6:46PM: The Brewers will pick up all of the $4.5MM owed to Rosenthal, according to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle.
4:53PM: Minor league outfielder Tristan Peters is being dealt to the Giants in exchange for Rosenthal, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports (Twitter link).
4:13PM: The Brewers have acquired right-hander Trevor Rosenthal from the Giants, Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports (Twitter link). It makes for a very short stint for Rosenthal in San Francisco, as the Giants only just signed the veteran to a one-year, $4.5MM deal back on July 21.
It remains to be seen when Rosenthal will actually be able to take the mound for Milwaukee, as he hasn’t pitched since the end of the 2020 season due to a groin strain, thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, and then a hamstring strain that only surfaced within the last couple of weeks. Rosenthal wasn’t expected to be ready to pitch for at least a few more weeks, so early September could be the best-case scenario for his Brewers debut.
When healthy, Rosenthal will be another arm in a Brewers bullpen that has been rather unexpectedly reshaped over the last two days. Taylor Rogers and Matt Bush were added, while All-Star closer Josh Hader was dealt to San Diego in the blockbuster deal that brought Rogers into the fold. Devin Williams now projects as Milwaukee’s closer, with Rogers, Bush, and incumbent setup men Trevor Gott, Brad Boxberger, Hoby Milner, and Brent Suter providing additional support in high-leverage innings.
How Rosenthal will look when he is able to pitch is another question, given the long layoff. After missing all of 2018 due to Tommy John surgery, Rosenthal had a 13.50 ERA over 15 1/3 innings in 2019, but then rebounded for a 1.90 ERA in 23 2/3 frames with the Royals and Padres last season. This glimmer of his old All-Star form was enough to intrigue the A’s into signing Rosenthal a one-year, $11MM deal prior to the 2021 campaign that unfortunately backfired completely on Oakland, as Rosenthal never threw so much as a pitch for the organization.
The Giants’ return in the deal isn’t yet known, though the trade reflects the team’s sudden change of direction just within the last few days. Flipping Rosenthal probably wasn’t on the Giants’ mind on July 21, but that was also the day the team began a seven-game losing streak. With San Francisco now under the .500 mark, the focus has now turned to selling, with Rosenthal joining Darin Ruf, Curt Casali, Matthew Boyd heading out of town, though many of the Giants’ bigger-name trade chips remain.
Giants cleaning house!
Nice flip, Farhan.
Please Lord, let Kapler be next
Boyd and Rosenthal, both Zaidi transactions to never play for the Giants. And Zaidi is supposedly a “genius” more like a bozo!
Better than being an internet sook.
A female crab?
Rosenthal signed 10 days ago and Zaidi got someone to pick up his entire tab. He basically got a prospect for free. That prospect might not amount to much but I fail to see how this can be held against him.
His tab is pretty much all performance escalators though, so it’s not actually a 4.5 million dollar deal.
Even if it just ends up being $1M, my point still stands!
That your GM bought a bad prospect for a million bucks?
Sure.
Incorrect. It says right there in the article the Brewers are taking on all his salary. That amounts to getting a prospect for a 10 day prorated version of Rosenthal’s salary.
Also, not “my team.” I’m not a Giants fan.
Sorry. My point wasn’t that the Crew didn’t owe his whole salary.
It’s that it was said to be $4.5 million, when in fact it’s simply an incentives contract that likely won’t pay him even a million (can’t imagine him reaching any of it, since it was signed a while ago by SF and innings were probably the biggest determinant of money).
He wasn’t signed awhile ago, though, so I’m a bit confused by that point! He agreed to the contract on July 21, so he’d only been in the SF org for 10 total days before being traded and was a free agent until that day.
I looked into contract details and it’s not just an incentive contract; it’s a prorated $4.5M base salary, which equates to a $1.9M base salary for the remainder of the season. So the Brewers are paying him a minimum of $1.873M while the Giants are on the hook for $27k owed to him for the 10 days he spent in the organization.
He gets $50k for 15 games, another $50k for 18, $150k for 23, $200k for 28, etc. $100k for 12 games finished, $150k for 15, etc. Definitely not gonna max out.
Gotta be the Giants are purposely opening up roster space for something bigger
The moves have all been made, letting the kids play is the next logical decision.
