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Brewers, Bruce Zimmermann Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Brewers have agreed to a minor league deal with left-hander Bruce Zimmermann, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. The Ballengee client will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee this coming spring.

Zimmermann, 29, has appeared in parts of four seasons. All four of those came with the Baltimore native’s hometown club. From 2020-23, he pitched 158 1/3 frames for the Orioles, mostly out of the rotation, posting a 5.57 ERA along the way. He regularly showed plus command (career 5.2% walk rate), but Zimmermann’s 89-91 mph fastball proved too hittable and led to troubles keeping the ball in the park (2.27 HR/9).

While Zimmermann’s big league results have clearly been sub-par, he’s logged a more palatable 4.20 ERA in 306 1/3 innings across parts of five Triple-A seasons. Despite the lack of velocity, he’s punched out a solid 22.8% of his opponent at that level and coupled that with a similarly sound 8% walk rate. The 2024 season was the first since 2019 in which Zimmermann did not appear in the majors. He pitched 80 minor league innings with a 4.16 ERA on the year, splitting his time between the rotation and bullpen.

Zimmermann will give the Brewers some more affordable rotation depth behind the projected starting five of Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff, Nestor Cortes, Aaron Civale and Tobias Myers. Southpaws Aaron Ashby and DL Hall are both on the 40-man roster and could get looks in the ’pen or as starters.

Other rotation candidates include Carlos Rodriguez, Logan Henderson and Chad Patrick, though the latter two have yet to actually make their MLB debuts. Top pitching prospect Jacob Misiorowski had a nice season between Double-A and Triple-A last year, and 2022 second-rounder should be in line for his MLB debut at some point during the 2025 campaign. Milwaukee has been on the hunt for extra rotation stability this offseason but doesn’t have much money to work with as they work toward that goal.

The Brewers picked up a plug-and-play mid-rotation arm, Cortes, in the trade sending closer Devin Williams to the Yankees, but they’re still likely to be in the mix for some more low-cost arms.

MLBTR Podcast: Kyle Tucker To The Cubs, And Trades For Devin Williams And Jeffrey Springs

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Brewers Hire Julio Borbon As First Base Coach

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The Brewers announced their 2025 coaching staff on Tuesday morning. Milwaukee hired former MLB outfielder Julio Borbón as first base coach.

Borbón takes over the position from Quintin Berry, who departed to take the third base coaching job with the Cubs in October. Like Berry, the 38-year-old Borbón was best known for his speed during his playing days. He stole 47 bases over 294 games in a big league career that spanned parts of five seasons. Most of that time came with the Rangers between 2009-11. Borbón made brief appearances with the Cubs and Orioles in later years.

After retiring as a player in 2019, Borbón jumped into coaching in the Yankees’ system. He had a brief managerial run with New York’s rookie ball affiliate before moving into a player development capacity with the Twins in 2022. Borbón spent three seasons with Minnesota and now gets his first job on an MLB coaching staff.

The rest of Pat Murphy’s second staff in Milwaukee is as follows: associate manager Rickie Weeks, lead hitting coach Al LeBoeuf, hitting coaches Eric Theisen and Connor Dawson, pitching coach Chris Hook, assistant pitching/strategy coach Jim Henderson, bullpen coach Charlie Greene, third base coach Jason Lane, field coordinator Néstor Corredor, assistant coach Daniel De Mondesert, and infield coach Matt Erickson.

Adam McCalvy of MLB.com notes that the “strategy coach” element of Henderson’s title is a new development. The former closer has been on staff as an assistant pitching coach for three seasons. He’ll take on a bit more responsibility in game planning after run prevention coordinator Walker McKiven left to become Will Venable’s bench coach with the White Sox.

D-backs Had Interest In Devin Williams Prior To Yankees Trade

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The Diamondbacks are known to be on the lookout for high-leverage options in the bullpen — general manager Mike Hazen has said as much on record — and they spoke to the Brewers about a potential deal for Devin Williams before Milwaukee traded him to the Yankees, John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 reports.

On the one hand, it’s entirely unsurprising that a team seeking a leverage arm would throw its hat into the ring with regard to Williams. On the other, it’s at least tangentially notable, given the number of similarly priced late-inning arms on the market. If the Snakes were trying to engage the Brewers on Williams, it stands to reason that Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley, Rays closer Pete Fairbanks and perhaps Houston’s Ryan Pressly are all of varying levels of interest. (At $14MM, Pressly costs significantly more than the other listed options, it should be noted.)

