Brewers traded RHP Thyago Vieira and RHP Aneuris Rodriguez to Baltimore for RHP Garrett Stallings.

This is yet another trade prompted by a DFA transaction, the 5th in a row within our review. There are some thought-provoking elements here, although on very minor scales in the big picture. This trade unfolds a scenario which would have been fascinating for armchair GM geeks to be a fly on the wall during negotiations. 

What did the Brewers see in Garrett Stallings? Did the Orioles pursue the Thyago Vieira waiver claim as a means to focus on the Aneuris Rodriguez lottery ticket acquisition? It's rare that a DFA trade morphs into a multi-player deal, particularly with the claiming team actually garnering more bodies.

"Stallings is starting depth for us," assistant general manager Matt Kleine told the Journal-Sentinel's Todd Rosiak at the time of the deal. "He was actually a guy that we had identified this past offseason who was Rule 5-eligible. He's a guy who can really just provide innings and spread length if a need arises. A lot of sinker-slider-cutter-curveball, he's a five-pitch guy right now. Kitchen sink. Really, will just throw whatever he can to get the guy out. We still need some time to figure out how we want to use that and deploy it. But there's a lot to work with."

As the linked stat page shows, Stallings was a competent swingman in Nashville. Not a consideration for 40-man roster addition this past fall, he remains under team control for the 2025 season.

After two seasons in the Dominican Summer League, Rodriguez was brought stateside and suddenly found a small-sample size K-rate of note in Maryvale. In three appearances (one start) that took place just prior to him turning 20 years old, Rodriguez fanned 15 (!) and walked four over 7.1 innings. He would not replicate that success at all in the Orioles' complex league (1.87 WHIP in 20.1 IP). One can imagine the difficult transition for the Dominican native - not only acclimating to a completely new coaching staff midseason but migrating from Arizona to Florida as well. It would not be surprising to see the youngster improve significantly in 2025.

Vieira made one MLB appearance for the O's (ERA of infinity, ouch) and then saw time with the Diamondbacks before an August outright. He just accepted a non-roster camp invite for 2025 with Arizona.

06/14/24    Milwaukee Brewers traded cash to Philadelphia for INF Casey Martin.

During the course of a minor league season, circumstances will sometimes warrant going outside the organization to acquire bodies to maintain roster stability. You won't find a Trade Rumors page for this one. Here is how we reported on it within our Daily Link Report:

"Infielder Casey Martin was acquired in what was most likely a (minimal) cash deal (details not quite yet available). Our @damuellepointed out in our Minor League Forum transaction thread the likely reasoning behind the move. Martin has not performed well at all since being selected out of the University of Arkansas in the 3rd round in the 2020 pandemic year five-round draft. His transaction log at the bottom of that linked player page indicates that there have been injured list stints, but he's seen enough action for Philadelphia to determine that his career .198/.269/.317 (.586 OPS) line is legitimately earned, even if his $1.3 million bonus has not been. Martin is in his age 25 season and will have a chance at a fresh start with to-be-determined playing time."

Martin managed to underperform the .513 OPS he had at the Phillies' AA level for 43 games in 2024, with an OPS of just .485 in 54 games with Biloxi. He had his rare moments however, including giving Voice of the Shuckers Javik Blake the opportunity to make this call:

The Brewers maintain Martin's rights through at least 2026. 

06/25/24    Milwaukee Brewers traded cash to Seattle for LHP Dallas Keuchel.

The prior entry (Casey Martin) was an example of a scramble to bring someone onboard to stabilize a minor league roster situation. Clearly this was of a similar nature, except for the very visible MLB level of attention. The cash involved? As a courtesy to the veteran and his then-standing big picture status with the Mariners, it was reported to be one dollar.

The crafty Keuchel, age 36 at the time of his acquisition, would make four starts for the Crew, two of which could be considered effective (despite dancing around many baserunners in each of those outings as well). In the end, Keuchel was an interesting footnote within the successful Milwaukee regular season, electing free agency after his July 14th DFA. 

Keuchel made eight starts in Japan to end 2024 but was not brought back by his Japanese club for the coming season. He's a free agent at this time; it's to be determined if he'll choose to continue his pro career, which began in 2009, and included his 2015 Cy Young Award win with Houston.

07/03/24    Milwaukee Brewers traded SS Gregory Barrios to Tampa Bay for RHP Aaron Civale.

