Matthew Trueblood

Image courtesy of David Frerker-Imagn Images Acquiring talented reliever Nick Mears from the Rockies two years ago didn't pan out exactly as the Brewers hoped. Undeterred, however, they're back in business with the new Rockies front office. They're set to acquire right-handed reliever Antonio Senzatela, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Senzatela, 31, is in the final guaranteed season of an extension he signed with the Rockies years ago, when he was a starting pitcher and looked like the co-anchor of the team's young rotation. After injuries and the ravages of pitching at elevation took a long and heavy toll, however, he moved to the bullpen this season. That's been an extremely successful transition. Working in multi-inning relief, Senzatela has missed bats at an acceptable (though below-average) rate for the first time in his career, and continues to fill up the zone. A power cutter has turned him into an effective hurler in short bursts; he's running a 3.61 ERA. Owed $12 million this year (and thus, just under $4 million for what's left of it), Senzatela also has a $14-million club option in his deal for 2027. If this acquisition pans out as hoped, the Brewers will have the chance to bring him back next season—albeit at a very high price for a pitcher of his caliber. In all likelihood, this is a rental, but he gives the team an extra dose of bullpen depth and the ability to get more than three outs at a time when the situation demands it. In exchange for the veteran righty, Milwaukee is sending two low-level prospects to Colorado. The price tag here is much lower than with the package deal for Dustin May and JoJo Romero earlier today. View full article

....... why did you do any of that? And CRUCIALLY, why did you tell us?

I receive that well, indeed! Yeah, you can't get much for them, but some lower-wattage version of the Yoho-Naylor deal is possible. Refresh those roster spots, add someone you might actually trust to contribute in October.

Image courtesy of Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images The Brewers don't generally fish where the boats and the birds cluster. They prefer to find the quiet spot no one knows about and haul in a fish that thought itself safe via removal from the hubbub. This year, they made a minor exception by wading into the river at its busiest juncture, discussing mega-ace Tarik Skubal with the Tigers—but they found those waters too deep and retreated to safe ground. Now, with just hours before the MLB trade deadline at 5 PM CT, they're back to trawling their practically private waters. Milwaukee never seriously pursued Freddy Peralta, a club source said. The organization respects and admires Peralta but worried that resetting him after a counterproductive stint in Queens would prove too difficult to get right on the fly, even (or perhaps especially) because of their familiarity with him. Nor were they players for Kevin Gausman, whom the Cubs acquired Sunday night. In terms of budget, team control and profile, the fit wasn't right. The team still has lots of lines in the water, though. They're engaged with teams about some players who have flown under the radar this week, and on at least one hurler whose name has garnered headlines and gossip aplenty. Here's a rundown of a few names they've explored. Trevor Rogers Milwaukee would prefer to add a starter with long-term team control, and we'll talk about a couple of pitchers who fit that criterion shortly. One rental arm who does have their attention is Rogers. His season-level numbers hide significant upside. Last year, Rogers posted a sub-2.00 ERA in half a season of work. This year, after a rocky start related to an illness that sidelined him for about three weeks and left him weak afterward, he's been similarly dominant, with a 2.21 ERA over his last 10 starts. Rogers's stuff profile and delivery suit Milwaukee's predilections, too. Arguably, he's the best rental starter left on the market, and the Brewers have interest. Tyler Phillips At first blush, one might wonder why Phillips would even be available. He's a late bloomer, pitching just his second full season in the majors at age 28. Until late May, he held on with the Marlins as a reliever; he's made just a dozen starts since they moved him to the rotation. They should probably retain him and try to complete his impressive emergence as a useful starter. Phillips is out of options, though, and Miami is willing to talk about him, a source said. That's all the opening the Brewers need, because Phillips checks a lot of boxes for them. He throws from a low slot and shows feel for moving the ball in both directions. He gets great extension toward the plate and throws 96 miles per hour. If the Marlins' price tag on him fairly reflects the fact that his four years of remaining team control will be mitigated a bit by his roster status and profile, he could be a perfect target for the Crew. Ryan Feltner Evaluating pitchers who spend half their time pitching at Coors Field is always challenging; the Brewers like to take advantage of that uncertainty when they can. Two years ago, they swooped in and scooped up Nick Mears in a deal with Colorado. The Rockies' front office has gotten smarter since then, but they're also more realistic about their prospects and the need to look toward the future than they used to be. That could be building the perfect storm for Milwaukee to acquire a starter with two more years of team control, who has flashed frontline upside when he's been healthy over the last few years. Already 29 and with just two more years of team control, Feltner doesn't feel like a high-ceiling target. His stuff rates poorly on models that struggle to account for the effects of working at elevation; there are also things the Brewers would truly want to tweak. But Feltner has one more year of optionability (usable either this season or next), and there are enough markers to tantalize the Brewers, a source familiar with the team's thinking said. Caleb Ferguson Now, let's talk about a couple of left-handed relievers in whom the team has shown interest. Ferguson is the simple kind of target. He's on a one-year, $4.5-million deal with the Reds, so he'd strictly be a rental. He has a three-fastball mix and a fairly forgettable curveball. He gets ground balls and does a lot of things (spotting his sinker to the glove side against fellow lefties; using his fastball variants to induce weak contact) the Brewers like. He'd be a low-friction addition to take some pressure off of Aaron Ashby and the rest of the left-handed relief options down the stretch. Daniel Lynch IV This acquisition wouldn't be quite as simple as Ferguson could be. Lynch is still under team control for two more seasons after 2026, and he has one option year remaining, giving the Royals some flexibility. He does several things the Brewers like with his fastballs, though, and shows good feel for his breaking balls, even though he's constrained by a bias toward pronation and doesn't achieve much sweep or depth on those offerings. His sinker and changeup get grounders, and he shows a converted starter's command and control. Milwaukee is ready to get hurt again, if they must, after dealing for fellow Royals lefty Ángel Zerpa over the winter and watching him go down with a torn UCL. Lynch is a fit for them in both the short and the medium term. Luke Weaver The five names above all represent some level of potential creativity on the Brewers' part. Weaver is the straightforward alternative to all of that. He's under contract for 2027 and will be expensive, both financially and in terms of prospect capital. However, he's regarded as one of the three best relievers likely to move at this deadline, and he suits the Brewers better than either of the other two. The team has discussed Weaver with the Mets, a source briefed on the talks said. They could land him with the idea of mixing him in with Trevor Megill and Abner Uribe this fall, then move one of the three (Megill being the most likely) this winter in a trade to recapture almost all the value they surrender this summer. In the meantime, they'd once again have a bullpen that would be the envy of the National League playoff bracket. Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list of pitchers the Brewers are pursuing. They still have a lot of options, and they're exploring them aggressively. Keep these six names in mind, though, and understand that each represents a tier or a flavor of addition that the team is interested in—even if they ultimately secure a different specific player. One way or another, they should make a significant move on Monday. These are each candidates to be that move. View full article

