The Brewers are trying to keep the pedal down after a rough little stretch, and Monday night’s 5-3 win over the Reds was the kind of response they needed.
Milwaukee had dropped its previous two games to the Cubs and had lost five of its last 10, which had manager Pat Murphy sounding plenty frustrated before the first pitch. He said the club was "pretty pissed" even after reaching 50 wins, and he also said he had a "get-together" with the position players before the game to address the recent slump.
The message seemed to land. Joey Ortiz broke a 3-3 tie with an eighth-inning two-run homer, and the Brewers finished the job from there. The win pushed Milwaukee to 51-31 and kept it 5 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Cubs.
Even with the division cushion, the next move matters. The Brewers have a team that can do something special this season, but the trade deadline should be about finding more impact, especially a big bat. A high-leverage reliever would help, and a veteran starter would be useful too, but the lineup upgrade is the priority.
With that in mind, three names stand out as possible targets: Isaac Paredes, Aroldis Chapman and Tarik Skubal.
Paredes would be the kind of fit that jumps out immediately if the Astros were willing to discuss him. Houston does not look like a team headed for a major sell-off, but if it listens on Paredes the way it did this past offseason, he would be a dream target for Milwaukee. He can move around the infield and is under team control for one more season, which makes him especially appealing as a power option.
Chapman is a different kind of swing, but an enticing one. He has long been one of the best closers in baseball, and this year he has a 2.19 ERA in 26 appearances. If the Brewers could land an arm like that, the back end of the bullpen would be a problem for everyone else.
Skubal would be the biggest-name ask of the group. The Tigers have struggled all season, and even with his return they have not flipped their year around. He is set to hit free agency after the season, and he’s the kind of pitcher worth checking on if Milwaukee wants to raise the ceiling of an already strong rotation.
One name on the other side of the ledger is Frankie Peralta. He was excellent in Milwaukee, but his current season in New York has not gone well, with a 4.53 ERA in 17 starts. The Brewers already got strong value back from the Mets in Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams, and the idea of sending more talent to New York for a few months of Peralta before he reaches free agency in a down year simply does not make sense.
In Other News...
Red Sox Suddenly Face A Tough Deadline Call On Resurgent Veteran
A bullpen-needy Texas team sitting atop the AL West is exactly the kind of contender that can start circling a relief market before the trade deadline, and Aroldis Chapman is the sort of arm that naturally gets mentioned. The Rangers have enough results to stay in the race, but their relief corps has lacked the kind of bat-missing stuff that can shorten games in October, which is why any available high-leverage reliever is going to draw attention.
For Boston, though, the calculus is not nearly as simple. Chapman has helped stabilize the back end for a Red Sox club that has made real ground in the playoff picture, and recent success has made it harder to picture the front office turning into a seller. If Texas wants to make a move for bullpen help, the path likely depends on Boston deciding the moment is right to listen, and that is no longer a given. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Deadline Debate Just Shifted Around One Roster Problem
Even with the Red Sox sitting behind in both the division and the wild-card race, the deadline conversation in Boston keeps circling back to the same place: the middle infield. If the club does decide to behave like a buyer, that spot has emerged as the clearest need, with the front office trying to sort out how to stabilize a position that has not given the team enough certainty this season.
The search is made tougher by the fact that the market does not offer many easy solutions, especially for a club that still has to balance present-tense urgency with longer-term value. Boston is at least doing the kind of homework that suggests it will explore options, but the gap between asking around and actually landing the right fit is where this deadline puzzle really starts to get interesting. [Read more 🡒]
Willson Contreras' Second Straight Ejection Has Red Sox Fans Fed Up
Willson Contreras found himself at the center of another ugly scene Saturday night, this time in a confrontation with Cade Cavalli that helped turn Cardinals-Nationals into a full-blown mess. After the exchange with the Washington pitcher, benches emptied and the umpiring crew handed out ejections, with Contreras, Nate Eaton and Miles Mikolas all sent off as tempers boiled over.
For Red Sox fans watching from afar, the frustration is easy to understand because this was Contreras' second straight game ejection and the pattern is getting hard to miss. The latest flash point came after a tense night against Washington, and it only added to the sense that the situation around him has become more combustible with each passing inning. [Read more 🡒]