Brewers’ Nick Mears Garnering Trade Interest

The Brewers are getting calls about right-handed reliever Nick Mears as teams around the league look for under-the-radar bullpen help, per Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic. Milwaukee has also gotten plenty of interest in closer Trevor Megill and ace Freddy Peralta this winter. There’s no indication the Brewers are especially motivated to part with any of the bunch.

Mears, 29, landed with the Brewers ahead of the 2024 trade deadline in a deal sending pitchers Bradley Blalock and Yujanyer Herrera back to the Rockies. An undrafted free agent signed by the Pirates following the 2018 draft, Mears was traded to the Rockies for Connor Joe, claimed off waivers by the Rangers and reclaimed by the Rockies before settling into a bullpen role in Denver during that 2024 campaign.

At the time of the trade, Mears had an ERA in the mid-5.00s but had shown quality swing-and-miss ability. He struggled to a 7.30 ERA down the stretch in Milwaukee, but the Brewers kept him for the 2025 season anyhow. Mears rewarded that faith by breaking out as a solid setup arm.

In 56 2/3 innings this past season, Mears notched 16 holds and a save while pitching to a 3.49 earned run average. The 6’3″, 217-pound righty scaled back his fastball usage and ramped up his slider usage with the Brewers. He actually struck out fewer hitters in 2025 than in 2024 but continued to post terrific swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates. Mears has also dramatically improved his command as a Brewer; after walking more than 12% of his opponents in parts of two seasons with the Rox, he’s issued a free pass to only 5.8% of his opponents with the Brew Crew.

Mears is under club control through the 2027 season. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects a modest $1.6MM salary for the well-traveled righty after that 2025 breakout. Given that modest salary expectation, there’s little to no financial incentive for the Brewers to move him. However, Milwaukee is always open-minded about trading players as they inch closer to free agency. Mears has the potential to be an important piece of manager Pat Murphy’s late-inning relief corps this season, but he could also fetch a modest prospect if the Brewers feel confident that they can weather his loss.

Megill, Abner Uribe, Grant Anderson, Jared Koenig and Aaron Ashby all pitched to earned run averages of 3.23 or better in 2025 — each of them with a better-than-average strikeout rate. No one from that group walked more than Anderson’s 9.7% of opponents, so there aren’t many command issues with the quintet, either. Lefties Rob Zastryzny and DL Hall logged solid ERA marks as well, albeit with less impressive strikeout and walk rates. The Brewers also have 26-year-old Craig Yoho, who posted video-game numbers in the upper minors this season, as well as a plethora of young starters who could move to relief roles due to the depth in the system (e.g. Tobias Myers, Coleman Crow).

Notably, Mears is one of just two out-of-options relievers the Brewers have (in addition to Zastryzny). That fact could make him slightly easier to pry loose than some of his optionable bullpen counterparts, who inherently provide more flexibility to a Brewers team that often takes an all-hands-on-deck approach to its pitching usage and regularly shuffles up the lower-leverage portion of its relief corps. Time will tell whether the depth they possess ultimately leads to a trade, of course, but Mears is at least a name for fans of payroll-conscious clubs in need of bullpen help to keep in the back of their minds.