Grading Two Deals The Brewers Didn’t Make At The Trade Deadline

In the book “Nine Innings,” Daniel Okrent went into the franchise-altering trade during the 1980-1981 offseason that brought Ted Simmons, Rollie Fingers, and Pete Vuckovich to the Brewers. He also mentioned one deal that could have brought Bruce Sutter to the Crew instead, but which didn’t happen because the Cubs insisted that the return include Paul Molitor.

Thankfully, the Crew told the Cubs to forget it, pulled the trigger on that seven-player deal with the team from St. Louis, and history went as we knew it – Molitor put together a Hall of Fame career mostly with the Brewers (later departing to the Blue Jays as a free agent in the heart-breaking 1992-1993 offseason). Sutter, though, ended up being the closer on the 1982 Cardinals team that beat the Brewers in the World Series.

With that in mind, let’s look at two trades the Brewers didn’t make prior to the July 31 trading deadline.

Acquiring 3B Ryan McMahon from the Rockies
Ryan McMahon is not a horrible player – he’s been a solid starter since Opening Day 2021. But a closer look reveals some red flags. The first being his $16 million per year contract running through 2027. Second, there is an iffy offensive profile: McMahon has played about half his games in Coors Field, one of the most hitter-friendly establishments in MLB. Yet in the same five years he posted those 14.0 WAR, he posted an OPS+ of 95.

When you look at the return the Rockies got from the Yankees, pitching prospects Josh Grosz and Griffin Herring, who ended up at #5 and #18 in the Rockies system, according to MLB Pipeline, it seems a comparable price would arguably have been Bishop Letson and Tyson Hardin, one a potential top-flight starter for Milwaukee down the road who is on the 60-day injured list, the other a college reliever who has turned into a solid rotation prospect (a 12th-round steal so far).

That was a high price for a player whose defense has been good, but not good enough for Gold Gloves, while also bringing along an iffy offensive profile that includes a lot of strikeouts and who would cost the team $16 million a year. It was a deal the Yankees could afford, being the Yankees. The Crew couldn’t afford the short-term or long-term costs.

Grade: A+

Acquiring IF/OF Willi Castro from the Twins
With the injury to Jackson Chourio, the Brewers have a bit of a hole in their lineup. In the few games so far, that hasn’t been an issue, thanks to the renewed power of William Contreras, Andrew Vaughn’s hot streak since coming over in the Aaron Civale trade, and the acquisition of Danny Jansen. Still, with Sal Frelick potentially banged up, Castro’s versatility and his bat may have been very useful to have, as detailed in July.

The highlights were his versatility (he plays all four infield and all three outfield positions competently) and a solid bat (he posted a 103 OPS+ before the Twins traded him to the Cubs). He also would have added another switch-hitter to the Crew’s lineup (alongside Blake Perkins and Isaac Collins).

The cost would have been some talent in return, perhaps Carlos Rodriguez and another pitching prospect, but it would have been a short-term rental. Make no mistake, this would have been the Crew trading a potential asset down the road for three months of Castro.

Grade: C

Overview

Brewers fans are wondering if the team did enough at the trade deadline to get a deep run into the playoffs in the 2025 offseason. That answer won’t be known until sometime in October. Will the deals the Crew didn’t make come back to haunt them? We may never know that answer for sure, but we may get a hint in October as well.