Brewers Send Utility Player To Tigers In A Minor Trade

The Milwaukee Brewers are always on the lookout for potential transactions and David Stearns just made another, albeit of a more minor variety.

Early on Wednesday, the Brewers completed a trade with the Detroit Tigers, sending minor league infielder Jamie Westbrook to Detroit in exchange for cash considerations.

The Brewers trade of Jamie Westbrook to the Detroit Tigers should give the infielder a better opportunity of reaching the big leagues.

There’s a bit of a crowded infield picture in Triple-A Nashville. With Pablo Reyes, Weston Wilson, Mark Mathias, Andruw Monasterio, and Brice Turang in the fold down there, playing time would be hard to come by. Plus with Willy Adames, Kolten Wong, Jace Peterson, and others at the big league level, the depth was strong.

He can also play outfield, which is another crowded position group in Milwaukee and at Triple-A. David Dahl, Corey Ray, Abraham Almonte, Jonathan Davis, Dustin Peterson, and Garrett Whitley take up a lot of playing time in the Nashville outfield.

Westbrook, 26, was signed as a minor league free agent ahead of the 2021 season. Last year, Westbrook hit .281 with a .809 OPS and 12 homers between Double-A Biloxi and Triple-A Nashville.

This year, Westbrook was hitting .500 (5-for-10) in three games with the Nashville Sounds with a 1.145 OPS.

Now, Westbrook goes to a new organization that just finishing a rebuilding process and aiming to compete in 2022 for the first time in a few years. There should be more opportunities available to him to get to the big league level in Detroit than there would be in Milwaukee.

The Tigers are dealing with a couple of injuries early on in the season to top prospect Riley Greene, as well as Derek Hill and potentially Robbie Grossman. Those injuries were the precursor to Milwaukee sending Westbrook to Detroit. He’ll report to Triple-A Toledo.

In exchange, the Brewers get cash considerations. It’s unknown just how much cash is coming over to Milwaukee but it’s not going to be a significant amount. Westbrook is a minor league player that has never been on a 40 man roster and his contract isn’t exactly significant.

It’s also unclear if the Brewers will promote someone from Double-A to fill Westbrook’s spot in Nashville. There is solid depth down there so they don’t need to promote someone, but it is a possibility.

We wish Westbrook the best of luck with his new organization.

This is a minor trade of a minor league player but it could result in Westbrook making his big league debut relatively soon.