The Milwaukee Brewers Were Graded as MLB Trade Deadline Winners (For the Most Part)

After the MLB trade deadline, websites had grades coming in to determine who came out the biggest winners and the Milwaukee Brewers seemed to be towards the top of the list.

The Milwaukee Brewers didn’t hold back this past trade deadline even as they had a small hiccup when they traded Jonathan Lucroy to the Cleveland Indians, but he vetoed the trade. Once the deadline came they traded Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress for two top 70 prospects (Lewis Brinson/Luis Ortiz) and Will Smith to the Giants for their top prospect (Andrew Susac) and their best pitching prospect (Phil Bickford). Plus, the early trade of Aaron Hill for Wilkerson/Rijo.

Ken Rosenthal gave them an A+ as he uses the term “excellent” twice and sees Ortiz as a possible ace. The division rivalry, the Chicago Cubs, and the New York Yankees were the only other two teams to get an A+.

Jim Bowden of ESPN gave the Milwaukee Brewers a B coming in at #11 overall, but as far as a team that’s selling it’s 3rd behind the Yankees and Padres. Grant Brisbee of SB Nation called the Milwaukee Brewers a winner as he explained the lesson is to simply wait.

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FanGraphs took a look at their KATOH rankings to see which team got the most back as far as minor league players and the Crew came out at the top at KATOH+ (adds Baseball America rankings) with a 19.6 projected WAR. Besides the New York Yankees at 18.0, no other team was even close.

The most talked about grade was Jon Heyman’s from Today’s Knuckleball. The top two teams were the ones that got the Milwaukee Brewers players at the deadline, the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants, but the Crew were near the bottom of the list at #27.

Heyman quoted GMs wondering why they didn’t get Joey Gallo from the Rangers and mentioned in the Giants breakdown how prospect Bickford’s velocity has fallen. Brewers fans on Twitter weren’t too happy.

Next: Brewers Now Have Best Farm System

Overall, it seemed like the critics thought the Milwaukee Brewers got the good end of the deal as sellers, but only time will tell. Brinson, Ortiz, Susac, and Bickford are a few more names to add to a loaded farm system.