No.

We don't have to do hypothetical spitballing here, man. I am telling you what the Tigers *actually asked the Brewers for*. You don't like the price! Neither did the Brewers! That's why Skubal's a Dodger! This happens every time there's a big trade; the temptation is to insist on a certain parallel-making and on an objective reality that anchors that exercise. That doesn't exist. These players aren't available on a transparent market to be exchanged for currency with an agreed-upon worth; that's free agency. In trades, how each team evaluates each player under consideration is really all that matters. The Tigers were never going to take anything remotely akin to Payne (or Adamczewski) plus Crow and Knoth or Renz. I'm sorry, folks. That wasn't an option.

Nahh. Hope might or might not really pan out, but the industry (and certainly the Tigers) considers him a legit high-end prospect. He's two tiers above Adamczewski; Detroit would not have accepted Adamczewski as the centerpiece of a deal. That's not a guarantee that Adamczewski won't be better than Hope; I think you and I can both imagine that outcome. But the market was never going to and does not value Adamczewski as highly as Hope, or even especially close. Just file this away, because in a few years, if Adamczewski pans out because of how good the Brewers' hitting dev is and Hope wobbles, you'll be extra pleased that they didn't make this move. FWIW, from what I heard, Tigers wanted to start with Peña and get either Henderson or two other arms instead, including Tyson Hardin. I would not have made that deal, if I were Matt Arnold.

