Brewers Trade Rumors: Could Crew Blow Up Top Of Their Farm System?

It’s a dangerous game. Trying to decide between keeping your future intact and maximizing your present opportunity. The Milwaukee Brewers face that decision now.

For the past few years, the Brewers farm system has been regarded as one of the worst in baseball, continually devoid of top-end talent. Recently, that opinion has begun to change as Milwaukee has been adding some big talents to their organization. Talents such as Garrett Mitchell, Ethan Small, and Hedbert Perez have improved the quality in the system while progress in the developments of prospects such as Brice Turang and Aaron Ashby, among others, have also made this farm system look a lot better.

The Brewers farm isn’t terribly deep in terms of top-end prospects and they need as many of them as they can get. They’ve been rebuilding that system for a few years and now they potentially could begin dealing away those high-end talents.

According to the latest trade rumors, the Milwaukee Brewers are apparently willing to trade from their top crop of prospects in order to add an impact bat at the Trade Deadline.

Jim Bowden of The Athletic just released an article on the latest rumblings he’s heard at the Trade Deadline. It included a section on the Brewers that went like this:

"The Brewers are willing to trade their best prospects (Brice Turang, Garrett Mitchell, Aaron Ashby, Hedbert Perez, Ethan Small), if needed, and are committed to adding a corner-infield impact bat."

Well that’s an interesting bit of news, if true. Although Jim Bowden was an MLB GM previously, his record as a reporter on such things is a little flaky.

Let’s dissect this a little bit. Bowden said that the Brewers are willing to trade their best prospects if needed. So, essentially, our “untouchable prospects” list is being disregarded and Stearns is once again operating with everyone being available for the right price. That’s not anything new. Just because they’re available “if needed” doesn’t mean they’re looking to trade them.

They are also “committed to adding a corner-infield impact bat”. Okay, that’s not exactly surprising either, considering that’s a position of need.

But what player on the market is worth giving up one or more of their best prospects? Eduardo Escobar sure isn’t. Jesus Aguilar and Josh Bell wouldn’t be. Josh Donaldson isn’t, unless the Twins pay the rest of his entire contract, and even then it likely wouldn’t be worth it. Anyone who’s a rental won’t cost that. Even 1.5 years of control of someone wouldn’t be worth giving up from that group, most likely.

So who would the Milwaukee Brewers blow up the farm system for?

The only name that comes to mind that could potentially be on the market and be a true impact bat in the corner infield is Jose Ramirez of the Indians.

There is no one else on the market the Brewers are likely to even remotely consider dealing from the very top of their farm system for. If Garrett Mitchell is included in talks, three years of cheap control over Jose Ramirez is the only thing that would make that make sense.

If they’re dealing from that group of prospects, of which two or three could make an impact on the big league club in 2021, that’s the only player who would be worth it.

There hasn’t been any specific connection of the Brewers to Ramirez recently, but that is the only impact corner bat that could be had at this trade deadline that would be worth considering trading away this caliber of prospects. This is pure speculation on a target based on what Bowden is reporting.

Will the Brewers actually blow up the farm system? Probably not, but anything is possible with David Stearns. Milwaukee has focused on staying competitive continuously and not just in 3-5 year spurts, so blowing up the system might be out of character. But if there’s one addition that you would be willing to sell the farm for, it’s Jose Ramirez.

There’s a chance Stearns does go big at the Deadline this year. If he does, that may mean someone from the top of the system gets dealt.