Wasn’t he a free agent like 20 seconds ago? Why didn’t they just sign him then?
WTH is Farhan doing
Flipping an arm that has some value/name recognition that may not even pitch this year (and even if he does, it may not be very good – see 2019) for a prospect?
Farhan haters going to hate, but why on this move??? BEST case, he is a revelation, and then becomes a free agent anyway.
Some Giant fans just live in the past. Giants are not better then LA or SD. So why not trade away players they don’t need.
This trade has upset Devin Williams apparently
Robbing other teams
So salary dumping in two different trades basically, weird.
There’s the bat we were waiting for…
I mean it’s never bad to have a ton of arms, but Josh Bell would’ve been nice! Kripes!
I’m now starting to wish for that Kevin Mench-type trade.
This particular deal is just…odd. dude was unemployed 2 weeks ago, and today we trade for him. Makes me wonder if there’s a significant injury announcement forthcoming.
We. Need. Bats.
For real. Unless the Brewers manage to move Narvaez and get Contreras (pipe dream) or acquire JD Martinez, I don’t know what the Brewers are doing.
They’ll be in the exact same spot with Burnes and Woodruff in a year or two as they were with Hader. So are they just hoping a World Series falls in their laps?
Brewers have the bats, but they would rather swing for the fences and strike out that try to get on base. Their starting infield has a lousy on base %
So that means they don’t have the bats then… Anyone going to take this lineup against Degrom, Scherzer, Musgrove, etc?
Over the last two weeks, basically since Renfroe returned, Milwaukee has the top offense in MLB, meanwhile Keston Hiura is still mashing in AAA (not to mention a 128 wRC+ in the majors this year). That’ll be a potent bat to call on in the next two months, not to mention Jace Peterson when he returns. This team is closer to complete than you think.
Hiura a potent bat…?
For what they would ask of him, yeah he is. A nine-player lineup and bench is not full of plus-plus hitters, especially when so much organizational resource and development is located in an elite pitching staff. Ditch your fantasy baseball mentality and accept that this is how small market teams succeed.
Lmao. Ok buddy. Have a good night.
Do you not understand that 128 means 28% better than the average player at his position?
Yes, it’s a potent bat and they’ve figured out how to get the best out of him.
He should never have been sent down with Cutch kind of slumping and no one else decent (and for what, a bad middle reliever to fill innings).
After trading Hader, they’re making some good additions to bolster the pen.
Wait, a guy who hasn’t pitched in 2 years, even in the minors, gets traded?
And he’s going to be the next Brewers closer
@whogg72; I’m with you! I thought the Giants were crazy for signing him at 4.5 early this year and now this. Obviously amateur GM hour on my part. First the Giants and now the Brew Crew believing Trevor can bounce back, ok, I’ll bite.
He doesn’t actually have a 4.5 mil deal. Look at his contract, it’s all performance escalators.
Giants have opened 5 40-man spots today alone. What is the next big move?
Maybe trading more platoon bats and injured pitchers?
How exciting?
Must be great to be a giants fan
Better than being a Reds fan. Giants at least will have a shot at the playoffs next year.
Maybe. But come the postseason you Dodger fans will again be nervous of an upset.
@MichaelSallaFan 107 wins last year, 3 World Series titles in the 2010s, and a great stadium. It’s not too bad, thanks.
@MichaelSallaFan, we don’t need your sympathy!
We weren’t supposed to compete for a few years, and were rewarded with a 107 win season last year. Some of the “dumpster diving” that for some reason a legion of readers on here loathe has netted us some pretty exciting players: Gausman was amazing while we had him, Desclafani was quite good last year (albeit a little shaky at times, but you could do a lot worse), Wood and Cobb have been solid, Brebbia Garcia Alvarez and Leone have been unexciting yet strong bullpen contributors, Estrada has been great, I’m going to miss Ruf – while his line is usually unexciting he is a very underrated player, and Yaz and Wade Jr. have been legitimately exciting players to watch (both were dumpster finds and both cost us nothing).
Waiting for the controllable prospects to roll in?
Ha, wonder who they got for him.
Go get Wil Myers from SD in a salary dump. Padres will give a nice prospect to stay under the Cap
That’ll be one of the plays.
