Brewers Acquire Gerardo Parra for Prospects Mitch Haniger and Anthony Banda

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Jul 3, 2014; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks right fielder Gerardo Parra (8) is greeted in the dugout after scoring a run against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the ninth inning at PNC Park. The Diamondbacks won 10-2. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Milwaukee Brewers have acquired Diamondbacks outfielder Gerardo Parra in exchange for prospects Mitch Haniger and Anthony Banda.

Parra is having a down season, after a stellar 2013 for the Diamondbacks. His career slash line is .274/.326/.395, which is something Logan Schafer would have to sell his soul to achieve. Parra is also an elite defensive outfielder with gold gloves in both left and right field.

There is no word yet on how Parra fights into the Brewers outfield; he could be used off the bench, or as a day-off replacement, or he could take some starts from Khris Davis against right handed pitching.

Davis is only slashing .232/.288/.435 against righties this year, while he’s crushing left handed pitching, so Parra could conceivably upgrade the outfield against tough right handed pitchers.

The Brewers are sending Haniger and Banda to the Diamondbacks. Haniger was 6th on Reviewing the Brew’s pre-season prospect ratings and the latest MLB Pipeline update had him at 8th in the Brewers system.

That still puts Haniger behind Monte Harrison and Tyrone Taylor on the Brewers outfield prospects list and with Davis, Gomez and Braun all under contract I’m not sure that Haniger was necessary to the club.

Banda was a 10th round pick in the 2012 draft and is currently pitching in A ball. I’m not sure he ever really factored into the Brewers plans, but he’ll take several more years of development before he has a shot at the bigs.

Parra is still eligible for arbitration for the 2015 season, so the Brewers can keep him around next year as well.

To make room on the roster for Parra the Brewers optioned Schafer back to AAA Nashville. We’ll have more on this and the other moves around the NL Central later.