With Superb Farm System and Playoff-Caliber Roster, Brewers Should Go Big or Stay Home at MLB Trade Deadline

This week, MLB Pipeline dropped a midseason update to their top 100 prospects list. It offered a glowing take on the Brewers' farm system, which continues to mature into one of the game's very best. The July update from Baseball America is even rosier. The Brewers have, by consensus, six top-100 prospects, including four who rank among the top 40 in the game—and within that, a couple who are elite.

One of those players, of course, is Jacob Misiorowski. He's not truly a prospect anymore, since he's in the major leagues (mostly) mowing down hitters with his overpowering stuff. Still, he counts, because he's one more great player the team controls through at least the 2030 season, along with Jackson Chourio (who, obviously, is not on anyone's prospect lists anymore). He's now part of what is still a very young team, most of the key pieces of which will be with the Brewers for years to come. Though they seemed cornered when they traded for Quinn Priester in April, he now looks like a potential long-term rotation piece, alongside Misiorowski, Chad Patrick, and Logan Henderson. Chourio is the position player under control the longest, thanks to the exceptionally team-friendly deal he signed before he debuted, but William Contreras, Sal Frelick, Brice Turang, Joey Ortiz, Caleb Durbin and Isaac Collins are all good players with plenty of control left, too. That's to say nothing of Christian Yelich, whose only fault at this stage is the fact that he's actually being paid what he's worth.

The work the team has done to successfully develop Misiorowski, Priester, Patrick and Henderson into solid starters capable of shouldering big-league rotation loads will pay dividends for the balance of this season, and the balance of this decade. Thanks to their patience (now richly rewarded) with Ortiz and Durbin and the excellent scouting and development that has netted them Collins and Blake Perkins, they have few needs on the positional side, too. This team might overtake the Cubs in the NL Central this year, or not, but they're certainly on a trajectory toward the playoffs, and they're better positioned to return there for (say) four of the next six years than any other team in the division. They have Misiorowski, Jesus Made, Luis Pena, and Cooper Pratt. They have Jeferson Quero, Braylon Payne, Josh Adamczewski, Mike Boeve, Brock Wilken, Bryce Meccage, and Marco Dinges. They have the 10th-largest bonus pool in this month's MLB Draft, despite having traded a pick to the Red Sox to land Priester.

Here's where all of that lands me: If the Brewers make anything more than a minor move this month (say, a third-tier prospect for a bench upgrade), it shouldn't be for a rental bat at either infield corner, or for another high-octane arm. They should cross the entire middle tier of the league's trade candidates off their list. They should only have a few names on their wishlist, and they should be names that make outsiders chuckle and dismiss the thought. I'll give you two.

José Ramírez
Durbin has been good enough—and his skill set looks deep and varied enough—that the team doesn't need to splash a fairly solid prospect package out there for the likes of Eugenio Suárez or play the buy-low game with Ryan McMahon. Those deals each have a certain appeal, and this one reads like a pipe dream, but that's the point here. The Brewers have Ortiz, Turang and Durbin in the majors. They have Pratt, Made and Peña as the top tier in the minors, and Boeve, Adamczewski, Wilken and others at the next tier. They can afford to take one of Made or Peña, package them with Henderson or Patrick, sprinkle in a Garrett Mitchell and top it all with a Craig Yoho, if needed. They can lose all of those guys without being set back, really. Could Made (one of the top 10 prospects in baseball, at this point, and among the top five if you ask the right people) headline a deal for one of the game's clearest future Hall of Famers?

We should be clear about this: Ramírez, 32, has to want it to happen. That might be the biggest hurdle. He's under contract through 2028, with $69 million due over the next three years and about $9 million left for 2025, and he has a full no-trade clause. He's twice signed below-market extensions to ensure his future in Cleveland; he would have to decide that winning a World Series is more important than that longstanding attachment.

Right now, though, the vibes around the Guardians aren't good. They're below .500, and rapidly falling out of the playoff picture. They're not going anywhere this year, and they're not the scouting and player-development powerhouse they were six or seven years ago. They'd pounce on a chance to offload Ramírez, as long as the package was roughly the richest this side of Juan Soto being traded to San Diego, and the Brewers have the firepower to put together just such a deal.

If they could sell Ramírez on their vision, they'd get a perennial MVP candidate, still in his prime. He's batting .305/.367/.493 this year, with 13 home runs and 21 stolen bases. He's a switch-hitter and a fine defensive third baseman. There aren't many players in the league who better fit the Brewers' entire ethos than Ramírez, and there aren't many places where his personality and his game seem better situated than they would be in Milwaukee. It's a moonshot, but Matt Arnold should at least nag the Guardians about it this month. He has a farm system that makes it possible, and a big-league roster that makes it worth rolling the dice. Ramírez is the kind of transformative acquisition that would make the first World Series title in team history a real possibility, right away. 

So is the other guy I'm thinking about.

Paul Skenes
A couple of weeks ago, I heard that the Pirates are actually somewhat anxious to get rid of Skenes—or, to be both more accurate and more precise, Pirates owner Bob Nutting is. The Pittsburgh front office has resisted any such notion, not least because they know very well that it would be impossible to be perceived as winning a Skenes trade right now. However, as best I've been able to tell after a fortnight of asking people who might know, there's still some chance that Skenes does get traded, even relatively soon. As much as his baseball decision-makers might wish to build around their incredibly popular ace, Nutting is both resentful and suspicious of the on- and off-field fame of Skenes.

This deal would be an utter blockbuster, the kind of move that would scare all the people involved in executing it senseless for weeks. It's almost certainly not going to happen, especially because these are division rivals. Still, it's hard not to dream on it. The Pirates would surely demand Misiorowski as the headliner of a deal, and the Brewers would have to work hard to talk them off that position—because how much more valuable is Skenes than Misiorowski, really? But having Made and Peña and Pratt, plus a strong collection of arms throughout the system, gives the Brewers a lot of options. They'd have to give up someone who's MLB-ready, or even established, and maybe that would end up being Misiorowski, but they'd then go into October with Skenes alongside Freddy Peralta at the front of the rotation—and then they'd have Skenes as the ace of their staff for years to come. If it could be with Misiorowski, that'd be wonderful, but even if it were instead, it'd be awfully compelling. However sexy Misiorowski's stuff might be, Skenes has proved more durable and to have better command, and he's ready to work all the way into October this year without any restrictions on workload.

These are laughable ideas—but the Brewers almost needn't entertain ones that aren't. If it's not Ramírez or Skenes, maybe it's MacKenzie Gore or Austin Riley. Maybe it's Maikel García and Kris Bubic in a monster package deal with the Royals. It's ok if the Brewers largely stand pat at this trade deadline. It's certainly ok if they merely add a buy-low relief arm and/or a capable backup infielder. With the farm system they've assembled and the depth they already enjoy on the big-league roster, though, they ought to aim very, very high, and see if some unexpected opportunity arises. If nothing materializes, they'll have spent their time better by trying than by making a medium-cost trade for a medium-quality player they don't really need.