Brewers lose promising pitching prospect in completion of Quinn Priester deal

Almost a month ago to the day, the Milwaukee Brewers swung a surprising early-April trade for Quinn Priester, a controllable starter with significant upside. However, the deal was not cheap for the Brewers, who traded their No. 7-ranked prospect, Yophery Rodriguez, the 33rd overall pick in this year's MLB Draft, and a player to be named later. Now, that player has been named, and it changes the nature of the trade altogether. According to Adam McCalvy, Brewers beat writer for MLB.com, the Brewers are sending their 2024 5th-round pick, John Holobetz, to the Boston Red Sox to complete the trade.

As Adam mentions in his post on X, Holobetz, a 22-year-old right-hander out of Old Dominion, was off to an incredible start in the Brewers' minor league system. In fact, Reviewing the Brew's Tyler Koerth cited Holobetz as one of Milwaukee's steals of the 2024 draft in an article published earlier today. While his college career wasn't anything special, the promise that he showed in his first 24 innings of professional ball should have Brewers fans very upset to see him go.

Early returns on the Quinn Priester trade don't favor the Brewers

To be clear, this was a long-term deal for the Brewers. Priester is a former first-round pick who should figure into the Brewers' rotation plans for many years to come. However, because of the six years of team control that Priester holds, the price to acquire him was steep, and today it got even steeper.

Holobetz looks to have significant upside, with a four-seam fastball that is already surpassing 95 MPH with impressive carry. He pairs that fastball with a sharp slider in the mid-80s and a lefty-neutralizing changeup.

However, Holobetz isn't the only player that the Brewers sent away in this trade that they might end up regretting. Since joining the Red Sox organization, Yophery Rodríguez has posted an OPS of .820 and six extra-base hits in just 19 games. While the concern for Rodríguez was his high strikeout rate and low walk rate a season ago, since the trade he has posted more walks than strikeouts en route to a .410 OBP with the Greenville Drive, Boston's High-A affiliate.

With Priester starting to struggle after two solid starts to begin his Brewers tenure, the early reports on this trade, which should absolutely be taken with a grain of salt, show it as a lopsided win for Boston, who will add a third player in July with the Competitive Balance Round A draft pick that they also acquired in this deal. If Priester turns out to be a reliable third or fourth starter for the Brewers for the next several years, then Brewers fans may quickly forget the high price tag that he held, but until then, the pressure on him to perform will only increase.