Milwaukee Brewers Rumors: Crew Still In Discussions For Corey Kluber

The Milwaukee Brewers have been relatively quiet lately, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been work being done behind the scenes. According to reports, they’re still looking for an ace.

As far as Brewers rumors go, the one that’s been around the longest this offseason is their interest in acquiring Corey Kluber of the Indians. According to Jon Morosi, those talks are still ongoing.

In his article, Morosi states the Milwaukee Brewers remain involved in trade discussions for top starting pitchers, including Kluber. If those talks don’t go anywhere, pivoting to Madison Bumgarner makes sense. But Morosi leads us to believe that Kluber is their top trade target, and that shouldn’t surprise anyone.

How Likely Is A Kluber Trade?

As Morosi pointed out, it’s getting less likely by the day. Once spring training starts, Kluber isn’t going anywhere. There’s still a chance, but at best the chances are less than 50%.

What Could This Trade Cost?

The Indians do need outfielders, however the Milwaukee Brewers have traded their extra big league outfielders away already as Domingo Santana is in Seattle now and Keon Broxton is in New York.

However, Corey Ray is a big time prospect who is close to the big leagues and would make sense as part of a centerpiece for Kluber. However, Ray is not a Top-100 prospect and there would need to be at least one blue chip player heading to Cleveland in return, which would likely have to be Keston Hiura.

There’s no one from the big league roster that’s good enough for the team to spare in a Kluber trade, it would have to be headlined by Hiura.

A pitcher would also need to be included, likely one of Freddy Peralta or Brandon Woodruff, to sort of replace what the Indians are losing. And then a fourth throw in piece would also need to be included, this one doesn’t have to be a high-end prospect, I wouldn’t think.

Would the Brewers be willing to do that? Perhaps not, but it’ll likely take close to that for a deal to get done. Since the Brewers haven’t signed a free agent second baseman, keeping Keston Hiura may be more important than before.

The chances aren’t great for this trade to be completed, but Pres. of Baseball Ops David Stearns appears to be working hard trying to get that frontline starting pitcher. He reportedly has an offer out to Dallas Keuchel, and is working the phones seeing if he can land an ace starter in a trade.

Spring training starts in two weeks. We’re going to see a flurry of moves and signings before then as players will want to get into camp with the team they’re going to start the season with.