Who Should The Brewers Be Selling At The Deadline?

Yes, they need help in their starting rotation. Yes, they acquired starting pitcher Aaron Civale from the Rays, but that cost the Crew Gregory Barrios, a shortstop posting solid offensive numbers with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers at the Advanced-A level. This is not the best way to go about it – not for the team’s long-term future – although, given the injuries, it probably was necessary.

That being said, the Brewers need to sell at the deadline—in 2024—while leading the division with what looks like one of the best offenses in the majors.

Before the pitchforks come out, let’s explain why they need to sell. They have a significant roster crunch coming in the 2024-2025 offseason. Part of this is due to having seven pitchers on the 60-day injured list. Those don’t count against the 40-man roster limit… until the season ends. That’s if the pitchers don’t return, and at least two of the seven pitchers on the 60-day list, DL Hall and Devin Williams, are expected back sometime in July to bolster the staff, so that’s two 40-man spots the Crew has to open up in short order. That number goes to three if Joe Ross makes a return.

Down the road, the math gets tougher, too. Even if you account for the free-agent departures of Wade Miley, Jakob Junis, and Ross after 2024, the Brewers still need to accommodate the returns of Brandon Woodruff, JB Bukauskas, and Robert Gasser to the 40-man at the end of the season, when the injured lists go away. This crunch comes before the Crew even gets to the prospects needing protection from the Rule 5 draft that must be added.

So, the undeniable truth is that the Brewers will need to clear some roster space soon. The usual way to clear the space is to designate players for assignment, waive them, or non-tendering them after the season. However, that denies the team a return on some players who – as we are finding out in 2024 – could be valuable contributors to a major league team.

The good news is they have some talent they can sell for prospects to bolster the farm system or for additional short-term help in the starting rotation. Let’s look over some of the potential assets they could move.

RHPs Elvis Peguero and Joel Payamps
Let’s face it: when Devin Williams returns, the bullpen will shift around a bit. Make that a lot since Jared Koenig and Enoli Paredes are on the 15-day injured list and could return by the end of July. Peguero and Payamps could very well end up at the back end of the bullpen, even though they have been quite capable.

But a back-end-of-the-bullpen guy on the Brewers might be a late-inning option for at least half the teams in MLB. This is where the Crew starts looking to sell at the right price and situation for these two pitchers. Payamps has two years of team control – and Peguero has four. That could only help the Brewers re-stock. At the start of the season, I said they were trade chips and that calculus isn’t changing – it’s becoming more apparent.

LHP Hoby Milner
Milner has one year of team control beyond 2024, and between Jared Koenig, Bryan Hudson, and Rob Zastryzny, the Brewers have controllable lefty relief options. While dealing Milner might seem like the Crew is repeating the infamous Josh Hader deal of 2022, the circumstances are far different – Milner is not a generational talent who is a dominating closer. The return might not be Hader-esque, but the team has plenty of options already on the table.

OF Blake Perkins
Blake Perkins has been one of the big breakouts for the Crew in 2024, a hidden gem signed in the 2022-2023 offseason. That said, it’s clear he is perhaps the fifth-best outfielder on the Brewers, behind Christian Yelich, Garrett Mitchell, Jackson Chourio, and Sal Frelick. Perkins has made some excellent plays and improved his approach at the plate.

That said, it’s about putting the best players on the field, and Perkins is clearly behind almost all of the outfielders on the 40-man. That said, it is also true that he is a fourth or fifth outfielder on the Brewers, but he could start for a few teams – and could be a major upgrade for the Angels or Blue Jays in center field. He’s good enough to fetch a substantial return with five years of team control past 2024.

OF Joey Wiemer
Wiemer has been in AAA trying to re-work his swing. To put it mildly, the results have been mixed with a call-up to Milwaukee disrupting things. That said, in 2023, he showed he had a defense and power mix that made him a solid reserve - or a fourth outfielder.

1B/OF Jake Bauers
Bauers has been a solid left-handed complement to Rhys Hoskins in 2023, posting a .710 OPS as of July 4. That being said, it may be time to flip him. For starters, the Crew will need a place for Tyler Black to get regular at-bats over the short term, and first base could be as good a place as any.

Plus, there is a chance that Rhys Hoskins will move on (he has an opt-out for 2025), and that would require the Crew to look at a longer-term option at first base and DH. Could Christian Yelich make the move? Will Tyler Black settle in? In either of those cases, Bauer is a redundancy, not a complement. If Hoskins returns, Black is a cheaper alternative with greater positional versatility. Either way, the fair thing to do is to find him an opportunity.

What To Ask For?
The Brewers will need to carefully calibrate their asking price. They will certainly want to get assets to assist in the future. Ideally, it would be minor-league players two years away from a Rule 5 decision. Or, they can package a couple of these players for a short-term rental – gaining a net 40-man space (think a Peguero/Janson Junk package to the Blue Jays for Yusei Kikuchi or Blake Perkins to the Angels for Joel Hurtado and Adrian Acosta).

Overview
The Brewers will need some 40-man roster spots by the end of the season – and a few more afterwards. It may be time for them to sell now to free up those spots while netting a significant return that could help the team now or down the road.