Image courtesy of USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect Beating the Dodgers isn't necessarily the Brewers' job. It's taken for granted, in many circles, that the Brewers will eventually have to go through Los Angeles in October to reach the World Series for the first time since 1982, but in reality, someone else will get a crack at that team first. For fans, players and the front office, it would be unhealthy, unproductive and inefficient to spend time obsessing over the Dodgers. The Brewers have their own work to do, and it shouldn't be a response to the Dodgers'. That's much easier to say than it is to live out, though, on the morning after Tarik Skubal landed with the sport's most successful dynasty since the turn of the 21st century. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman pushed his chips to the center of the table to haul in Skubal from the forgettable Tigers, as he attempts to secure Los Angeles's third straight World Series title. The Brewers had been in on Skubal, a source familiar with the discussions said, but they always knew the Dodgers were the favorites. As such, Brewers president of baseball ops Matt Arnold has been planning his pivot for some time. Though he's an impending free agent, Skubal was priced like a controllable one; that's one reason why the Brewers were never likely to land him. The package the Tigers received in exchange for Skubal is far richer than what any other pitcher headed for the market this fall will command, so the Brewers could choose to focus on one of those hurlers to keep acquisition costs down. They've talked to the Tigers about Casey Mize, the former No. 1 overall pick and another impending free agent, though the fit between what Mize does and what the Brewers like is imperfect. Arnold and Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom have known each other for 20 years, which provides the kind of foundation required to pull off intradivisional trades in July. St. Louis is likely to deal Dustin May, and the Brewers have checked in there, too. May suits the Crew's pitching predilections neatly, too: good velocity, good extension, three fastballs, and so on. Milwaukee has also talked to the Giants about both Tyler Mahle and Robbie Ray. Of the two, Ray comes with the higher price tag, but is also pitching better this season. The Brewers have talked internally about starters they could acquire to work in the back half of the rotation down the stretch, before moving to the bullpen in October. Ray would be a good candidate for that, and has done a version of it before. The final dual option for Milwaukee on the rental starter front could be the Mets, who have both Freddy Peralta and Clay Holmes on the market. Holmes is still rehabbing from a broken leg, but his profile is extremely similar to that of Quinn Priester. Needless to say, the Brewers are intrigued by that. A reunion with Peralta would be a joyous occasion for the team, but it might also be fraught; there's worry within the organization about the emotional toll it might take on all parties if Peralta's rough season continues after a would-be triumphant return. As always, though, the team remains open-minded and interested in making bigger moves, if the right opportunity is there. Milwaukee has talked to the Rockies about starter Ryan Feltner, who has two more years of team control after 2026 and is having a strong season. Feltner, 29, has an extremely strange arsenal, with relative cut on his four-seam fastball and his changeup and an erratic but dastardly sinker-slider combination. He won't be cheap, but Feltner is one medium-term acquisition who could be a level-booster for the Milwaukee rotation. Beyond those names, what Arnold might come up with is anyone's guess. The Brewers have not been frontrunners for Reid Detmers of the Angels, but José Soriano is "up their alley" and the team has checked in with interim Angels GM John Mozeliak about a number of players, a source said. Adding a starter remains an important box on the to-do checklist, but the team is also focused on deepending their stable to high-leverage relievers. That could lead them back to the Mets and Luke Weaver; it could also mean pursuing Orioles righty Tyler Wells. Skubal was never in the cards for Milwaukee. It was a nice idea, given their competitive position and how great he is, but the value Detroit demanded in return—and eventually got, from a team closer to the end of its championship window than the Brewers are—was more than he would have been worth to the Crew. Arnold has less than 36 hours to respond, but he's not in a direct arms race with Friedman. He just needs to help a great team get to October with its legs underneath it. View full article

Image courtesy of David Richard-Imagn Images 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: 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 full article

Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images Not satisfied to shop for pure rental arms, the Brewers are in touch with the Royals about two veteran starters under contract for 2027, according to a source briefed on recent discussions between the two teams. Milwaukee scouted Seth Lugo's start at Target Field this week and are also interested in fellow righty Michael Wacha. Lugo, 36, is owed about $7 million for the balance of 2026 and another $21.5 million in 2027. There's a team option in the deal that would pay him $17 million in 2028, and which comes with a $3-million buyout. Lugo is 4-6 with a 4.22 ERA in 22 starts, and is pitching better than that of late. Over his last three outings, he's allowed just five earned runs in 19 innings. He doesn't miss bats the way he did even a year or two ago, muting the value of his exceptionally deep arsenal, but his durability and capacity to work deep into games is regarded as a huge potential boost for a Brewers staff in need of an innings sponge. Somewhat more tantalizing and fresh off a trip to the All-Star Game, Wacha is 35 years old, but has a prettier 3.60 ERA in his 21 starts. He's owed $6 million for the rest of this year and $14 million (with a chance to make another $4 million via incentives) in 2027, and his deal comes with a more affordable 2028 option. He, too, is running a below-average strikeout rate, but he's been consistently able to mute hard contact while filling up the strike zone throughout his career. These deals reflect a couple of interlinked and important realities, league sources say. One is that the Tigers' asking price on Tarik Skubal remains "unrealistic," according to one source, making it unlikely that Milwaukee will pony up for the top rental arm on the market. Another is that, with the trade deadline coming so deep in this season and the Brewers' place atop the NL Central seemingly safe, the team is reluctant to pay the trade prices even on lower-tier rentals. They would rather do so for a pitcher who can continue to ease their management of pitchers' workloads in 2027 (or beyond), and while their budget is not unlimited even for partial-season additions, they're prepared to absorb some salary obligations in order to pay lower prospect costs for the upgrades they feel they need. It's been a slightly wrong-footed fortnight for the NL Central leaders, but they still have a strong position in the playoff jostling, and there might not be a better all-around team in the league even as they're currently constructed. Teams with top-tier chips to move will try to extract Milwaukee's highest-value prospects, but the team believes they can make important improvements without setting themselves back in the future that way. The Royals' veterans offer one path to that destination; the team still has four days to explore others. View full article

Image courtesy of John Hefti-Imagn Images Just as a team will sometimes rest their starting catcher on the day before an off day, the Brewers chose an opportune moment to push back Shane Drohan in the team's starting rotation. Drohan will get two extra days between outings this way, after Milwaukee called up Thomas Pannone to make a spot start Wednesday. The team will have an off day in Los Angeles Thursday before starting a weekend series with the Angels in Anaheim on Friday, and the bump gives Drohan and all of the team's other starters some breathing room. This is the massaging of workloads they've talked about all year. This is the luxury afforded to a team on pace for 100 wins and an easy division title, even after an ugly loss Wednesday. However, that loss did end up exposing some real cracks in the team's foundation for success. Pannone was serviceable, but Pat Murphy treated the outing more like the first phase of a bullpen game than like a true spot start, pulling the peripatetic lefty after just 56 pitches and three innings of three-run ball. At Triple-A Nashville, Pannone had made eight straight appearances with at least 80 pitches thrown and had gotten at least 16 outs in the last four. He was working on seven days' rest. Though the game might have gotten away from Milwaukee in the middle innings if Pannone had been left in a while, that option was available. Murphy, with his steadfast belief in trying to win every game, eschewed it. That meant calling upon Chad Patrick to pitch the fourth and fifth, and to start the sixth. He survived the first two of those frames without allowing a run, and the Brewers chipped away at the Giants' lead in the meantime. When the bottom of the sixth began, it was 3-2 in favor of the home side. Patrick, however, wasn't fooling San Francisco at all. The Giants only swung at 18 of his 47 pitches, and didn't whiff even once in those 18 tries. Patrick has been working through mechanical issues lately, and he's not the same weapon the team often enjoyed when he was assigned to the bullpen late last year. In the sixth, he ran out of ways to gut it out, and left without getting an out. Trying to throw a hat on a firehose, Murphy turned to Aaron Ashby, Somewhat like Patrick, Ashby is showing signs of wearing and buckling under heavy use recently, and Wednesday became the latest and most glaring example. Ashby faced six batters, threw 24 pitches, recorded one out, and left the game in the care of Bryse Wilson—a sure sign that the horses were out of the barn. Uncharacteristically sloppy defense behind them hurt the Brewers hurlers, but the day was a reminder that the team has real needs to address before Monday's trade deadline, even if they're less urgent than those of some of their rivals. Another starting pitcher would be a huge addition; it would obviate things like Wednesday's Pannone start. The team doesn't want to overexpose its young and inexperienced arms, but to shield them from overuse, they need to have good alternatives to whom to turn. The game also underscored the need for at least one reliever, to bolster a bullpen with similar problems to the starting staff's: a lot of guys nearing workload thresholds beyond which they're likely to become less effective. It's easy to forget, because the team never plays quite as deep into October as fans would like, but the Brewers have extra taxes to pay the pitching gods because of the extra innings they must throw each fall. Their season goes anywhere from one to three weeks past the end of the regular campaign, which means a few extra miles on the odometer of any pitcher whom they keep around for multiple seasons and a few fewer days to rest before spring training rolls back around. Ashby and Patrick are in that situation; so are Abner Uribe and Jacob Misiorowski. Turnover is needed; so is reinforcement. The Brewers entered spring training with so much pitching depth it felt almost redundant, but they need to make multiple additions over the next four days to ensure that they won't peter out in the NLCS again this time. Ashby and Patrick can still be superb pitchers in the roles Murphy has carved out for them, but they need a bit of a break, just as Drohan and the other starters on the staff do. Unless and until more talent pours through the door, it's harder to find those breaks for the team's vital relievers. View full article