While nearly a month shy of the trading deadline, we have our first deal of added significance within this feature entry. As we've reminded previously, the linked MLBTR recap is well worth your re-reading. It provides not only the background on Aaron Civale's status at the time of the deal but will re-introduce many here to Gregory Barrios.

Civale was effective enough for the Brewers (particularly in his home park), that the team and he agreed on an $8 million arbitration salary for his 2025 final season of team control.

Barrios did not experience the same success in 43 games with the Rays' High-A team as he did with the Timber Rattlers, with only a .240/.310/.286 line, though with continued success on the basepaths (18 SB in 21 attempts). It should be noted that Barrios has only two home runs as a pro over 1215 plate appearances. The Rays would have been wise to target this Timber Rattlers infielder instead, thank goodness they didn't.

It seems very evident that Matt Arnold took advantage of a real need for Tampa to shed salary, and it should not be overlooked that the $2.34M the Brewers paid to obtain Civale was part of Mark Attanasio's willingness to spend for midseason needs. Of course, that $2.34M is loose change in the couch for large-market clubs, but it isn't completely insignificant either.

07/21/24    Milwaukee Brewers traded RHP TJ Shook to New York Mets for LHP Tyler Jay.

So far, this trade has potential regret attached with it (though clearly it remains to be seen as to what extent).

Is prospect pedigree still a thing if it dates back nine years, when the Twins made Jay the 6th overall pick in the draft? Jay managed three scoreless innings in two MLB appearances for Milwaukee and had middling numbers in 13 Nashville relief spots.

With minor league options remaining for 2025 and beyond, Jay maintained his 40-man roster status until January 2nd, when he was DFA'd to make room for RHP Grant Anderson (more on his acquisition in a bit). That really puts into question the non-protection from Rule 5 of RHP Shane Smith last fall, as Jay could have been jettisoned then to make room for Smith, who was grabbed by the White Sox with the very first pick of Rule 5.

Secondary to Smith's status, but still somewhat noteworthy, is the loss of TJ Shook, who had his fans within our minor league readership community, particular with our eagle-eyed nightly viewer @Joseph Zarr. David Stearns was likely quite pleased with the 30-to-4 K/BB ratio (three HBP's) that Shook had with his new organization as the 26-year-old migrated to the same AA level for the Mets. However, the year-by-year ERAs on Shook's player page are reflective of his 4.72 cumulative mark as a pro. It'll be fun to continue to follow the non-drafted Shook as he enters his 5th pro season, but it's not a lamentable loss at this point, particularly within the contour of what was a DFA trade acquisition.

But the Shane Smith potential impact? Stay tuned.

07/27/24    Milwaukee Brewers traded RHP's Bradley Blalock and Yujanyer Herrera to Colorado for RHP Nick Mears.

We discussed the August 2023 arrival of Bradley Blalock from Boston in Part Two of this series.

Early indications on Mears' arrival pointed to another potential failed attempt at a relief arm deadline acquisition by Milwaukee. Immediate susceptibility to the longball, general ineffectiveness, and a month-long stay on the IL with the dreaded forearm inflammation had many fans frustrated and concerned. The Baseball Savant darling ("bloody red") showed enough late, including the all-too-brief postseason, and it became clear a non-tender after the season was never a possibility.

We saw reports that the real target in this trade for the Rockies was Yujanyer Herrera, and Herrera posted similar outstanding High-A numbers for the Rockies as he had in Appleton, all as he was turning just 21 years old in August. It was upsetting to learn that Herrera had postseason Tommy John surgery, but it would not be a surprise when we revisit this trade in a few years that Herrera remains a prized talent for the Rockies.

Blalock made six starts of decreasing effectiveness that found him optioned to AAA in mid-September. His profile continues to project as a back-end starter at best.

07/30/24    Milwaukee Brewers traded RHP Jakob Junis, OF Joey Wiemer and cash to Cincinnati for RHP Frankie Montas.

As the MLBTR link notes in its final paragraph:

"The Brewers are reportedly still sending about $1MM to the Reds in the deal to offset the gap in the option buyouts. In total, Milwaukee is taking on about $3.35MM in extra expenses in order to facilitate the trade."

This completed the trade deadline final push for the 2024 season. Frankie Montas improved off his Cincinnati performance, particularly in K percentage, but his work was much more serviceable than spectacular.

From the Reds standpoint, Junis seemed to be utterly superfluous and was a salary balancing body in this swap, though he pitched well in his swingman / spot starter role in Cincinnati. He now lingers on the free agent market.

