Milwaukee Brewers: The Philadelphia Phillies Make Sense As Trade Partners

The Milwaukee Brewers have not yet completed their offseason work with this roster. The Philadelphia Phillies seem to make a lot of sense as potential trade partners.

Currently, the Philadelphia Phillies are preoccupied with their pursuit of both Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, trying to sign at least one of them. But that doesn’t mean that a trade between them and the Milwaukee Brewers can’t come together.

Outside of adding someone like Harper or Machado, the Phillies could also stand to add to the back end of their rotation. That’s where the Brewers come in.

Brewers Potential Trade Candidates

The Brewers have two starting pitchers that stand a very good chance of being traded prior to the season starting: Zach Davies and Chase Anderson.

Davies is entering his age-26 season and is coming off an injury-riddled 2018. In 13 starts, Davies posted a 4.77 ERA, but he pitched well after returning to the team in September. His previous three seasons in the big leagues were far more successful, however. Davies has three years of team control remaining.

Anderson also struggled in 2018, but showed his dominating “ace” potential in 2017. This past year, he pitched to a 3.93 ERA in 30 starts, but ended up losing his spot in the rotation. He struggled with home runs and gave up 30 long balls total, with 22 of them coming in Miller Park. Anderson has one more guaranteed year left on his contract at $6.5 million, but has two more team options valued at $8.5 million and $9.5 million.

Both Davies and Anderson were left off the NLDS and NLCS rosters, benched in favor of young prospects Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta, and Corbin Burnes. That’s a pretty good sign of where these two stand in the organization after their down seasons.

Why Are The Phillies A Match?

The Phillies could use another quality starting pitcher to solidify the back end of their rotation. Even Davies and Anderson coming off their worst seasons had better numbers than their current options Vince Velasquez and Zach Eflin.

The Phillies are looking to make the playoffs in 2019, and Davies or Anderson would be a better pitcher at the back end of their rotation than Velasquez and Eflin.

Davies is of comparable age to those two Phillies pitchers, which might make him more attractive to Philadelphia than the 31 year old Anderson. But Anderson has the bigger potential.

From what the Milwaukee Brewers have shown us in their previous deals this winter, they’re looking for young players way far down in the minor leagues in return packages, restocking their own system. The Phillies would likely be more willing to include players like that in return than someone that can immediately help the Brewers at the big league level.

Perhaps there will be a MLB-ready player included in a return package for either Davies or Anderson, along with some low-level lottery tickets. It’s really a major unknown at this point, as these two teams are just a speculative match. There have been no known talks between these two clubs about either Davies or Anderson.

But you never know when things can change. We had no idea about talks between the Brewers and Mets until the Broxton deal was completed. We had no idea about talks between the Brewers and the Mariners until the Santana deal was done.

From the outside, these two teams look like a match as trade partners. The Brewers have pitchers that should be available this winter that fit what the Phillies are looking for. Don’t be surprised if a deal comes together.

Before any trade between these two is completed, the Phillies would likely want to have their Manny Machado and Bryce Harper pursuits to be completed, whether they sign them or not. The Milwaukee Brewers could be laying the groundwork in the meantime.