The bullpen market, unlike in many recent offseasons, has been slow to develop this winter. That could be in part due to the presence of names like Williams, Helsley, Fairbanks and Pressly (among others) all potentially being available. To this point, the only signings of note have been Aroldis Chapman (one year, $10.75MM to the Red Sox), Blake Treinen (two years, $22MM back to the Dodgers), Yimi Garcia (two years, $15MM back to the Blue Jays) and Jordan Romano (one year, $8.5MM to the Phillies). None of the market’s top relievers have come off the board, save for righty Clay Holmes, who signed a three-year deal to convert to a starting role with the Mets.

After last week’s Winter Meetings drew to a close, D-backs general manager Mike Hazen told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic that both free agent and trade scenarios are still in play. Arizona did not complete any deals at last week’s event, but Hazen expressed confidence that the groundwork for future transactions was laid.

“There’s free-agent situations and trade situations that are both out there for all the areas that we’re looking at,” said Hazen, who is also looking for help at first base. “Trying to find what combinations go together in different ways is part of what we’re discussing right now.”

The top names still on the free agent market include Tanner Scott, Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez. All figure to command multi-year deals, with Scott in particular standing a chance at landing four years. That type of contract length could be an issue for the D-backs. Under Hazen, they’ve never signed a free agent reliever for more than two years and never gone higher than a $7MM annual value (as shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker). The market has plenty of intriguing one-year options as well, though any of David Robertson, Kirby Yates or Kenley Jansen would require pushing well past that $7MM highwater mark.

Brewers Grant Release To Jon Duplantier To Pursue NPB Opportunity

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The Brewers have granted right-hander Jon Duplantier his release so that he can pursue an opportunity with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com.

Duplantier, 30, inked a minor league deal with Milwaukee back in November and had been slated to compete for a job in spring training. It would seem that the opportunity overseas presented itself between the completion of that deal and today’s news, and the Brewers opted not to stand in the way of Duplantier’s guaranteed payday in NPB.

A former third-round pick and consensus top-100 prospect, Duplantier has only pitched in parts of two big league seasons: 2019 and 2021. Both came with the D-backs, who originally selected him in the 2016 draft. Duplantier held his own through 36 2/3 innings as a rookie in ’19 but was bombarded for 19 runs in only 13 innings in ’21. He’s posted a 6.70 ERA in 49 2/3 innings, striking out 19.7% of opponents against an 11.2% walk rate.

That was quite some time ago now. More recently, Duplantier dominated for the independent American Association’s Lake Country DockHounds in 2024, posting 18 scoreless frames with a 30-to-6 K/BB ratio. He parlayed that into Triple-A looks with the Dodgers and Mets, pitching to a combined 4.20 ERA with a 27.4% strikeout rate and grisly 16.1% walk rate in 65 2/3 innings of minor league work. In parts of four Triple-A seasons, Duplantier has a 4.85 ERA with similar strikeout and walk rates to the ones he notched in 2024.

Yankees Acquire Devin Williams For Nestor Cortes, Caleb Durbin

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The Winter Meetings might be done, but the big trades aren’t. The Yankees and Brewers on Friday agreed to a trade sending star closer Devin Williams to New York in exchange for left-hander Nestor Cortes, infield prospect Caleb Durbin and a reported $2MM in cash.

Both Williams and Cortes are entering their final seasons of club control, and both were projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $7.7MM in 2025. Milwaukee will still come out ahead a couple million dollars, which is of some moderate note, as the Brewers are working on an extremely tight budget this winter. Durbin, meanwhile, is a second baseman with experience at the hot corner. He was added to the Yankees’ 40-man roster ahead of the Rule 5 protection deadline and is likely to slot in at second or third base in 2025, with one of Brice Turang or Joey Ortiz moving to shortstop in place of Willy Adames, who signed with the Giants as a free agent.

Williams, 30, is one of the game’s elite relievers. The 2020 National League Rookie of the Year, he boasts a career 1.83 earned run average with 68 saves, 60 holds, a 39.4% strikeout rate and 48.1% ground-ball rate in his big league career. Command has been an issue at times (11.8% walk rate), but Williams’ utterly devastating changeup — nicknamed the “Airbender” — is one of the most dominant pitches in the entire sport. He’s finished off 2299 big league plate appearances with that pitch, during which opponents have posted a comically feeble .139/.223/.200. The pitch boasts a preposterous 23% swinging-strike rate.

