Brewers Add Billy McKinney, DFA Trey Supak Amid Flurry Of Roster Moves

After getting thoroughly embarrassed by the Cubs in a no-hitter on Sunday, the Brewers made a flurry of roster moves.

The Brewers looked absolutely pathetic in their series against the Cubs, and perhaps it should come as no surprise that the team looked to make some changes. What’s surprising though, is what the changes actually are.

With doubleheaders two out of the next three days against the Cardinals, the Brewers need to get things turned around and fast.

Let’s take a look at the moves.

Brewers Roster Changes

First, the Brewers claimed Billy McKinney off waivers. A former first round pick in 2013, McKinney has been a highly sought after prospect in the past and has been traded at the July deadline three different times.

McKinney has yet to establish himself in the majors, hitting .250 back in 2018 in just 38 games. Then in 2019, he hit .215 with a sub-.700 OPS in 84 games. This year, McKinney has just three at-bats at the big league level, and he’s 2-for-3, so that’s good but also an extremely small sample size.

The Brewers will be hoping they can tap into some of that first round talent that he has.

Meanwhile, in the bullpen, Justin Topa is back up for his second trip to the big leagues this year as the extra man for the doubleheader and Ray Black, who hasn’t been seen since July with a shoulder injury, has been reinstated.

J.P. Feyereisen goes down to make room for Black in the bullpen on the active roster. Feyereisen has a 6.48 ERA this season over 8.1 IP with five walks and seven strikeouts. He gave up two more runs in the blowout win by the Cubs on Sunday.

Ronny Rodriguez, who was claimed last offseason as a depth piece for the infield was an interesting player to watch in summer camp but he hasn’t been able to earn himself a spot on the big league roster and was designated for assignment.

The interesting move here is the DFA of Trey Supak, who not long ago, was one of the Crew’s top pitching prospects and the Southern League Pitcher of the Year in 2019. He earned a mid-season promotion to Triple-A last year, where he struggled, and that tanked his prospect status. However, his potential was still there and it’s a surprise to see him get DFAed so quickly.

He was called up for a brief moment earlier this year, but did not get in a game and then was sent back down to the alternate site.

Perhaps he was struggling at the alternate site, but still, it seems like a quick hook for someone who was successful very recently. He still can remain in the organization but will be off the 40 man roster if he clears waivers. If another team were to claim Supak, he would have to be placed on that team’s 40 man roster.

It seems like quite the risk to leave Supak exposed to waivers, especially after having such recent success. But David Stearns has done this before, leaving Zack Brown exposed to the Rule 5 Draft despite his status as a Top 3 Brewers prospect at the time and he did not get selected.

The Brewers might need bigger changes than this if they’re going to turn things around, but they’re mostly stuck with what they have at this point in the season.