Brewers 2022 Trade Deadline: Instant Grades of the Crew's Deadline deals

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The 2022 MLB Trade Deadline has come and gone. The Milwaukee Brewers made three trades, all of which involved relievers.

It was a disappointing trade deadline to put it mildly. The Brewers entered this deadline needing help on offense and some more bullpen arms, and potentially get some more starting pitching depth.

They certainly addressed the bullpen and to an extent the rotation, but the offense was left pretty much alone.

The Milwaukee Brewers 2022 Trade Deadline grades of each trade they completed.

Brewers Trade LHP Josh Hader to Padres for LHP Taylor Rogers, RHP Dinelson Lamet, OF Esteury Ruiz, LHP Robert Gasser

Grade: B-

In our initial grade of this trade was an A-, and long-term maybe it is. They acquired a rental reliever in Taylor Rogers to backfill Hader‘s spot in the rotation, a talented arm with another year of control in Dinelson Lamet who can help in the bullpen or the rotation, plus two very highly rated prospects.

Esteury Ruiz should be able to help the big league roster quickly, although he’s been assigned to Triple-A so he’s not planned to be an immediate upgrade on the big league club. Robert Gasser is going to Double-A and is now the Crew’s best pitching prospect.

But how much better did the Brewers make their team for 2022? Rogers is an inferior reliever to Hader, although to be fair everyone is an inferior reliever to Hader. Lamet is a project to get back to his old self and unless they can snap him back into that 2020 form immediately, how much help will he provide this season?

Really the 2022 portion of this trade that makes or breaks this is Esteury Ruiz. He probably should be promoted immediately to take over in centerfield and upgrade that position. He’d be an upgrade over Tyrone Taylor and Jonathan Davis. If they don’t plan on him helping soon, this move was more about the future than helping out right now.

While it’s important to look out for the future and these guys can help long-term, how much does this trade improve the 2022 Brewers team? Arguably, it doesn’t. To make matters worse, they didn’t do much to improve the Brewers team after this and that is what contributes to downgrading this trade for Milwaukee.

MILWAUKEE, WI – APRIL 24: Baseball hats with the current logo (L) and retro logo sit on display at Miller Park on April 24, 2016 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /

Brewers Trade LHP Antoine Kelly, IF Mark Mathias to Texas for RHP Matt Bush

Grade: B

Later on Monday night, the Brewers made another trade involving a reliever, getting former No. 1 overall pick Matt Bush from the Texas Rangers. Bush has a 2.95 ERA this year and has 2.5 more years of control and is still averaging 97 MPH on his fastball at 36 years old.

His advanced age may be of concern, even though he doesn’t have a ton of mileage on his arm. To get Bush, the Brewers gave up Antoine Kelly, arguably their top left-handed pitching prospect prior to the acquisition of Gasser in the Hader deal. Utility infielder Mark Mathias was also included in the deal. It seemed like a somewhat steep price to pay for a setup man but with where Kelly was ranked, it wasn’t an obscene price.

As long as Bush continues to pitch well and stays around for the next few years, this could end up working well for Milwaukee value-wise.

Brewers Trade OF Tristan Peters to Giants for RHP Trevor Rosenthal

Grade: F—-

That’s right, a quadruple F-minus. This was a head scratcher and just insane that the Brewers actually agreed to this asking price.

Trevor Rosenthal, a former good pitcher who, at 32 years old, hasn’t thrown a big league inning since 2020 due to a myriad of injuries goes to the Brewers. He’s scheduled to be ready again in about a month as he recovers from a hamstring injury. He’s also a free agent at the end of the season.

Still, Rosenthal is someone that makes sense go after. We wrote about why they should sign him back in June.

So you’re getting one month of a reliever who hasn’t pitched in two years. The return should be minimal, right? Maybe cash considerations or a 17 year old prospect in the Dominican Summer League, someone super far down and not much of a prospect, right?

Nope.

The Brewers decided that Rosenthal was worth trading Tristan Peters, an outfielder just promoted to Double-A that’s hitting .307, has an .871 OPS this season, and put himself on the map and in the Crew’s Top 30 prospects list at No. 19. The Brewers traded their 19th ranked prospect for one month of a pitcher that hasn’t seen a big league mound in two years.

That’s downright ridiculous. Regardless of whether Peters had a future in Milwaukee or not with the Crew’s bevy of outfield prospects, he had no business being included in this trade. None.

The price paid to make this deal is what puts it at a quadruple F-minus. There is no reason to pay that high of a price for a still injured pitcher that hasn’t been in a game in two years.

MIAMI, FLORIDA – SEPTEMBER 11: General manager David Stearns of the Milwaukee Brewers looks on prior to the game against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park on September 11, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /

Overall Brewers Deadline Grade: D

D is for Dud. This deadline gets a D from me. The Brewers didn’t quite sell, but it’s hard to argue they were much of a buyer either. They jumbled up and reshaped their bullpen. We’ll see how that ends up working out over the course of these final two months and they’ll certainly have no shortage of arms.

But it’s more so the trades they didn’t make that dropped down this grade. They didn’t help the offense at all. They got one position player, Ruiz, and immediately assigned him to Triple-A. He’s a very good prospect, but he’s not much of a sure thing for an offensive improvement just yet. Ruiz didn’t make his MLB debut until this year.

They didn’t get an established bat to plug into this offense, they didn’t help improve the consistency of the offense, and they didn’t improve the depth to withstand injuries.

The position player group is healthy right now, which they haven’t been all season. They’ve performed well when healthy. But as we all know, injuries happen. When these guys are hurt, the depth behind them isn’t great to fill that production. We’ve seen that all season. Not getting anyone to help with that makes little sense, especially after trading Hader.

For a first place team to trade their All Star closer at the Deadline and then not back it up with an acquisition of another impact player doesn’t make any sense. Clubhouses have lost trust in their front offices for a lot less. When Hader moved, it seemed as though they had more big things coming down the line. But they followed it with a dud.

Pedro Severino is still here and the Brewers continue to roll with three catchers, hurting their depth at other positions and hamstringing the bench. How is he still around?

The trade of Tristan Peters for Rosenthal is just infuriating. The Brewers have liked Rosenthal for a while but they massively overpaid to get him for just one month. He’s a free agent at the end of the season. To give up a good young hitter like Peters while also not improving the offense in any way adds to the frustration.

Typically, the mantra goes “In Stearns We Trust” and perhaps it still should be. He’s earned the benefit of the doubt at this point. But there’s an awful lot of doubt regarding this Deadline strategy. Either their strategy was blown up by another team’s moves, or this was just a poor strategy from the start.

Next. State of the Brewers Bullpen. dark

It’s not so much the moves themselves, except for the Peters-for-Rosenthal deal, but the moves they didn’t make and the impact the moves will have on the clubhouse. The rest of the locker room isn’t likely to take this Deadline very well.

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Brewers 2022 Trade Deadline: Instant Grades Of The Crew’s Deadline Deals