Among pitchers with at least 200 innings pitched since 2019, Emmanuel Clase (1.67) is the only pitcher with a better ERA than Williams’ 1.83 mark. No other pitcher is within even 40 points. (Jacob deGrom is next, at 2.24.) In that same time, only Josh Hader and Edwin Diaz have posted higher strikeout rates than Williams’ 39.4%. Only Gerrit Cole has a higher mark in terms of win probability added. Hader is second in WPA among relievers, but his 12.46 mark isn’t close to Williams’ 14.24. Sports Info Solutions credits Williams’ changeup as far and away the most valuable pitch of its type in the majors.

Dominant as Williams has been, he’ll come to the Yankees with some recent injury concerns. A stress fracture in his lower back caused the right-hander to miss the first four months of the 2024 season. Williams wasn’t activated for his 2024 debut until July 28. Once healthy, he generally looked like his dominant self, rattling off 21 2/3 innings with a microscopic 1.25 ERA, a massive 43.2% strikeout rate and an unsightly 12.5% walk rate (that was largely mitigated by his near-unparalleled ability to rack up strikeouts). Of course, the lasting memory for many fans will unfortunately be the backbreaking three-run homer that Williams surrendered to Pete Alonso in Milwaukee’s NLDS loss to the Mets.

Similarly, one of Cortes’ final moments as a Yankee is one he’d like to forget. The left-hander served up a walk-off grand slam to Freddie Freeman in Game 1 of the World Series — the first of four Gibson-esque home runs the hobbled L.A. first baseman swatted en route to World Series MVP honors. As with Williams, there are some notable 2024 health concerns; Cortes gutted his way through a late-season flexor strain to return to the Yankees in the postseason. Cortes was also limited to 12 starts in 2023, thanks to a strain in his rotator cuff. Clearly, both clubs are satisfied with the medical reports on the veterans they’re acquiring.

Cortes, who just turned 30, has been a rock-solid mid-rotation arm when healthy in recent seasons. Dating back to his 2021 breakout with the Yankees, he’s pitched 489 innings with a 3.33 ERA, 25.2% strikeout rate and 6.2% walk rate. The ERA is skewed by the 4.97 mark he logged in ’23 when dealing with that shoulder strain, but Cortes has been quite effective in three of the past four seasons.

In 2024, Cortes pitched a career-high 174 1/3 innings while sitting a career-best 92.1 mph with his four-seamer. The lefty fanned 22.8% of his opponents and notched a career-best 5.5% walk rate. If he can deliver anything close to that, the Brewers will surely be thrilled. Adding to the rotation was a significant need for the Brewers this offseason, but they’ve been operating with minimal resources as they try to find creative ways to do so.

Cortes will give Milwaukee an experienced arm to slot in behind Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff (returning from 2023 shoulder surgery), Aaron Civale and diamond-in-the-rough Tobias Myers. The Brewers also have lefties Aaron Ashby and DL Hall as rotation candidates, plus young righties Carlos Rodriguez, Logan Henderson and Chad Patrick on the 40-man roster but likely ticketed for Triple-A.

With a full, healthy season, there’s a chance Cortes is a more valuable pitcher on the whole than Williams. He’s been worth about 10 wins above replacement over the past four seasons, per both Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs (even when accounting for his poor showing in an injury-marred 2023 season). For the Yankees, however, he was no more than sixth or seventh on the depth chart — not with Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt and Marcus Stroman all on the roster.

For the Yankees, the deal is about not only beefing up their bullpen during the regular season but more specifically about bolstering their postseason roster, where Williams would be a focal piece and Cortes would be relegated to a lower-leverage relief role. In that sense, there are some parallels with the 2022 Jordan Montgomery/Harrison Bader swap: ship out a starter who’s not in the playoff rotation in exchange for someone who’ll have greater impact on postseason results. In the end, the trade involves both teams dealing from areas of strength.

The Milwaukee bullpen, after all, was one of the best in baseball last season — even in a year where Williams missed two-thirds of the year. The Brewers’ collective 3.11 bullpen ERA ranked second in the sport, and they were top-10 in terms of FIP (3.78, seventh), walk rate (8.3%, ninth) and K-BB% (15.5, tenth). With Williams out of the picture, they’ll likely look to Trevor Megill (2.72 ERA, 27.3 K%), Joel Payamps (3.05 ERA, 25.1 K%) and Bryan Hudson (1.73 ERA, 26.8 K%) for late-inning work. The previously mentioned Ashby (1.37 ERA, 36.8 K%, 19 1/3 innings) and Hall (3.00 ERA, 26.5 K%, 12 innings) also looked impressive when working as relievers.

