BREAKING: Brewers Acquire Catcher Bo Naylor from Guardians for Reliever Craig Yoho

Always operating on multiple levels, the Milwaukee Brewers made their first major trade of the season Saturday morning—but the focus of it appears to be 2027 and beyond, rather than 2026. Milwaukee is sending Craig Yoho and Blake Perkins to the Cleveland Guardians in a deal that nets them catcher Bo Naylor, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post and Robert Murray of FanSided.

Guardians beat reporter Zack Meisel adds the final piece to the puzzle, noting that the Brewers will also get Codi Heuer in the deal. It amounts, then, to a swap of relievers who were not working in high leverage and of position players who had lost prominence in their respective organizations.

Let's start by running through what the Brewers are getting. Naylor ranked 49th on our list of the top trade candidates for the deadline period, over at DiamondCentric: 

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Bo Naylor, Guardians

C  Age: 26 FA: Nov 2029* Sal: $800k

Naylor looked so lost at the plate over the first month that Cleveland traded for Patrick Bailey, installed him and Austin Hedges as their tandem behind the plate and shipped their former catcher of the future to the minors. Since settling in at Triple-A Columbus, he’s produced well, but in a way that engenders little optimism for a 26-year-old who’s supposed to be in the bigs: low batting average, gap power more than over-the-fence power, and lots of walks. He’s a good enough receiver to stay behind the plate, but not so good that he can get away with not hitting at all. He’s gone from prospect to project and is largely suspect now; Cleveland is ready to move on if he can command a useful piece for their scramble to win the AL Central. If he stays in the minors the rest of the year, though, he’ll still be four seasons from free agency, which would give an acquiring team an extra year to extract value from their new backstop.

That capsule says everything about why the Brewers took interest. Everyone understands Naylor, the younger brother of Seattle first baseman Josh Naylor, to have upside left, but his bat has gone to pieces. The Crew will take over the reclamation project and try to get him back in touch with his talent. If they succeed, he could step in as their new primary backstop next spring, should they trade William Contreras this winter. If they fail, he's still a cromulent backup option, and a much cheaper one than (say) Gary Sánchez. Much work lies ahead, though.

Heuer, 30, has changed hands more times than Pat Venditte on a long subway ride. He's a low-slot righty with a four-seamer that sits around 95 MPH, a slider that pairs well with it, and a changeup to keep lefties from sitting on the other two offerings. His elite release extension surely made him attractive to the Brewers, who love that trait. He's strictly a middle reliever, but they might well trust him more than Craig Yoho—if only because they trust Yoho so little.

Naylor could have four more years of team control left, depending on whether and when the Brewers call him up this season. Heuer has just one, after this year. In acquiring these two fringe pieces for Yoho (still six years of control left) and Perkins (three more, if offered arbitration each time, which is unlikely), they don't gain or lose much projected team control. Rather, this move secures some value for Yoho, whom the organization has been down on for several months, and gets Perkins out of the way in an outfield logjam that needed to be addressed.

The main benefit of the deal will come if they can turn Naylor back into the better version of himself. In the meantime, though, Heuer profiles as a still-optionable (for the moment) arm who can pick up innings at the bottom of the bullpen ladder and be swapped out when needed, while still offering upside as Chris Hook and Jim Henderson get to work with him. It's a move about resolving roster clutter and providing needed changes of scenery, and it's a move about the medium-term future. If it affects the 2026 Brewers' pursuit of a World Series title at all, though, it should be in the positive direction, which surely made the front office comfortable enough to pull the trigger.

View our top trade candidates list, up to nearly 70 names and updated regularly!