Image courtesy of Justine Willard-Imagn Images It's easy to identify the superstar most likely to be traded before the MLB trade deadline next Monday. It's two-time defending AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal, of the flailing Tigers. Skubal isn't a great fit for the Milwaukee Brewers, though. He's still due more than $10 million for the balance of this season, and this November, he becomes eligible for free agency. If he's traded, the acquiring team won't even be able to extend him a qualifying offer and collect draft-pick compensation when he heads for the open market. That's not a very Brewers-y target, especially since the Tigers are likely to demand high-level prospects in exchange for the short-term rental of their mega-ace. The odds of the Crew giving up the massive haul the Padres will want for Mason Miller aren't much higher. Pairing Jacob Misiorowski and Miller on the same staff sounds like a dream, and Miller is under team control beyond this season, but his gaudy stats and saves totals will make him expensive. It's also risky to give up multiple young players to land a hurler with so much obvious injury risk attached to them—and not the kind of 'risky' that fits the decision-making framework of a team like Milwaukee. Nationals infielder CJ Abrams is having a career year, hurtling toward what could be 40 home runs and 30 steals at age 25. He's under team control for two more seasons, too. So what's the catch? Well, just that, actually. Abrams is a poor defender, unsuited to shortstop for a team as defense-minded as the Brewers, and his best alternative position would be second, where the team already has a down-ballot MVP candidate in Brice Turang. Under no pressure to move Abrams, the Nationals will hold onto him unless they get multiple top prospects; the Brewers are unlikely to pony up that way for a player who doesn't fit their roster well. Who, then, is the best player the Brewers might actually be willing and able to acquire in the next six days? Most teams are constrained by either their ability to spend or the depth of their farm system. There's certainly some limit on what Mark Attanasio will approve, financially, but the Brewers have some flexibility there. More importantly (since prospects are currency in July), they have the best farm system in baseball, and a young enough big-league roster to trade from that depth fearlessly if they get the right chance. There might be players who are functionally unavailable right now, except to the Brewers. Here are a few of them. James Wood This is the dream scenario, though it also seems to demand a bit of temerity from Matt Arnold that seemed to belong more to his former boss, David Stearns. Wood, 23, still has a whopping four years of team control left after 2026, and the Nationals seem to be ahead of schedule in their rebuild. They absolutely won't trade Wood, whom they acquired as the co-headliner of the Juan Soto deal in 2021 (alongside Abrams)—unless they get an even richer package for him than for Soto. That would mean Jesus Made and more. This deal would be akin to the Brewers trading for Christian Yelich in January 2018. It would be a major shakeup, and it would be risky, even with Cooper Pratt in place as a shortstop who can make losing Made hurt a bit less. It would also add a .272/.398/.556 hitter to their lineup. It might just make them favorites to win the World Series. Logan Webb The big concerns about a rotation spearheaded by Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison aren't about performance; they're about availability. With Logan Webb, availability is never in doubt. He's topped 200 innings in each of the last three seasons, a virtual miracle in the modern game. He's smack in the middle of a five-year, $90-million deal that looks very team-friendly, and even as they ponder a major roster overhaul, the Giants have said he's not available. Again, though, the Brewers have the farm system to make a player like Webb available, given the Giants' circumstances and Milwaukee's organizational depth. Again, add Webb to the rotation, and you're instant favorites for the pennant. Like Wood, he would be a boost not only immediately, but into the future. Hunter Goodman A recent report in The Athletic indicated that reservations about Goodman's defense have dinged his trade value enough to make a deal unlikely. That should only be music to the Brewers' ears. With one of the league's best catching instruction infrastructures, they would have a chance to mend the biggest weakness in a profile that has already netted Goodman two 30-homer seasons and two All-Star appearances. His huge raw power would augment the lineup for the rest of this season, and the team could then consider trading William Contreras this winter without feeling as uneasy about turning things over to one of their top catching prospects. Goodman is under team control through 2029. Gunnar Henderson In all likelihood, Arnold will blanch at the asking prices if he even checks in on Wood, Webb or Goodman. A slightly better plan might be to buy low on a player with superstar upside, experiencing a brutal season. Gunnar Henderson is only batting .221/.292/.401 this season, and although he's only 25 years old, he'll be a free agent in the fall of 2028. However, not for nothing was he a member of Team USA at the World Baseball Classic. He's demonstrated a virtually MVP-level ceiling as a two-way contributor at shortstop, and if coming to Milwaukee meant moving to third base, he'd be great there, defensively. 'Buying low,' here, would still mean giving up a lot; the Brewers would have to believe they can rapidly cure what has ailed him at the plate all year. It's an intriguing potential gambit, though. The Guys You Still Can't Get It's worth mentioning the names of two other players on a cellar-dwelling team, who make at least some sense as trade candidates. Unfortunately, because that team is the Cincinnati Reds, a trade to Milwaukee is still almost unimaginable—and the Brewers might be as scared to deal Made or other top prospects to Cincinnati as the Reds would be to send stars to their regional hegemon. Elly De La Cruz is piecing together outright superstardom, one thing at a time. This year, he's walking more than ever and lifting the ball a bit more consistently. Formerly hapless from the right side, he's become a truer switch-hitter and has hammered lefty pitchers. His defense has gotten more consistent. He still has three more years of team control left. The Reds would surely prefer to extend him, but it's clear that he's already pricing himself out of town. There's almost no chance he's dealt this week, though, and surely, the Reds will refuse outright to ship him anywhere else in their division. It's a slightly different story where Hunter Greene is concerned, but the ending is the same. The Reds have control of him through 2029, too, but it's expensive control: they signed him to a nine-figure deal in 2023. He missed almost the whole first half with arm trouble, and his numbers look shaky since his return. The stuff is still overpowering, though, so while they might be open to dealing Greene—they've moved on to Chase Burns as their de facto ace, signing him to a deal not unlike Greene's—the Reds will retain him if they don't get a huge haul. Neither the Brewers nor the Reds will want to heap their plates with the risks associated with swapping a bunch of young Milwaukee talent under cost and club control for Greene. A relatively straightforward deadline is the smart bet. The Brewers don't have big needs, or big motivation to deplete their elite depth. They do have an unusual opportunity, though. There are a handful of guys throughout the league whom they can acquire, whereas virtually no one else can. That has to stay in the back of the mind, for Arnold and for Brewers fans, over the next six days. View full article