The other major piece of the puzzle for the Brewers, of course, is the 24-year-old Durbin. Milwaukee lost Adames to free agency this offseason and has been in search of infield help but with scant money to spend. Durbin could slot in at second or third base, with one of Ortiz or Turang sliding over to shortstop. He could also simply give the Brewers a versatile utility option with intriguing contact skills and speed.

Durbin, who came to the Yankees from the Braves in exchange for Lucas Luetge, spent the bulk of the 2024 season in Triple-A Scranton Wilkes/Barre. He missed more than two months after being hit by a pitch on the wrist in May, but when he was healthy he was quite impressive. An infielder from the Altuve mold, Durbin is listed at just 5’6″ but nevertheless hit .287/.396/.471 (129 wRC+) with 10 homers and 31 stolen bases in 82 Triple-A games (375 plate appearances). He walked more than he struck out, drawing a free pass in 12.5% of his plate appearances versus a 9.9% strikeout rate.

With Durbin having missed a notable chunk of the season, the Yankees sent him to the Arizona Fall League to pick up some extra reps. He thrived there, hitting .312/.427/.548 with another five home runs and an AFL-record 29 stolen bases in 24 games (117 plate appearances). As he did in Triple-A, Durbin recorded more walks (17) than strikeouts (six).

Durbin has yet to take a single big league plate appearance, but the success he’s had in Triple-A and in the Arizona Fall League — coupled with the Brewers’ needs in the infield — give him a legitimate chance to break camp with the club. He might need to earn his way into a starting gig this spring, and his ultimate role will depend on any subsequent moves the Brewers make, but he’s very clearly an option to help the club in 2025. As it stands, he’s controllable through at least the 2030 season.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Yankees and Brewers were finalizing a Williams trade. Will Sammon of The Athletic reported that the deal was in place. Robert Murray of FanSided first reported that Cortes was in the deal. Durbin’s inclusion was first reported by Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Bryan Hoch of MLB.com reported that there was cash in the deal, and Nightengale chimed in with the exact amount.

Brewers Sign Grant Wolfram To Major League Deal

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The Brewers have agreed to a major league contract with free-agent lefty Grant Wolfram, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (X link). He’s already passed his physical. It’s a nice birthday present former 18th-rounder, who’ll turn 28 on Thursday. Wolfram is a client of All Bases Covered Sports Management.

A towering 6’8″ southpaw, Wolfram is being added to a 40-man roster for the first time in his career. He’s pitched exclusively in the Rangers organization to this point, logging parts of three seasons in Double-A and another two in Triple-A.

Wolfram was hit hard in his Triple-A debut in 2023 but excelled with the Rangers’ top affiliate in Round Rock this past season. In 56 2/3 innings, Wolfram posted a 3.34 ERA with a sharp 25.6% strikeout rate. His 10.9% walk rate is notably higher than league-average, but Wolfram has typically missed bats at strong levels and, over the past couple seasons, has seen an uptick in grounders. He kept the ball on the ground at a 44.6% rate in 2024.

An 18th-rounder who signed for an $85K bonus out of Division-II Davenport University in Michigan, Wolfram has spent parts of seven seasons in pro ball but has yet to reach the majors. Now that he’s on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster, he’ll have a good chance to do just that in the coming season. While it’s not common for career minor leaguers with no big league experience to sign major league contracts, it’s certainly not unheard of. There tend to be a handful of contracts along these lines every offseason, with Kyle Finnegan standing as one of the more prominent recent examples.

The Brewers aren’t exactly lacking in left-handed bullpen options, but Wolfram gives them some further depth. At the moment, Milwaukee has Jared Koenig, Bryan Hudson, Tyler Jay, DL Hall and Aaron Ashby all on the 40-man roster. Hall and Ashby could be ticketed for rotation work, however, and Jay is more of a depth arm who’s not a lock to survive the entire offseason on the 40-man roster himself. Since Wolfram is being added to a big league roster for the first time, he’ll have a full slate of minor league options, giving Milwaukee plenty of flexibility with him for the next few years.

2024 Rule 5 Draft Results

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The 2024 Rule 5 draft took place this afternoon at the Winter Meetings in Dallas. The results of the draft are below.