Joey Wiemer's Reds career, unless re-acquired, consisted of one plate appearance at the MLB level (a walk). He was very ineffective at AAA Louisville, .190/.280/.229 in 30 games. He's now a Kansas City Royal, an add-in to the Jonathan India - Brady Singer deal, and has an option year remaining. He'll be on a likely Omaha / KC shuttle in 2025.

In the end, this was a suitable shot at a down-the-stretch reinforcement and not worthy of a whole lot of down-the-road analysis.

The Brewers thankfully aren't on the hook for David Stearns and the NYM giving Montas a two-year, $34M deal with an opt-out that turned out to be just shy of Jack Flaherty's new Tigers contract. Amazing. (Mets' pun intended).

11/02/24     Milwaukee Brewers traded INF Owen Miller to Colorado for cash.

Like Abraham Toro and Bradley Blalock, Owen Miller finds himself on both sides of Matt Arnold's coming-and-going trade tree. In each Miller move (the acquisition from Cleveland covered in Part One of this series), cash was the offsetting cost.

The now-longest existing trade drought between the Brewers and any other club? St. Louis (review all the partnerships here).

12/13/24    Milwaukee Brewers traded RHP Devin Williams to New York Yankees for LHP Nestor Cortes and 2B Caleb Durbin.

With all due respect to Owen Miller and upcoming entry Grant Anderson, where would the Brewers current offseason be without this deal? It's been the only true transaction worthy of the-reporting-from-every-possible-angle it's been given across the Milwaukee and national media sphere thus far, including and especially here at Brewer Fanatic. We include the Devin Willliams-less bullpen analysis here, please feel free to catch up:

Caleb Durbin Is the Real Prize of the Devin Williams Trade to the Yankees

Caleb Durbin Runs the Bases Like He's Being Chased, and It Rocks

Nestor Cortes Will Get a HUGE Boost from His New Outfield Defense

Nestor Cortes Deceives Hitters in Different Ways Than Most Brewers Pitchers

Can Trevor Megill Sustain High-Leverage Success with A Two-Pitch Mix?

MLB.com (includes video interview): How the Crew can get ‘Nasty Nestor’ in 2025?

What Looming Home Run Regression Could Mean for Trevor Megill and a Post-Devin Williams Brewers Bullpen

Some initial head-scratching on the return for the Brewers, but not immediate hair-pulling. For 2025, much rests on there being no fallout from Cortes' 2024 late-season injury scares.

01/02/25    Milwaukee Brewers traded LHP Mason Molina to Texas for RHP Grant Anderson.

Why not wrap up this retrospective with Matt Arnold jumping the waiver wire order again, this time sacrificing 21-year-old 7th round southpaw Mason Molina out of the University of Arkansas (prior two years with Texas Tech). It confirms the Brewers are open-minded about examining each and every waiver candidate. Due diligence is obviously apparent in determining how a particular pickup can be molded by the development system in place. Will Grant Anderson be the next Trevor Megill or Bryan Hudson in terms of payoff? That would be a sweet ask, but incredible if it comes to fruition. Either way, this trade seeks to improve on the present status of the club, a worthy effort.

Conclusion: The net sum of Matt Arnold's trade parts is on the plus side.

Brewers fans aren't fully truly lamenting any deal as of yet, and 40 is a significant number of trades, so that's saying something. Of those 40, how many were considered "major moves" at the time - less than ten, but William Contreras/Joel Payamps for Esteury Ruiz alone (well, obviously) garners Arnold a tremendous amount of value in the positive column. The Corbin Burnes trade may prove to be a home run in the long run, or it could end up simply a reasonable swing at extending the big-league team's competitive window. It does not have complete disaster written on it. Caleb Durbin makes the Devin Williams/Nestor Cortes swap extremely interesting. Of the seemingly minor deals, the current bullpen includes Megill and Hudson, as just noted. Chad Patrick could be fun.

Perhaps the Lucas Erceg giveaway lands in regret territory, but Erceg's backstory made that a rather noble gesture, and few, if any, called it out in the moment. We'll keep an eye out on you with the Pirates, Jhonny Severino (Carlos Santana trade). Among the other youngsters dealt, they fall in the "we'll be happy for you when you succeed" category, not the "OMG, can't believe he got away" list. Oh, except for potentially Shane Smith, who as we mentioned above, falls into the collateral damage aspect of another trade.

Kudos, Matt and your team. Nice work so far. Now do something so we can add to this list, please 😉.