The Brewers added to their bullpen late Monday night, announcing a deal with the Rangers to bring in Matt Bush. Texas receives infielder Mark Mathias and minor league pitcher Antoine Kelly in the deal.
Bush has had a strong season out of the Texas bullpen. The 36-year-old hurler made the Opening Day roster and has tossed 36 2/3 innings through 40 outings, posting a 2.95 ERA. He’s fanned nearly 30% of batters faced on an above-average 12.4% swinging strike rate while averaging north of 97 MPH on his heater. Bush generates top-of-the-scale spin on his four-seam fastball and has drawn strong results on his breaking ball.
When healthy, Bush is a plenty appealing bullpen piece. He’s pitched in parts of five seasons for Texas, posting a cumulative 3.34 ERA across 177 2/3 frames with above-average strikeout and walk numbers. The issue for the righty has been staying healthy. He pitched just four innings at the big league level between 2019-21, losing the majority of that stretch to elbow issues — including a July 2019 Tommy John surgery.
Bush missed a couple weeks earlier in the year with forearm soreness, but he’s been healthy for the past few weeks. He’ll add an affordable and generally effective power arm to the middle innings mix for manager Craig Counsell, and he’s more than a short-term pickup. While Bush is already into his mid-30s, he’s arbitration-eligible for two seasons beyond this year. Building off a modest $825K platform salary, he’d be a low-cost bullpen option in Milwaukee through 2024 if he holds his spot on the 40-man roster.
In exchange, Milwaukee sends a utility option and a pitching prospect to Texas. Mathias, 28, has only appeared in 22 major league games — six this season. He’s had a stellar season with the Brew Crew’s top affiliate in Nashville, though, hitting .318/.421/.518 with eight home runs and a massive 13.4% walk rate in 202 trips to the plate. He’s split his time between second and third base this year, and he also has some prior corner outfield experience.
Kelly, 22, was recently named the #7 prospect in the Milwaukee system by Baseball America. That’s partially a reflection of a generally thin minor league system, but the southpaw was a second-round draftee in 2019. Evaluators have long raved about his fastball-slider combination while questioning his control, and that’s borne out in his numbers at High-A this season. Kelly has a 3.86 ERA through 19 starts, punching out over 30% of batters faced but walking 13.4% of opponents. The Rangers will have to add the Illinois native to the 40-man roster at the end of the season or leave him available in the Rule 5 draft.
MLB Nerds was first to report the Brewers were acquiring Bush. Robert Murray of FanSided first reported the Brewers were trading Mathias to the Rangers, while Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic was first with Kelly’s inclusion.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Rangers going all in. AL officially put on notice.
Yeap ALL IN lol
Could this be a Joey Gallo trade that hasn’t fully been reported yet?
In a word: no.
Possibly. Teams have been extremely bussy tonight with the trade deadline looming.
Bro
Cool thanks for the free reliever
Right?
Kelly is a high upside prospect. Not sure why we’re thinking Brewers got Bush for free. Especially since Bush is a two month rental
Bush has 2 more years of arby control, if desired.
@TGH31 good call. Thanks for the correction
He’s got 2 1/2 years of control. Where did you get “two month rental” from? Please do your research if you want to be taken seriously
I think he apologized for his error. Lighten up
Judging from the Brewers fan pages they were pretty bummed about giving up Kelly… 22, high end prospect for an aging reliever who is having a good season. Sorry but the Rangers won
As long as he isn’t Willie Calhoun 2.0
Yeah, like a top 20 prospect for Joey Gallo. You know that’s a move Daniels wants so bad he can taste it.
2021 rated as Milwaukees 2nd best pitching prospect until his surgery. Now he has recovered
I think we got Kelly for free. Bush spends more time on dl than mound
Sure you can have the old man reliever and we’ll take the high ceiling rotation prospect lol
Far from free.
To be fair I posted this before Kelly was mentioned in the deal. Seems more of a fair trade now.
I think this is the guy that hit and run a senior citizen and organized an ambush to beat up some high school lacrosse players. Sad that he’ll never get to bond with Josh Hader.
Good for Stearns. This should help Brewer fans forget Hader.
Rangers have to be getting more…
Are you a serious? Trading a old reliever on a non contending team for a kid who’s left handed and throws 100 wasn’t the right move? What world do you live in where holding on to bush provides us any value this already lost season?
My bad I replied to the wrong comment lol
The Rangers doing Rangers type things. Ridiculous franchise.
i think they won the trade. Kelly is solid
Kelly has absolutely phenomenal stuff just comes down to how well he can command it
Yeah, idk what there is to complain about. A soon-to-be 37y/o for a young potential mid rotation pitcher/ bullpen arm that seems pretty solid since his surgery. They didn’t exactly trade away a stud.
