The Milwaukee Brewers have spent most of this season looking like the club everyone else is chasing. They own the best record in baseball, sit in position for a top National League seed if they finish the next couple of weeks strong, and have built a huge cushion over the Chicago Cubs with 16 games left.
A big part of that push has been balance. Milwaukee has scored the third-most runs in the league, and the pitching staff has backed it up with a 3.53 team ERA.
The roster has changed plenty along the way, too, with the Brewers adding Dustin May and JoJo Romero before bringing in Antonio Senzatela and Bo Naylor at the trade deadline. Those moves helped the pitching staff, but the most important trade the Brewers made this year came much earlier.
It was the offseason deal with the Boston Red Sox, the one centered on Caleb Durbin.
Milwaukee sent Durbin, who had a breakout rookie season, along with Andruw Monasterio, Anthony Seigler and a Competitive Balance Round B Draft pick to Boston in exchange for Kyle Harrison, David Hamilton and Shane Drohan. All three players have mattered for the Brewers this season, combining for 4.8 WAR.
As MLB.com's Jared Greenspan wrote on Wednesday, "This year, though, Harrison has mostly been a different pitcher," and "Even amid recent struggles, he owns a 3.66 ERA with 134 strikeouts in 110 2/3 innings. His emergence solidified the Brewers' rotation behind Jacob Misiorowski despite injuries to two rotation cogs in Brandon Woodruff and Quinn Priester.
"Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said in February that Drohan was a 'very big part' of the deal, and things have certainly played out that way. The right-hander has posted a 4.09 ERA while logging 114 1/3 innings in a versatile swingman/spot starter role in Milwaukee's bullpen, optimizing a six-pitch mix.
Then there's Hamilton, who has been the most valuable piece of the deal for Milwaukee, at least according to bWAR. He sure fits the archetype of a classic Brewers player, with elite baserunning and a pesky approach in the box that makes up for his undersized stature."
Harrison and Drohan have become key parts of Milwaukee’s pitching mix, while Hamilton quickly turned into an early-season difference-maker. The Brewers have a long track record of getting more out of players than most teams can, but it’s still unusual for every piece of a trade like this to pay off right away.
Even with all the turnover, Milwaukee remains on track to win the division for the fourth straight season and reach the playoffs for the eighth time in the last nine seasons. And this offseason trade, more than any other move, has helped fuel that run.
In Other News...
Brewers Bullpen Shuffle After Cubs Win Says A Lot About One Arm
The Brewers kept the good vibes rolling with a win over the Cubs, moving to 91-56 and stretching their division lead in the process, but the late-inning work still triggered a roster move. After Brandon Sproat struggled in the ninth, Milwaukee optioned him back to Triple-A Nashville and brought up Garrett Stallings, a reminder that even in a strong season, the bullpen is still a nightly test of depth and trust.
Stallings is hardly an unfamiliar face to the organization. He already made his major league debut earlier this season, and now he steps back into the mix to fill the opening created by Grant Andersons injury. For a staff built on constantly adjusting on the fly, the move says plenty about which arms the Brewers believe they can lean on as the schedule keeps tightening. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Already Face An Awkward Call On Deadline Bullpen Pickup
The Brewers brought in Antonio Senzatela at midseason hoping to stabilize a bullpen that needed more reliable innings, but the early returns have made the move look a lot more complicated than a simple deadline fix. After coming over from the Rockies, Senzatela has been hit hard in Milwaukee, and his 5.87 ERA over 16 outings has left the club with a longer-term decision that now feels more pressing than it did when the trade was made.
According to ESPNs Jeff Passan, Milwaukee is unlikely to exercise the $14 million club option for Senzatela in 2027, which would let the team walk away without owing a buyout. For a Brewers front office that has usually been careful with payroll and roster value, the question is whether there is still enough time for Senzatela to change the conversation before the offseason arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Brandon Sproat's Brewers Audition Just Raised A Tough October Question
Brandon Sproat got another look in the majors and, for stretches, showed why the Brewers remain intrigued by him. The arm talent is obvious, and the strikeout upside still gives him a path into bigger innings down the line, but his latest relief outing also showed why the evaluation is not simple. A game that should have been a routine step in his return instead turned tense when his control wavered and his command slipped.
Four walks and a hit batter nearly put a Brewers win in jeopardy, and it only reinforced the question hovering over his immediate future. The club has been open about the fact that Sproat has real potential, but the next step is not about stuff so much as composure and the pitching process that comes with it. A return to Triple-A Nashville now looks likely, and Milwaukee will keep sorting out whether there is enough time for him to sharpen up before October decisions get serious. [Read more 🡒]