Brewers Acquire Steward Berroa

Prior to facing each other on the field today, the Brewers and Dodgers have lined up on a trade, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. Outfielder Steward Berroa, who was recently designated for assignment by the Dodgers, head to the Brewers in exchange for cash. The Brewers have placed him on the minor league injured list due to right shoulder bursitis. Right-hander Elvin Rodríguez has been designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot.

It’s the second DFA trade of the year for Berroa. He spent many years as a prospect in the Blue Jays’ system and got to make his major league debut with that club last year. He got squeezed off the roster in May and flipped to the Dodgers for cash. Now the same sequence of events gets him moved from the Dodgers to the Brewers.

Berroa, 26, has a decent floor as a speedy outfielder. He’s generally been good for about 50 steals per year in the minors, give or take, while playing all three outfield positions. His work at the plate has been a bit more questionable, but with some positive signs. Over the 2021 to 2023 seasons, he produced a combined .241/.350/.391 line and 108 wRC+ on the farm. His 13.7% walk rate was good but he also struck out 25.3% of the time.

Last year, he seemed to take a bit of a step forward. He got his strikeout rate down to 23.7% while still drawing walks at a healthy 11.7% clip. He produced a .281/.371/.454 line and 120 wRC+ in 79 Triple-A games. He also got up to the majors, chipping in for a Toronto team that was floundering last year. He walked at a 17.8% rate but was also punched out 31.1% of the time, leading to a .189/.333/.216 slash while he stole six bases in eight tries.

This year, he got out to an awful start in the Jays’ system. He bounced back tremendously with the Dodgers, but with a huge help from a .403 batting average on balls in play. Put together, he has a .270/.358/.345 line and 90 wRC+ at Triple-A this year with 20 steals. He last played on June 19th, presumably due to the shoulder issue that landed him on the IL today.

Berroa can still be optioned for the rest of this this year and one additional season, so he’ll give the Brewers some extra outfield depth. At worse, he can be a fourth outfielder, doing some pinch-running and defensive replacement work. The bat has been mercurial but could also potentially be useful, depending on how things swing.

In order to add that outfield depth, the Brewers are potentially losing Rodríguez. The Brewers signed him in January after he spent 2024 in Japan, posting a 1.80 earned run average over there. He hasn’t been anywhere close to that successful for Milwaukee this year. He has thrown 18 2/3 big league innings with an ERA of 8.68. His 20.2% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate are decent figures but he has allowed seven home runs in that small amount of time. He’s also tossed 29 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level with a 4.25 ERA.

He’ll now head into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so Milwaukee could take five days to explore trade interest. As a player with a previous career outright, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment if he clears waivers.

However, since he has less than five years of major league service time, he would have to forfeit his remaining salary commitments in order to exercise that right. His contract is a split deal which pays him $900K in the majors and $300K in the minors. The minimum salary at the Triple-A level is just above $35K, barely a tenth of what Rodríguez would make. That would presumably makes it unlikely he would elect free agency.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images