Didn’t they just sign this guy?
glad we got this flip, free assets
WTF BREWERS!!! Are we planning to just have 17 pitchers and 9 position players on the roster? Very frustrating to watch a first place team decide to get worse for the stretch run because we’re worried about the future. Very disappointing moves by Stearns up to this point.
Thank you. As a Brewers fan I agree a 100%. I thought I was the only one
You’re both wrong. That’s why you’re the only 2 who don’t like the moves.
How do you not like the moves? Hader > Rogers, yea….all of the other pieces, this team should be better now and in the long run.
The bullpen has had their floor raised but without Hader the ceilings been lowered. And nothing added to the offense, the most glaring weakness the team has? It essentially is a salary dump, the pitching prospect they got for Hader is replacing Kelly that they dealt away for Bush. Everything will hinge on how that outfielder develops and that is years away.
Ruiz isn’t proven but could/should help the offense. Won’t take much to improve CF offensively.
And allows the Crew to trade some of their OF prospects, Frelick or Weimer, both of whom I think will not be good MLB players (holding out hope for Mitchell yet).
Imagine if Ruiz and Mitchell pan out and we can trade Yelich for another boatload of prospects.
?????
Donovan Solano can be had for a box of popsicles.
Agreed
He’s still around? Haven’t heard that name in a while
Trevor Rosenthal, Forever Giant.
this man is amazing. hasn’t pitched anything meaningful since 2020 and teams are acquiring him like he’s been effective all year
Fornever Giant
He still plays?
Define “plays”. He is under contract, but doesn’t do a whole lot of playing.
I thought he retired after last year.
Nope!!! Just sellers. 18.5 games back explains it al….
What year is it?
Farhan flipped his fixer-upper before he had a chance to fix-’em up.
I love how people poo-poo’d this signing at the time. Rosenthal never pitched for the Giants, but they got something for him.
Haven’t seen the return yet, but I’m guessing it’s a low-level prospect lottery ticket. The only way the Giants signing Rosenthal makes no sense is if they traded him for cash considerations. Otherwise, writing a check for ~10 days of rehab and flipping him for any prospect seems like a solid — is bizarre — choice.
WTF!!! First the Brewers trade away Hader in the midst of a play off run and now they sign Trevor Rosenthal, who hasn’t pitched since 2022 and wasn’t expected to pitch for the Giants until September????? We need help now to maintain OUR LEAD, NOT IN SEPTEMBER TO TRY AND MAKE A COMEBACK….Have always gone along with Stearns trades, but this one is a head scratcher, what is he trying todo, fall out of favor with the Brewers so he can goto the Mets???
I think I read somewhere Stearns can’t leave unless the Brewers make (or win) the NLCS. So that theory may not hold water. Who knows though.
Thats going to tough after the Cards acquired another very good pitcher in Montgomery from the Yankees, though I didn’t mind seeing Bader leave.
I think they have to make the WS.
Oh calm down.
I can’t watch a Stearns interview today without wanting to punch his smug little face!! I guess the offense must be all fixed, after all, they’ve gone 7-2 since the all star break. Move over ‘82 team, here comes that juggernaut’22 offense
Trade rodon
Extend rodon
DFA rodon
Rodon for President
Ha
As a Brewer fan, I hate this so much.
Great prospect for someone who hasn’t pitched.
There is no logical reason to have made this trade. 7th rd pick successfully hitting his 1st year for a guy that hasn’t thrown to a ML hitter in 2years? Very bad trading season for Stearns&Co.
I am not a Stearns fan and won’t be upset if he leaves to go to the Mets in a year or two.
It’s a shame you can’t appreciate that he’s the architect of the best 5 years in Brewers’ history.
I think we all need to take a deep deep breath and relax. How we forget last season. Last year the Brewers were terrible batting until they got Willie. Once Willie joined the team, it seemed like everyone was hitting. Every year it seems to take this team about 1/2 a year to get going with the bats, and since the All Star break, the bats have woken up. Kolton Wong is a prime example. Almost every year he starts off cold for the the first two months, and they he starts to hit. He is on fire right now with the bat. Yes, I also would have liked to have gotten someone like Josh Bell, but it didn´t happen. I like what the Brewers are doing in the pen. Loading up with relievers with previous closing experience. Remember at the beginning of last year when the Brewers cut Brad Boxberger at the beginning of the season, and then picked him up about 1 or 2 weeks later. Boxberger has been great for the Crew for 2 years now. These extra arms that Sterns is getting could very well shorten a lot of playoff games. If the Brewers have a lead after the 5th inning, I am very confident in our bullpen.
last few years Pitching has got MKE to playoffs but then once you get to the playoffs all teams have good pitching also. That’s when you need good hitting and has cost the Brewers early exits. Right now looks like nothing has changed.
