Milwaukee Brewers Roundtable: Grading The Crew’s Trade Deadline

With the non-waiver Trade Deadline passing yesterday, some of the writers here at Reviewing The Brew decided to get together for a roundtable discussing the moves that the Brewers made, a give a grade for David Stearns’ moves.

David Gasper

Deadline Grade: C+

The Milwaukee Brewers had several holes to fill on this roster as they approached the July 31st deadline. They needed to add some offensive production in the middle infield and at catcher. And they had a need at starting pitcher and possibly a bullpen arm.

They got the bullpen arm in Joakim Soria. They gave up Kodi Medeiros, a former first round pick, who hasn’t lived up to his potential and had a blocked path to the big leagues. Good deal there.

Then they made the odd move of getting Mike Moustakas for the infield. The offensive production was there, sure. But the defensive fit was odd. The need was at second base and shortstop. Moustakas is a third baseman. So incumbent third baseman Travis Shaw then made the move to second base. With his offensive production, the role seemed filled and the middle infield upgrades were done.

But wait, there’s more. In a last minute deal at the buzzer, they add second baseman Jonathan Schoop? What? There’s a logjam in the infield and each night, one of Moustakas, Shaw, Schoop, and Orlando Arcia will be sitting on the bench. It seems a little like overkill.

The Crew’s big need that several MLB insiders reported that the Brewers were determined to address was the starting rotation. But they didn’t get Archer because the Pirates way overpaid for him. Then they missed on their backup plan in Kevin Gausman as he went to the Braves.

For what the Braves paid for Gausman, Stearns could have easily topped that. The package he sent for Schoop was more than what Gausman went for. I’m surprised and slightly disappointed that he missed on that trade. Gausman could be the next Jake Arrieta, and now he’ll do that for the Braves.

David Stearns ended up not adding the impact starter that this team needs to make a deep playoff run. The offense is solid, the bullpen is great, but the rotation, while performing well right now, is volatile. They need that difference making, dependable ace every fifth day. And they didn’t get one. For that and unnecessary infield rotation they created, I give them a C+.