Brewers: No, Corbin Burnes And Freddy Peralta Are Not On The Trade Block

With the trade deadline not that far away, some national pundits are speculating as to who the Brewers might trade.

It’s that time of year again, where trade speculation starts to run rampant and fans are trying to decipher which rumors are real and which are fake. Sometimes, that can be difficult, especially for Brewers fans since David Stearns keeps everything close to the chest.

But in this case, it’s pretty easy.

Jon Morosi of MLB.com put out an article on four teams that could get creative at the trade deadline. He included the Brewers as one of those teams. That would make sense, you would think. Stearns is one of the more creative GMs in baseball and his approach to the deadline would likely also be creative.

Then I read what Morosi had to say.

"More specifically, the Brewers have yet to replace Lorenzo Cain’s impact, offensively and defensively, after he elected not to play this season. Avisaíl García has admirably taken on the challenge of playing center field every day, but he has below-average range for the position.As with Cleveland, Milwaukee’s best assets are young pitchers. Freddy Peralta and Corbin Burnes currently occupy multi-inning roles in the Brewers’ bullpen, but they are talented enough to start for many teams. The Braves could be one of them, and Atlanta’s top two prospects are a pair of talented outfielders, Cristian Pache and Drew Waters."

What? First of all, he just posted this article today and I’m not sure if Morosi is aware but Corbin Burnes is back in the starting rotation and he’s getting the ball tonight against the Twins.

Second of all, young controllable pitchers are what the Brewers NEED, and it’s been so difficult for them to get guys like Burnes and Peralta over the years. The last thing they should want to do is trade them away before they reach their full potential and watch them dominate elsewhere.

Even worse than that, trading them for young outfielders that are under team control for several years, when the Brewers only need a short-term replacement for Lorenzo Cain, who will be back for another two seasons makes even less sense. Drew Waters and Cristian Pache are good, yes, but swapping young, controllable pitchers that the Brewers need for a successful future for young, controllable outfielders that the Brewers don’t need would be the stupidest thing David Stearns could do.

Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta are the future for this pitching staff. They need more guys like them, not less. Peralta just signed a five year, $15.5MM contract extension this spring. He’s not going anywhere. The Brewers believe in him and know they have a huge weapon with him.

Same thing goes for Burnes. They finally have him right again, and he’s pitching better than ever. The Brewers struggled through his 2019 season with him and have given him every opportunity to succeed with this organization. There is absolutely no justification for the Brewers even thinking about trading away Burnes. He’s just starting to reach his full potential. Trading him away now, before he reaches that potential, for essentially pennies on the dollar is a poor choice.

Luckily, David Stearns is smarter than this. Burnes and Peralta are not on the trading block. He knows they are they key to the future success of this Brewers team and even getting outfielders as good as those two wouldn’t be worth it.

Thanks, but no thanks Jon Morosi. The Brewers might be creative, but they aren’t stupid, and trading away Burnes or Peralta now would be absolutely stupid.