Very true. The Crew has trotted out a lot of terrible middle relief guys this year and we can finally cut 2 or 3 of them (or, knowing Stearns, they have options and can be sent down).
Stearns 3 failed deadline trades. Every team got the better of the Brewers in the trades.
You really aren’t very smart are ya?
So many on here sound like Devin Williams in his interview today, acting like his dog just died. Trading a closer at his peak value, almost always a smart move. Surprise in season, sure, but Rogers, Bush, Dinet and Rosenthal, if one of the last two performs, the bullpen is way better than with just Hader, sorry/not sorry.
Untrue. We have just watched a first place team decide that building for the future is better than winning now. Stearns is wrong, Brewers fans don’t want a semi-contender/ pretender every year, they want a World Series. Maybe this gives us more of a chance in a few years but it gives us less of a chance this year. Absolute garbage moves from Stearns.
lol
Of course Devin Williams is pissed. He wants to win a WS and they just traded away the best closer in baseball! Stearns made a big mistake this time, of course he’s too damn arrogant to see it. You don’t win in the playoffs without a few all stars. You surely don’t trade away a potential future hall-of-famer for your pennant race!!!!
Yea, Stearns doesn’t know what he’s doing. Ok guy(s). Brewers never really won in the Playoffs with Hader, btw.
I look forward to checking back here in two months.
They haven’t won in the playoffs the last few seasons because they haven’t been able to hit. That is still the case.
Enrico, if they win the WS, I guess you can gloat. But if they don’t, and they had the best overall pitching staff in brewer history, and they failed to get a bat, and they traded away the three time reliever-of-the-year award winner (just to save a few bucks next year),I guess you should also come back in two months and admit Stearns made a huge mistake.
They don’t need to win the WS for a trade to be a win. I like your championship attitude where absolutes are the only measure.
I absolutely would like them to win one WS in my 48 years of listening to them most every day on the radio. If they can do that by dumping their best players, I guess you’re a better GM than I am.
Stearns knows more than you and I, clearly. Hader is the best player? You could say 2nd best although his 4.50 ERA would have me disagree(Woodruff, Williams above him) and Burnes is clearly more valuable.
Funny watching some fellow Brewer fans grappling with one of these trades that is a buy and sell at the same time. Moves teams like the Ray’s and A’s have made for years to keep competitive. Welcome to having a smart front office.
Dude, this guy Rosenthal is like Landry Shamet of the NBA-
Greatest ability is plain making money
Brewers picked up the 4.5 mil.
I’d take the under if we’re betting on Rosenthal getting to 10 innings pitched in the regular season. Nice work if you can get it.
Much less I hear. Almost all incentives.
This trade waa basically a sign and trade.
Can we finally put the ‘Stearns is a great GM” hype to rest? What a disastrous trade deadline for the Brewers. They needed a bat who doesn’t whiff at a high rate, LH relief (after trading Hader), and some help towards a better defense. Bell, Hosmer, Dominic Smith, maybe even W. Myers or ?? would have helped or been worth taking a chance on? But no, Stearns thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room!
Just like Counsell typically overmanaging in the 7th inning tonight. Pinch hit for your #3 & #5 hitters with Brosseau and Severino due to lefty/righty matchups. Especially when Tellez and Wong have been on a roll lately. Bet that really helps the confidence of Tellez & Wong for the future. Hopefully good riddance to Stearns/Counsell/Lane after this season. It’s getting really old of basically the same thing each year!
Sure get rid of them. Then the Brewers can go back to year in and year out being a .430 winning club like they have been their entire existence.
You have to wonder where these dumb guys come from. Can’t even respond directly to his idiotic comment now.
Smart people won’t put it to rest.
Stearns and Counsell are the best in the biz–in ALL sports–and these have been the best 5 or so years EVER in Brewer history.
I honestly hadn’t followed them since Molly left. They were that bad from the early 90s to the Braun years.