Milwaukee Brewers: 3 Trades That Could Happen At The Winter Meetings

The Winter Meetings start in Las Vegas on Sunday night on December 9th and will continue through Thursday December 13th. In that time, a lot of trades and free agent signings can happen. What can we expect from the Milwaukee Brewers?

Milwaukee Brewers GM David Stearns has quite the history at the Winter Meetings. In 2015, his first year as GM, Stearns dealt Adam Lind to the Mariners for a package including Freddy Peralta. In 2016, Stearns turned two fantastic months from Tyler Thornburg into Travis Shaw and Mauricio Dubon. It’s safe to say those deals have worked out pretty well.

In the 2017 Winter Meetings, Stearns didn’t close any deals, but he did lay most of the groundwork for his acquisition of Christian Yelich the next month. But last offseason was an anomaly in general. All of baseball suffered from a slow offseason last year.

But this year is obviously different. With the Mariners sell off, the NL East arms race, and the NL Central race getting tighter, there’s been a lot of movement and rumors so far this offseason.

So what can we expect the Brewers to achieve at the Winter Meetings this year? Apparently, don’t expect the Crew to land a second baseman in free agency during this time.

Currently nothing is imminent on the trade front, but that can change quickly. However, their feelings that they can be patient in the second base search would lead you to believe they are going to see who the market leaves out and won’t sign one in Las Vegas at the meetings.

But there are other trades that could happen during these meetings as Stearns looks to fortify his roster for next season.

Here are three trade ideas that could potentially come to fruition during the Winter Meetings.

Chase Anderson To The Padres

Let’s face facts. Chase Anderson is an extreme fly ball pitcher. Fly ball pitchers don’t do well in Miller Park. Anderson allowed 30 home runs last year, which led the National League, and 22 of those home runs came at Miller Park.

It would make sense for the Brewers to trade Chase Anderson away this winter. He’s under control for a total of three years, but his team can cut ties with him after 2019. He’s due $6.5 million next year, and Anderson is on the fringe of the rotation at the moment. The young starters have passed him by on the depth chart as he was benched in October for the playoffs.

The San Diego Padres have been trying to acquire a veteran starting pitcher to help along their young pitching staff. Anderson would be the perfect fit as he’s experienced, is under team control, and isn’t owed a ton of money. Also, the Padres play in one of the most pitcher friendly parks in baseball. It’s very difficult to hit home runs out of there, making it the perfect place for Anderson.

AS for the return, the Milwaukee Brewers might ask for lefty reliever Matt Strahm. Strahm, 27, is an appealing target due to his four years of team control and his strong numbers last year. In 2018, he posted a 2.05 ERA over 61.1 innings. He also had 10.1 K/9 and a 0.978 WHIP.

Since the Brewers recently non-tendered lefties Xavier Cedeno and Dan Jennings, adding another lefty reliever to pair with Josh Hader makes a lot of sense to fortify the bullpen for Milwaukee.

While Anderson might cost more than Strahm to acquire, I think he would be an excellent target for David Stearns.

Brewers Acquire Sonny Gray

The Sonny Gray market is expected to move fairly soon. There are a number of teams interested and the Yankees are ready to move on from Gray. He’s been a failed acquisition for New York, and it appears it’s just the atmosphere there that has caused his struggles.

Gray had a 6.98 ERA in Yankee Stadium in 2018, but had a 3.17 ERA everywhere else. He didn’t struggle with the short porch in right, allowing only 11 home runs in New York and only 14 total on the season.

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Gray had the appearance of being an ace from 2014-15 with Oakland, but struggled in 2016 and was having a strong bounceback season in 2017 before being sent to the Yankees.

Given his recent poor performance, Gray is a buy-low target if there ever was one. He’s projected to earn only $9+ million in his final year of arbitration, but he has ace-level stuff.

The Milwaukee Brewers have also reportedly been in talks with the Yankees about Gray, making a trade to the Cream City all the more likely during the Winter Meetings.

A trade return of someone like Trent Grisham or Carlos Herrera could be enough to entice the Yankees into sending Gray to the Brewers.

With all the noise on Gray recently, he’s probably the most likely to get traded during the Winter Meetings of the three names listed. While other trades could materialize, there should be a lot of activity during these meetings, and these are just three possible deals the Milwaukee Brewers could make next week.

The Winter Meetings are a fun time for baseball fans, as all of the speculation and rumors come out of one central location. Many trades and free agent signings are consummated at these meetings. The flurry of activity will be exciting to watch.