Milwaukee Brewers: Any Big Addition will have to Happen Via Trade

Although it may not be likely, if the Milwaukee Brewers are going to make a significant addition, at this point it will have to come via trade.

Well, it’s certainly been an active offseason up to this point for the Milwaukee Brewers, but I’m going to guess that it’s not been the type of busy that most fans expected or wanted. Despite coming off of their second straight postseason appearance, GM David Stearns is conducting a mini-rebuild on the fly which has resulted in a lot of roster turnover.

For starters, they traded away Chase Anderson , Zach Davies, Trent Grisham and they declined Eric Thames’ team option. Meanwhile, Drew Pomeranz, Jordan Lyles, Mike Moustakas, and Yasmani Grandal all went elsewhere via free agency. And lastly, they non-tendered Junior Guerra, Jimmy Nelson, Alex Claudio, and Travis Shaw. Forgive me if I left a player or two out.

As a result of all these moves, they acquired via the aforementioned trade, Luis Urias and Eric Lauer. While signing free agents Brett Anderson, Josh Lindblom, Ryon Healy, Eric Sogard, Avisail Garcia, Justin Smoak, and most recently Jedd Gyorko. Not to mention that Alex Claudio was brought back as well, along with a few other new additions on minor league deals.

Your 2020 Milwaukee Brewers are a team full of players with a lot of potential but also a lot of question marks and low floors as well. However, for a team with the Brewers’ potential – and according to Fangraphs’ ZiPS projections there is potential – one more big bat in the lineup or another front-end of the rotation pitcher could go a long ways in putting them over the top and making them more than just a playoff contender. That is assuming most of the offseason additions do their part.

Unfortunately, unlike in past years when the Brewers were able to sign Lorenzo Cain in late January of 2018, as well as Grandal and Moustakas in January and February of last year, the free agent market is pretty picked over at this point. Meaning, if there is going to be a significant addition by Milwaukee, it will have to come via trade.

And this was something that Stearns himself acknowledged when asked recently if it was more likely that he’d make a trade over utilizing free agency to fill a need by saying, “that’s probably a fair assessment.”

With that said, it’s also worth pointing out that they would address the need at third base by signing free agent Jedd Gyorko. But one thing we’ve learned during Stearns tenure as Brewers’ GM is to never underestimate what he will do, especially in the month of January.

Now, as far as who the Brewers would target, that is difficult to speculate since most moves made by Stearns come with little warning or leaking of the news prior to it happening. And while a few of the big names on trade block include Kris Bryant and Nolan Arenado, those aren’t realistic options.

On the flip side, when it comes to some players that Milwaukee would have to give up in a trade, of course, Josh Hader comes to mind as his name has been circulated this offseason, but Orlando Arcia is a potential trade candidate as well with the arrival of Luis Urias. And in the minor leagues, Corey Ray could be a trade piece and even Brice Turang for the right price.

As I mentioned previously, Stearns has made some excellent additions in the month of January and he will continue to add to this roster up to Spring Training and into the season just as he has done in the past. Although if I had to guess, I don’t foresee any big additions at this point in the offseason, but if I am incorrect, it is going to have to come via a trade.