As a refresher, the Rule 5 draft is a way for players potentially talented enough for the big leagues but blocked by their current clubs to find opportunities elsewhere. Any players that were 18 and under at the time of their original signing and have played five professional seasons, and any players who signed at 19 years of age or older at signing that now have four professional seasons, who are not on a club’s 40-man roster are eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft.

Though the amateur (Rule 4) draft now has a lottery to determine the selection order, the Rule 5 draft still goes the old-fashioned way of reverse order of standings from the season that just ended. Clubs need to have an open 40-man roster spot in order to make a pick but aren’t obligated to make a selection on their turn. If they do make a pick, they will have to pay $100K to the team they select from. The selected players must stay on the active roster (or injured list) for the entire 2025 season or else be placed on waivers. If they clear waivers, they must be offered back to their original team. They cannot be optioned to the minors.

Last year’s edition saw some key players change clubs. The A’s took Mitch Spence from the Yankees with the top pick and kept him all year. Justin Slaten was plucked from the Rangers by the Mets and then traded to the Red Sox. Players like Anthony Santander and Ryan Pressly have been notable picks in other recent years while guys like George Bell and Roberto Clemente are found deeper in the history books.

Here are this year’s picks…

  1. White Sox: RHP Shane Smith (Brewers) (Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline relayed the pick on Bluesky prior to the draft)
  2. Rockies: pass
  3. Marlins: C Liam Hicks (Tigers)
  4. Angels: LHP Garrett McDaniels (Dodgers)
  5. Athletics: RHP Noah Murdock (Royals)
  6. Nationals: RHP Evan Reifert (Rays)
  7. Blue Jays: RHP Angel Bastardo (Red Sox)
  8. Pirates: pass
  9. Reds: 2B Cooper Bowman (Athletics)
  10. Rangers: pass
  11. Giants: pass
  12. Rays: LHP Nate Lavender (Mets)
  13. Red Sox: pass
  14. Twins: RHP Eiberson Castellano (Phillies)
  15. Cardinals: pass
  16. Cubs: 3B Gage Workman (Tigers)
  17. Mariners: pass
  18. Royals: pass
  19. Tigers: pass
  20. Astros: pass
  21. Mets: pass
  22. D-backs: pass
  23. Braves: RHP Anderson Pilar (Marlins)
  24. Orioles: pass
  25. Guardians: pass
  26. Padres: RHP Juan Nunez (Orioles)
  27. Brewers: LHP Connor Thomas (Cardinals)
  28. Yankees: pass
  29. Phillies: RHP Mike Vasil (Mets); Phillies later traded Vasil to Rays for cash considerations, per announcements from both clubs.
  30. Dodgers: pass

Second round (all but one club passed)

The minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft also occurred this afternoon. Those players will not go onto the selecting teams’ 40-man roster. Right-hander Hobie Harris, who pitched for the Nationals in 2023 and signed a minor league deal with the Mets last month, was taken by the Red Sox.

Dodgers Interested In Devin Williams, Tanner Scott

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10:54PM: At least 10 teams have checked in with the Brewers about Williams, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon, including the Dodgers and Yankees.  With this much interest in the closer, there is a sense that the Brewers might wait until later in the offseason to deal Williams (if at all), since they could land a bigger return once the free agent relief market clears out.

4:51PM: The ever-aggressive Dodgers are looking for high-leverage relief help, and The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya reports that Devin Williams and Tanner Scott are two of the names under consideration as L.A. weighs options in both free agency and the trade market.

Williams is eligible for free agency next winter, and there has been speculation that Milwaukee will once again look to move a notable player in advance of a trip to the open market so that the Brewers can recoup more than just draft compensation.  The closer is projected for a $7.7MM arbitration salary, as Williams’ numbers last season were limited by a stress reaction in his back that kept him off the mound until late July.

Despite the long layoff, Williams still looked like himself upon his return, posting a 1.25 ERA in 21 2/3 innings while racking up 14 saves.  It is possible rival teams could still point to the back injury as a reason to limit their offers for Williams, not to mention the fact that even an elite reliever has somewhat limited trade value with just one year of remaining control.

This all being said, Williams has such an outstanding track record that the Brewers will likely be able to hold firm on a high asking price.  Williams has excelled in both a set-up and closing role basically since he debuted in the majors in 2019, with a 1.83 ERA and a preposterous 39.4% strikeout rate over his 235 2/3 career innings.  His 11.8% career walk rate is on the high side and memories of his blown save in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series will linger for a long time in Milwaukee, but overall, Williams is the type of pitcher any team would want at the back of their bullpen.