You articulate the arguments well on each side. I think, status-quo, you'd let him stay in the rotation a little while. But I don't think the status quo will hold. They're gonna add a starter in the next six days and that will force them to consider moving Sproat.

I'm sure he'll get one. Colton Gordon, too. But the team will probably bring someone in to round out the rotation, so Crow and Gordon are both likely to remain confined to spot starts and long relief work for the balance of this year, IMO.

Image courtesy of Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images Things just keep finding a way to go wrong for Brandon Sproat. It's not always the same way, but there's always a way. Sproat made it through (technically) a quality start Monday night in San Francisco, surrendering three runs in six innings. It was just the fourth time this year that he's gotten at least 18 outs in a game, and it was one of his five or six best starts of the season. Even then, though, he only struck out five, and he walked three, and the Brewers lost 3-0. It's all becoming familiar. Sproat consistently downplays any hum of adrenaline fueling his starts, but in every outing, he comes out running hot and then sees his velocity drop significantly. On Monday night, he averaged 97.0 MPH with his four-seam fastball in the first inning, but by the fifth (94.2) and sixth (94.4), the heat was cooling off. For the year, Sproat's average heater in the first inning is 97.6 MPH, good for the 94th percentile among starters. In the fifth, it's 95.3, which dips out of the top quartile of the league. More importantly (and perhaps relatedly), Sproat too often finds himself working extremely hard early in starts, because he doesn't induce chases outside the zone much at all and doesn't miss enough bats when hitters do swing. In fact, here are the only four pitchers with at least 80th-percentile fastball velocity but an average or worse whiff rate and a chase rate in or below the 20th percentile. Despite throwing hard and having a sweeper, a curveball and a slider that all rate as above-average based on their raw characteristics, Sproat simply isn't forcing bad swing decisions or piling up whiffs. The other three guys who have this problem, by no coincidence, are all relievers. In the long run, Sproat still has a chance to help the Brewers as a starter. This season feels a bit like Corbin Burnes's 2019: a lot of teases, a lot of glimpses at huge potential, but lousy production. The team has a good chance to successfully develop him as a starter next season and beyond. For now, though, this confluence of weaknesses—the tendency to run out of steam after hot starts; an inability to get batters to expand the zone; and underperformance in terms of swing-and-miss—cries out for a change. Sproat needs to move to the bullpen down the stretch. That underscores the importance of the Brewers' quest to add a starting pitcher before next week's MLB trade deadline. They need the depth, anyway, but Sproat makes it clearer how badly they need it each time he takes the mound. Even assuming Kyle Harrison returns rapidly and without issue, the rotation could use another mid-tier arm behind him and Jacob Misiorowski. Logan Henderson, Shane Drohan and Robert Gasser are fine back-end options, and the Brewers have several relievers and Triple-A options who can give them length. Sproat should move into short relief and streamline his arsenal for the rest of this year. The front office, meanwhile, should add a starter who fits in front of the likes of Henderson and Drohan in the pecking order, making it easier to move Sproat out without worrying about a sudden lack of readiness to cover the requisite innings. View full article

