Ángel Zerpa completely justified Brewers' bold offseason move in one week of WBC

It flew under the radar compared to the blockbuster trades involving Freddy Peralta and Caleb Durbin, but the Milwaukee Brewers' deal for Ángel Zerpa looks like it might age the best of all their offseason moves.

The 26-year-old is one of many lefties in the Crew's bullpen, but he looks primed to breakout after a dominant run through the World Baseball Classic. Emerging as one part of Venezuela's dominant five-headed relief monster, Zerpa tied with teammate Andrés Machado for the most pitching appearances in the WBC with six.

In that span, Zerpa covered 5.1 scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and two walks against eight strikeouts. Had the Chicago Cubs' Daniel Palencia not looked like the second coming of Randy Johnson, Zerpa might have been the breakout story for the championship-winning squad.

It's a really positive development for a Brewers team that could use another high-leverage southpaw to take a load of Aaron Ashby's plate. With some more fine-tuning, Zerpa could become the future understudy to closer Abner Uribe.

Ángel Zerpa dominates World Baseball Classic, changing outlook with Brewers

There was never any doubting Zerpa's talent. Owner of a career 3.97 ERA in 177 major-league innings, he's known for his strong command and elite ability to generate ground balls. The problem has always been that he rarely, if ever, fools hitters — his chase, whiff, and hard-hit rates all generally rank toward the bottom of the league.

While we'll need to wait for the regular season to see if the Brewers have found a way to cover for his weaknesses, Zerpa did look dominant in the WBC. He used his sinker-slider combo to great effect, which is a good sign after opposing batters torched the former last year (.301 batting average, .361 wOBA). The slider was particularly dominant, generating a 66.7% whiff rate throughout the tournament.

Maybe there's reason for concern considering he pitched six times in seven games (and three times in four days to finish things out), but he was efficient on the mound and never looked fatigued. Maybe this high-intensity tune-up for the regular season is the precursor to a breakout campaign.

And, for what it's worth, the pieces Milwaukee sent back to the Royals in the trade aren't exactly thriving. It's only Spring Training, but Isaac Collins looks absolutely toast (.317 OPS, -13 wRC+) at the plate, while Nick Mears (10.80 ERA, 9.97 FIP) is getting crushed out of the bullpen.

It's far too early to draw any conclusions, but the Brewers are looking genius for acquiring Zerpa when they did.