Should the Brewers have done more at the Trade Deadline? Just look at the social media replies and it’s clear that many Milwaukee fans were asking that question after the Brewers picked up an injured reliever (Shelby Miller from the D-backs) and a Triple-A outfielder (Brandon Lockridge from the Padres) at Thursday’s Trade Deadline, on top of a deal earlier in the week for a backup catcher (Danny Jansen from the Rays). Generally, fans are willing to give Brewers GM Matt Arnold and his front office the benefit of the doubt because they’ve earned it over the years (see: Quinn Priester and Andrew Vaughn this season). Likewise, the new guys deserve a chance because there’s a case they all can help the Brewers, starting with Lockridge, who was summoned to Nationals Park on Friday when Jackson Chourio landed on the injured list. It will be a while before we know a timeline for Miller, who has been sidelined since July 5 by a forearm injury and has yet to begin a rehab assignment. If he progresses as expected, he could be a big boost to a hard-worked bullpen down the stretch. But just like the Cubs fans who were disappointed that Chicago didn’t add a frontline starting pitcher, many Brewers fans were hoping for more. Milwaukee spent Deadline day with the best record in MLB, coming off a homestand in which five of the six games were sellouts. Yes, Cubs fans gobbled up many of those tickets, but those would have been big crowds no matter the opponent. |
So it has been for every Brewers GM since Doug Melvin pushed in all of his chips to land CC Sabathia ahead of the Trade Deadline in 2008. So, I put the question to Arnold on Thursday evening: How would he grade himself this year? “I'll leave that to you guys,” Arnold said. “You know, it's important to me to do the right thing for the Brewers. We're trying to win a championship here and I've made that clear since I've been here. Obviously, we have a really good team and I’m around the guys enough [to know] they feel really good about the group that we have. “We felt like we helped the team, and we're also in a great position to hopefully sustain a really good team here for a long time, because that's what we want to do. We want to try to win a championship and also maintain a strong team here in Milwaukee for a very long time.” All of which is perfectly logical, if not totally satisfying for fans who look at what the Padres and Mets did in building up their bullpens, and what the Mariners did to reunite with the best power hitter available on this market, Eugenio Suárez, and wish the Brewers had pushed a little more all-in. It’s all fair. Here are some of the issues that were left unaddressed: |
Power Let’s go back in time over the World Series winners until we find one that ranked below league average in slugging percentage (MLB rank in parenthesis): 2024 Dodgers (first, .446) 2023 Rangers (third, .452) 2022 Astros (fifth, .424) 2021 Braves (fifth, .435) 2020 Dodgers (second, .483) 2019 Nationals (seventh, .454) 2018 Red Sox (first, .453) 2017 Astros (first, .478) 2016 Cubs (10th, .429) 2015 Royals (11th, .412) 2014 Giants (13th, .388) 2013 Red Sox (first, .446) 2012 Giants (18th, .397) The league average in 2012 was .405, and the Giants won with pitching and defense. There’s nothing to say the 2025 Brewers can’t do the same; they got to the Trade Deadline with the best team ERA, rank third in stolen bases and sixth in on-base percentage, and are the two-time defending team Rawlings NL Gold Glove Award winner. But the Brewers also ranked 21st with a .387 slugging percentage, ahead of only the Padres among NL contenders. But it’s not as if power hitters were traded in bunches this week. After Suárez, it was a thin market. “We had that on our radar, but it was just something that didn’t come together,” Arnold said of the general quest for power. “There are a lot of components to the game, it’s not just the bat. Our team embodies a lot of that.” |
Infield The Brewers monitored the Suárez market but were never serious players because the amount of prospect capital it would take to get him (you can read about those players here) was not worth the bump in value Suárez could provide over two months of the regular season plus whatever becomes of October. Unfortunately, we’re not allowed to see the math on that because the Brewers’ in-house projections are kept under lock and key. But third base has been better during Milwaukee’s recent run, which started May 25 when Caleb Durbin keyed a comeback victory against the Pirates. Beginning with that date through the end of July, Brewers' third basemen combined to rank 12th of 30 teams at 1.4 fWAR (Suárez and the D-backs were third at 2.5). Even if they were not going to add a frontline third baseman, what about an experienced utility man who can play third on occasion, and shortstop over Joey Ortiz when it makes sense? Brewers' shortstops rank 25th in wRC+ (73), but the club loves Ortiz’s defense, so he continues to play. One of the problems was that so few middle infielders moved. The Twins moved two of them in utility man Willi Castro to the Cubs and Carlos Correa to the Astros. But Correa wasn’t going to go to any other club, so you can scratch him off the list. It was just a soft market for shortstops. |
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Bullpen Miller held opponents to a .190 average and had a 1.98 ERA and 10 saves in 37 games for the D-backs before getting hurt. He can help the Brewers if he doesn’t go down the Trevor Rosenthal road and actually pitches for them. But was it enough? The Brewers have some of the most oft-pitched relievers in baseball in Abner Uribe and Jared Koenig, who each pitched 51 times in the Brewers’ first 108 games. Only seven pitchers in the Majors have appeared more as of Thursday. The Brewers have also leaned heavily on right-handers Grant Anderson (48 games) and Nick Mears (46 games). If more help is needed, it will have to come from within, and the Brewers are fortunately well-stocked if they want to use some of their talented starters in the bullpen role down the stretch. Tobias Myers was topping 97 mph in his recent stint, and that was encouraging. Maybe Logan Henderson could pick up bullpen experience a’la Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes at the start of their careers. There are options. |
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