Image courtesy of Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images In their first series out of the All-Star break, the Brewers swept the Miami Marlins, pushing that tottering team further toward being sellers at next Monday's MLB trade deadline. They then welcomed two teams who needed no such influencing, in the hapless Mets and Rockies. Now, as they hit the road for a pair of series on the West Coast, they'll extend their streak to an improbable five straight against sellers, in a league that doesn't have all that many teams thus classified. Obviously, it will be nice to swoop into San Francisco and Anaheim, where two reeling teams are bracing for being picked apart by trades. Wins should be as easy to come by there as they were during the team's homestand. It adds another layer of intrigue, though, to know that some of the players the Brewers will see while in each city are candidates to be Brewers themselves by this time next week. Arguably, the top two controllable starters on the market are members of the Angels, in Reid Detmers and José Soriano. Anaheim also has a couple of useful relievers available, including Kirby Yates and old friend Brent Suter. On the position-player side, they could look to move righty sluggers Jorge Soler and/or Jo Adell, and if the right offer comes for shortstop Zach Neto, they might even move on from him. Detmers, Soriano and Neto are high-value targets, even if the fit for Neto would be imperfect from the Brewers' standpoint. One or more of those guys could be traded before Milwaukee even gets to the Big A, though. First, the Crew will drop in on Willy Adames and the Giants. Adames, of course, has an onerous contract attached to him, and fitting him back into the infield mix for the Brewers would be even more fraught than acquiring Neto. However, there are whispers that the Giants might try to move sweet-swinging outfielder Jung Hoo Lee, and they have a trio of veteran starters who will be available to lengthen a rotation. In all likelihood, the Brewers will have no interest in a reunion with Adrian Houser or in Tyler Mahle, but Robbie Ray could be a solid fit for them. San Francisco also has a few relief arms who might be easy to acquire, led by JT Brubaker. Normally, West Coast trips are imposing, even when a good team is venturing out to play poor ones. At this moment, though, these should make for some easy wins for the Crew. The Giants and Angels have too many of their own problems to focus on their opponents well right now. San Francisco's decision to hire manager Tony Vitello away from his head coaching job at the University of Tennessee has gone pear-shaped; the Angels fired GM Perry Minasian earlier this summer. Amid the chaos of each club and the cloud hanging over each clubhouse, the Brewers need to make hay. They'll also get the chance to scout some of those could-be helpful pieces up close. Only Detmers and Soriano stand out as great fits for Milwaukee. On the other hand, in the right creative sequence (a trade bringing in Neto and sliding him to third base, while spinning off Joey Ortiz to bolster the pitching staff? One that moves an outfielder to land Detmers, and another that brings in Lee to slot into the lineup?), they could be the kinds of splashy moves that have been bandied about by the national media over the last week. One thing this stretch of the schedule underscores needs to remain in the front of Brewers fans' minds over the next week: Every acquisition they make must be about October. This team will win its division and go to the playoffs with a good chance to reach the World Series. They need to reinforce the roster in ways that specifically address what might prevent them from going that far. Playing these bad teams should keep them comfortable in the standings and make clear to everyone how dominant the Crew can be. They don't just need to fill innings. They need to think about who, on these lousy teams they're facing in the final fortnight of July, can help them beat much stronger opponents two months from now. View full article