Could Milwaukee Brewer, Baltimore Orioles Emerge as Endgame Trade Partners Again?

The time in the offseason is winding down. A week from Wednesday, the Brewers report to spring training in Maryvale, and while they still have money to spend and holes in their roster to fill, it feels a lot like their focus has turned toward minor moves—or rather, like that's where their focus has been all winter. The team still hasn't signed a player to a fully guaranteed MLB deal this winter, and their trade of Devin Williams to the Yankees in December (while solid, in its fundamentals) was less of a windfall than last year's Corbin Burnes trade.

Trading Williams proved more difficult than expected; one potential move was thwarted during the medical review stage, sources said. That didn't torpedo his market, but it did dim it, such that instead of getting two long-term pieces with the ceilings of being regular contributors on playoff-caliber teams (as was the case when the team landed Joey Ortiz and DL Hall for Burnes in a swap with the Orioles late last January), the Crew had to settle for just one long-term option, in Caleb Durbin. They did get Nestor Cortes, who nicely stabilizes the front half of their rotation for 2025, but Cortes will be eligible for free agency at the end of the year.

In short, last winter, the team headily reinforced their roster for 2024 (with the additions of Ortiz and Hall, but more obviously by signing Rhys Hoskins, Gary Sánchez, Jakob Junis and Wade Miley) and collected substantial long-term value (in Ortiz and Hall, plus a competitive-balance draft pick, and re-signing Brandon Woodruff on a deal targeted toward 2025). This winter, with some of their shopping done in advance thanks to the Woodruff deal and Hoskins's choice to exercise his player option, they've been stunningly quiet. They were one of the youngest teams in MLB in 2024, and it makes decent sense that they've elected to lean on the hope of further development from some of those young players instead of making a splash in free agency and pushing in their chips for 2025. That they also haven't accumulated much long-term help, though, is unusual for them. On the eve of spring training, they project to be a middling team this year, needing more offensive punch, and though their trove of young talent still looks good, they haven't augmented it.

Could all of that change, in shocking fashion, over the next week or so?

First of all, of course, we have to say this: that's unlikely. This is the phase of winter for, mostly, smaller and reasonably predictable moves. There are a handful of free agents left who generally fit the Brewers' needs in low-grade, low-cost ways, like Spencer Turnbull, Brandon Drury, Justin Turner, or Anthony Rizzo. There are some trades they could explore, like bringing in Twins starter Chris Paddack at a moderate financial cost but virtually none in prospect capital.

At the same time, there's always a chance of something interesting and wholly unexpected, and this month, the likely shape of such a move would be: Freddy Peralta being traded to the Orioles for multiple high-end prospect pieces.

This would be a bold maneuver, to be sure. Even after a frustratingly inconsistent 2024, Peralta is the Brewers' unquestioned ace, and he's a beloved clubhouse leader, to boot. The team exercised an $8-million option on him for 2025 and will have the right to do so again in 2026, which means that the urgent need they might have felt to trade Burnes last year is absent right now. Trading Peralta would seem to signal a turn toward the future, at the expense of the present—but maybe it doesn't have to.

For two fairly cheap years of Peralta, the Brewers should be able to pry loose top talent from Baltimore, one of the richest fonts of such players in the league. They could certainly get conversations started around a player like Heston Kjerstad (whose rookie season was truncated by a concussion), Coby Mayo, or even Colton Cowser, given the logjam the Orioles have created for themselves by adding Tyler O'Neill, Daz Cameron, Dylan Carlson and Ramón Laureano this winter. Peralta would fill the most glaring remaining need for an Orioles team projected to fight tooth-and-nail against the Yankees for the AL East crown in 2025. They'd give up something good to slot him in between Grayson Rodriguez and Charlie Morton on their depth chart.

Kjerstad might be the one they could pry loose most easily, and he'd be a fascinating addition to the existing mix in Milwaukee. A bit like a younger, much higher-ceiling Jake Bauers, he's hit .248/.336/.411 in parts of two big-league seasons, and the Brewers would surely see him as a candidate for improvement in swing decisions. Last year, Kjerstad chased 35% of pitches outside the zone during his time in the majors, which is the same share of such offerings Ortiz chased in his short stint with the O's in 2023. The Brewers helped Ortiz reorganize his approach in 2024, and he seems to have taken a concrete step up in terms of ceiling. If Kjerstad similarly cleaned up his strike zone, he could take off in a big way. He's already figured out Triple A, where he's batted .299/.382/.541 in a full season's worth of playing time.

Although he doesn't yet have much experience at the position, Kjerstad would make a good first baseman. He's fast and has a strong arm, to go with the obvious upside in his bat. The Orioles have stockpiled enough sound outfield options to consider moving one of them for a pitcher who would make them more viable as a playoff team, and Peralta checks that box. This deal might seem far-fetched, but the building pressure of a shrinking free-agent market and the proximity of spring training could prompt a big swing by both teams. The Brewers could use Kjerstad's bat right away, as a platoon partner for Hoskins and a supplement to their own outfield group crying out for a trade. He'd give them a major stylistic change-of-pace, in a lineup full of contact hitters a bit shy on power. The team might also be able to backfill after making a trade like this, by signing a free-agent starter like Turnbull or Andrew Heaney.