Potential deGrom-type trade a bridge too far for Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers would surely be a better ball club immediately following a potential Jacob deGrom trade, but they’d have to mortgage the future.

Surrendering multiple top-ten prospects for any player, even an ace-level starter with multiple years of remaining control like the New York Mets’ Jacob deGrom, would be a bridge too far for the still-rebuilding Milwaukee Brewers.

Innumerable possible moves wait to be realized for Milwaukee general manager David Stearns to improve his ball club in the lead-up to the July 31 non-waiver and August 31 waiver trade deadlines. But a stark chasm yawns between making a sensible trade grounded in reality and reaching for the stars when the team still sits on the surface.

Certainly, in any significant trade, Stearns would have to give up the kind of young, controllable talent he covets in order to get a proven MLB performer, particularly when it comes to starting pitching.

Yet, the Brewers are still rebuilding and still fragile. They don’t have the kind of limitless financial resources and/or near-inexhaustible supply of rising young talent that some teams possess. The Brewers gave up major pieces of a very good farm system to acquire Christian Yelich from the Miami Marlins, and though they are a very good ball club in 2018, they aren’t in the kind of power position that teams should attain before they make all-in trades.

In addition, there is no guarantee deGrom continues to pitch as well as he has or that he stays healthy. Though he is just 30 years old, starters are unpredictable and only pitch about 30 times per season, limiting their impact over the long haul. Though the 2011 Brewers (with Zack Greinke) reached the NLCS, they failed to advance that year and never got another shot with Greinke in tow.

Patience and pragmatism don’t fuel baseball’s rumor mill, however. And the longer the Brewers remain in contention, the more speculation will grow, despite where the Cubs, Cardinals or any other team stands in the National League.

Near-constant chatter, banter and noise surround an imaginary Jacob deGrom-to-the-Milwaukee Brewers trade in recent days, ever since MLB.com’s Jim Duquette speculated on the required return for the Metropolitans to make such a move.

This deGrom-to-Milwaukee scenario is all just make-believe, of course, but Duquette suggests the Brewers would have to part with value similar to the following package to acquire deGrom (11.3 K/9, 0.4 HR/9, 0.986 WHIP, 1.51 ERA in 95 innings in 2018):

"A prospect package of second baseman Keston Hiura (Brewers’ No. 1 prospect) and righty Corbin Burnes (No. 2) would have to headline any trade for deGrom, with two out of outfielder Corey Ray, righty Freddy Peralta (No. 9) and first baseman Jake Gatewood (No. 17) rounding out the deal."

Whoa. Naturally, such a promising payload of talented prospects ignited a social supernova of reaction on every platform imaginable. Echoes of the CC Sabathia and Zack Greinke trades swirled around as well, as pundits and fans alike debated whether the Brewers ought to play with fire and move several could-be quality Major Leaguers for the dominant starting pitcher deGrom is right now.

Casual fans will say, sure, let’s get deGrom, forget the prospects! Great starting pitching costs a lot on the trade market for good reason, but should the Brewers negotiate with the Mets, the same team that pulled out of the proposed Carlos Gomez deal a few years back and caused Wilmer Flores to cry on TV?

A potential deGrom acquisition would be very exciting, and could lead to amazing things for the Cream City Crew, admittedly. But unless the Brewers can take control in the NL Central and put some serious distance between themselves and division rivals, any thoughts of dealing uber-prospects like Huira and the already impressive Peralta only make this Brewers fan think of the World Series parade in Kansas City in 2015.