He’s a valuable late inning guy. I dont really like the trade but don’t hate it.
Lmao Rangers got a good return for an oft injured reliever soon to be collecting retirement checks.
Would’ve cost you more prospect capital.
I suppose , in your world, you would rather see Bush behind bars, living on your tax dollars, rather than turning his life around, and earning a living.
Brewers got their Hader replacement! /s
Hope he drives up to Milwaukee
And brings Wendy’s chicken nuggets with him. Yummy.
Feels like a precursor trade for the Rangers.
Stay tuned, more to come.
I can’t stand Jon Daniels
So I’ll give the credit for this nice trade to Chris Young
I’ll continue to dump on Daniels when they inevitably make a bad trade tomorrow
Thinking these two pick ups were done to replace Roby and either Ornelas or Acuna who will possibly be included in a trade tomorrow.
If it’s for a Lopez or someone of his stature that’ll be good. Better be for a long term top starter. If not, we can go hard after some FA.
I am thinking Lopez, Skubal, Plesac, Mahle or Syndergaard as possibilities.
No need to waste prospects on Syndergaard or ANY rental.
Lopez or Skubal would be perfect.
We just have to make sure we sign one of Rodon, Syndergaard and Clevinger in the offseason. (And to an extent Kershaw but I think he stays with L.A.)
Trading for Lopez tomorrow and signing Rodon in the off-season (and extending Perez) could make them contenders next year imo. Not to win it all but they’d have a good squad on paper and some exciting young players coming up
Matt Effing Bush.
I hope he suffers as his victims have.
That was a long time ago and he has served his time. Doesn’t really matter what you think anyway. He will be judged by a higher power than you at some point, just like your perfect life will be.
(Matt Bush’s dad has entered the chat)
(With your mom)
He’s a lowlife who chose to kill another human being because he has no regard for those around him.
If you think serving time justifies gravely injuring somebody while making choices to drive recklessly or under the influence of mind-altering substances, you have a perverted sense of justice. It’s nice that you’ve subscribed to that whole concept of a god. That’s the only thing that keeps some people in line when they don’t have the internal determination and fortitude to do the right thing in the first place.
Matt Effing Bush subscribed to no such god. Once an addict, always an addict. Once a user, always a user and once a mindless peon who hands responsibility over to a god, always a mindless peon who hands responsibility over to a god.
Teams continue giving this murderer a job and then have the gall to make all sorts of other social justice claims.
Do you see the irony in this post?
Continue kneeling.
Do your research moron. He has never killed anyone and he served his time in prison. What an a-hole you are
Tell that to Tony’s family. He still suffers with issues to this day. That says nothing for all his other victims throughout the years. He’s a scumbag.
Brewers give up Hader who when on is one of the best RP in MLB and get back very little. Now trade one of their better young pitching prospects for a injury prone 36 year old RP? I have to question if the Brewers GM has been smoking something.
Smoking something? Looking at Stearns’ overall track record since 2015, I’ll have what he’s having.
Looking at Stearns’ overall track record since 2015, I’ll have what he’s having.
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Are you talking about making the playoffs straight years, plus likely this year, or something else?
I’ll have what he’s having.
Brewers give up Hader who when on is one of the best RP in MLB
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Have you considered Hader’s recent performance in your assessment?
Stearns working on making the Brewers into a 3rd place team, so when he leaves at the end of the year for his boyhood team Mets, he won’t have any worries from Milwaukee. Who’s next? Wong and Narváez? Maybe he could trade Devin Williams for a washed up 2nd baseman and 2 low A ball prospects
Stearns must make the nlcs to activate his contract opt out.
That means he has another full year to screw this team completely. Oh goody…
Since taking over the Brewers have made the playoffs more times than the club ever did in its previous 45 years.
Why not Moore (a lefty) instead of Bush from Texas? Stearns is an average GM at best. Amazing how many here think he’s a genius and buys into the hype. His track record is not as good as many of you think! Hopefully, the Stearns/Counsell regime in Milwaukee is gone after this season.
The Brewers fans love these scumbag type players. Ryan Braun ruined a man’s life in an attempt to cover up his own deceit and yet the fans loudly cheered him until the day he retired. Pretty gross.
Do you actually follow a team you like, or just spend all your free time making yourself more angry by picking out the negatives of the Brewers (and possibly other teams in mlb or another sport..)? Just seems like wasted energy to me, but if it’s your thing then keep on keeping on.
So you feel it’s a good thing that Ryan Braun made fraudulent claims and ruined someone’s life in an attempt to cover his own dishonour?
Where did I say that?