Milwaukee Brewers: Another starter connected to Milwaukee?

The Milwaukee Brewers have been connected to a bunch of names on the trade market this July.

Sonny Gray seems to be the most well-known of them. But the Milwaukee Brewers have also been known to have had interest Pat Neshek, Justin Wilson, and Justin Verlander. Now we can add another name to that list: Jaime Garcia.

On Thursday, it seemed a done deal that Garcia would be the newest member of the Minnesota Twins. However, the Braves weren’t able to medically clear the prospect that would go in return for Garcia. It was rumored to be Nick Burdi, who underwent Tommy John surgery not too long ago.

So for now he remains in Atlanta. Now a bunch of other teams have jumped into the bidding for Garcia and the Milwaukee Brewers are one of them.

Before, the Brewers were thought to only be pursuing players with team control beyond 2017. Apparently rentals are now being pursued as well. Garcia is the best rental starting pitcher on the market. He has a 4.30 ERA through 18 starts with 85 strikeouts in 113 innings pitched.

Perhaps the market for controllable starters is priced too high for Milwaukee’s liking. The pursuit of rentals like Jaime Garcia could be a testament to that. Garcia shouldn’t cost too much in terms of prospects and could be a solid third option behind Jimmy Nelson and Chase Anderson.

It’s important to remember that just because a player is on Milwaukee’s radar doesn’t mean they’re going to be finalizing a trade anytime soon.

The 31 year old Garcia is a left handed pitcher so that certainly could be enticing to the Brewers who haven’t had a viable left handed starter to pencil into the rotation in a couple of years. Brent Suter has filled in admirably, but he’s still going on a start-to-start basis to keep the rotation spot warm for Chase Anderson.

Nick Burdi, the prospect who was supposed to go in return for Garcia in the Twins deal is rated as the 17th best prospect in the Minnesota system. So, the comparable prospect it could take to pry Garcia away from Atlanta would be Gilbert Lara. The young SS who hit so poorly at Low-A Wisconsin he had to be demoted to Rookie Ball. So perhaps instead a guy like Ryan Cordell or Kodi Medeiros could be sent in a 1-for-1 trade for Garcia.

There’s been no actual rumors as to who the Brewers are willing to give up but the price appears to be one mid level prospect.

Because Garcia is a pure rental and is a free agent after the season, I still find this acquisition to be unlikely. But the Milwaukee Brewers have surprised us before. There will likely be some more names connected to the Brewers before the deadline is over. They could swipe a deal for any of them. Or they could strike a surprise one with a player we didn’t know the Brewers were looking at.

Next: Another Tiger linked to the Brewers

Anything is possible at the deadline and everything is pure speculation until a deal actually gets done. The Brewers will look to improve their club before the deadline is over, same as every other team. How they will do it, though, remains to be seen.