Los Angeles has plenty of young talent to offer Milwaukee in a potential trade, and some of the Dodgers’ MLB-ready young pitching could be of particular interest.  Dealing away some of this depth might be preferable since the Dodgers have already dipped into the free agent market for Blake Snell, Michael Conforto, and Blake Treinen this offseason….or L.A. could make another splash by inking Scott to a long-term contract.

MLBTR ranked Scott as the best reliever in this year’s free agent class, and 14th overall on our list of the top 50 free agents.  This designation came with a prediction of a four-year, $56MM contract, and such a deal is certainly feasible for a Dodgers team that clearly isn’t shy about spending.  As Ardaya notes, L.A. was one of the many teams interested in Scott prior to the trade deadline, before the Marlins sent him to another NL West contender in the Padres.

Scott has always had plenty of strikeout power, but things didn’t fully click for him until the 2023 season.  Over the last two years, Scott has a 2.04 ERA, 31.3% strikeout rate, and 10% walk rate in 150 innings with Miami and San Diego, with just six home runs allowed and a 50.4% grounder rate.  Like Williams, control is a bit of an issue for Scott, yet the premium stuff is clearly there.

Brewers Reportedly “Engaged” In Garrett Crochet Market

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Reporting yesterday indicated that the market for White Sox southpaw Garrett Crochet has started to heat up, with an increasing chance that a deal could come together at some point during the Winter Meetings this week. The Yankees, Red Sox, Padres, Cubs, and Reds are among the suitors who have previously been mentioned, but Jon Morosi of MLBNetwork added an additional suitor this morning when he reported that the Brewers are among the teams who remain engaged with Chicago regarding Crochet.

Milwaukee is an intriguing suitor for Crochet’s services. While the club typically focuses on internal development and savvy free agent deals in the middle and lower tiers of free agency in order to sustain their status as perennial contenders, the Brewers have swung trades for notable players such as Willy Adames and Christian Yelich in the past. Adames, of course, just signed with the Giants after declining a Qualifying Offer from the club, but Yelich went on to become a franchise stalwart who is under contract in Milwaukee through the end of the 2028 season. While Crochet comes with just two years of team control as opposed to the three-and-a-half and five years of control Adames and Yelich respectively had remaining at the time of their deals, the Brewers are firmly in the midst of their competitive window and have plenty of reason to be aggressive.

The club has weathered the losses of stars like Adames, Corbin Burnes, and Josh Hader in recent years that have left them facing increased long-term uncertainty, and with groups of exciting young talent in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Chicago reaching the majors it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where Milwaukee’s recent dominance over the NL Central comes to an end within the next few years. Adding a player with Crochet’s upside to a rotation that already figures to feature Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta this winter could be a way for the Brewers to guarantee their competitive window remains firmly open in 2025, and do so at a relatively affordable financial cost. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Crochet to make just $2.9MM in his penultimate trip through arbitration this winter. That’s a salary any club could afford, including the budget-conscious Brew Crew.

Of course, a trade for Crochet would come with plenty of risks. The southpaw managed just 146 innings in 2024 after two lost seasons due to injury and has never shown himself to be capable of handling a full starter’s workload at the MLB level; while he started 32 games in 2024, 17 of those starts lasted less than five innings. Even setting aside those volume- and health-related concerns, trading significant prospect capital for a player who wouldn’t be under long-term team control may be a difficult pill to swallow. While prospects like Jeferson Quero and Jacob Misiorowski could be used to create an enticing package for Chicago, the Brewers lack the high-end talent other suitors like the Padres (Ethan Salas), Red Sox (Marcelo Mayer), and Cubs (Matt Shaw) may be able to offer.

Of course, the prospect capital lost in a hypothetical Crochet trade could be made up for in other ways. The Brewers could pull from the playbook San Diego ultimately wound up using with Juan Soto and slot Crochet into their rotation for a year before flipping him next winter. It’s even possible that could land the club a return somewhat comparable to what they gave up if Crochet is able to stay healthy and establish himself as capable of pitching a wire-to-wire big league season on a starter’s workload this year. Alternatively, it’s at least plausible that Milwaukee could explore extension talks with Crochet that would keep him in town for longer than his two years of team control, though it’s unclear whether or not the club would have room on their books for the sort of salary Crochet could command given that any extension would overlap with the final years of Yelich’s deal.

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