Grading the Milwaukee Brewers' formulaic 2026 trade deadline

The Milwaukee Brewers were reportedly prepared to be more aggressive at this year's trade deadline, but perhaps that simply meant in relation to last year. Confirmed to have submitted an offer for Detroit Tigers' ace Tarik Skubal before he ultimately landed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Brewers' front office "certainly talked about doing some irresponsible stuff" as President of Baseball Operations Matt Arnold told reporters last night. However, in the end, the Brewers' front office once again turned in a trade deadline performance that was certainly more aggressive than last year's, but still rather conservative for a team with the best record in baseball.

Rather than stray from the formula that has led Milwaukee to seven postseason appearances in the last eight years and produced the best farm system in baseball to execute an "all in" blockbuster, the Brewers' front office once again "threaded the needle" to steal another term from Arnold, between improving their roster for the stretch run in 2026 and maintaining the organizational depth that will allow them to remain competitive for years to come.

The result was three (technically four) trades in the final three days leading up to the deadline that initially landed Milwaukee five players before one of them was traded away. The Brewers focused on pitching, as they said they would, but also made a surprising addition to their position player depth. Let's break down each trade and assign a grade to the Brewers' calculated deadline approach.

Grading the Brewers three moves at the 2026 trade deadline

1. Brewers acquire C Bo Naylor and RHP Codi Heuer from Cleveland Guardians for OF Blake Perkins and RHP Craig Yoho

1B. Brewers trade Codi Heuer to Baltimore Orioles for cash considerations

The Brewers kicked off their deadline deals on Saturday morning by swinging a surprise four-player trade with the Cleveland Guardians that netted them a controllable catcher and a relief arm, both of whom were optioned to Triple-A upon joining their new organization. It was not a move most Brewers fans were anticipating but one that starts to make a little more sense upon further examination.

With a strong catching duo of William Contreras and Gary Sánchez at the big-league level and a top catching prospect in Jeferson Quero in Triple-A, the Brewers were seemingly set with their backstops before adding Naylor into the mix. However, Naylor's addition serves two purposes. The first being that Naylor now acts as Milwaukee's "emergency catcher" for the final two months of the regular season and the postseason this year. Should an injury pop up to either Contreras or Sánchez, the Brewers wouldn't want to rely on an inexperienced rookie in Quero in high-pressure situations during the division race or the postseason. Having another option with big-league experience in Naylor gives the Brewers a much better insurance policy should a poorly timed injury arise.

Naylor also serves as another solid option down the road. The 26-year-old left-handed hitting catcher is under team control through the 2030 season, making him a solid platoon partner for Quero should the Brewers not re-sign Sánchez this offseason and elect to trade Contreras before his final year of team control. Naylor certainly needs a career turnaround in the Brewers' organization to be considered a viable option, but with first-round pedigree, a brief track record of success at the beginning of his career, and excellent defensive abilities, there's reason to believe he can be a far more productive big-leaguer than he's been as of late.

Meanwhile, Heuer, who had some potential in his arsenal despite seeing his career stall in Cleveland, was traded to the Orioles for cash considerations just before the deadline. It's safe to think that Heuer was something of a back-up plan if the Brewers weren't able to land other relievers before the deadline. However, when Milwaukee added two relief arms, they elected to trade Heuer away for cash considerations to open up a 40-man roster spot.

Perkins, had he been traded on his own, likely wouldn't have netted much more than cash considerations at this point in his career. The 29-year-old outfielder is not the elite defender he once was, and his .157/.250/.258 slash line, paired with the Brewers' troves of outfield depth, made him an expendable part of Milwaukee's roster. In that regard, the cash considerations the Brewers received for Heuer and Perkins essentially cancel out in this deal, making it a one-for-one swap.

The difficult part of this trade to evaluate is Yoho. The 26-year-old Yoho has the arsenal, which includes a unicorn changeup, to be a really strong big-league reliever. However, the Brewers' patience with Yoho's lack of command had run dry, and their unwillingness to significantly alter his pitch mix led them to bestow that problem upon another organization. Therefore, the Brewers' internal evaluation of Yoho and what his unique arsenal suggests he could become are two very different things. The fact that he's going to a strong pitching development organization like the Guardians suggests that the likelihood of him becoming a productive big-leaguer is more likely than him plateauing as a AAAA arm, which is why Cleveland earns the slight edge in this trade in which neither team surrendered anything too significant.

Guardians' grade: B-

Brewers' grade: C

2. Brewers acquire RHP Dustin May and LHP JoJo Romero to St. Louis Cardinals for OF Alexander Frias (MIL No. 11-ranked prospect) and OF Josiah Ragsdale (MIL No. 13)

The Brewers' most notable trade of the deadline was a rare intradivisional deal with their NL Central rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals. In search of a starting pitcher with postseason experience, on an expiring deal, who has the potential to be a No. 3 starter in Milwaukee's rotation -- not an easy profile to find -- the Brewers swung a deal with their rivals to acquire 28-year-old Dustin May, who signed a one-year contract with the Redbirds during the offseason.

May might not be the pitcher that Brewers fans were hoping for at the deadline (that player is now on the Dodgers), but that doesn't mean he isn't an impact addition for Milwaukee's stretch run. Looking past his pedestrian 4.38 ERA, May has the potential to be a really important piece of the Brewers' rotation. His 3.14 FIP (fielding independent pitching) suggests his numbers will improve simply by pitching in front of the Brewers' defense, and his 3.90 expected ERA indicates he's had some bad batted ball luck this year.

May has an excellent sinker, which the Brewers are likely to highlight in his repertoire, and pairs it with a strong cutter, another pitch Milwaukee covets. He has better than league-average command despite having a whippy arm that generates an average velocity of more than 96 mph on both his four-seam and sinker. All of those signs point to him being the "playoff-caliber arm" that the Brewers were searching for.

The Brewers were also reportedly looking for a high-leverage left-handed reliever at the deadline -- another rare profile -- and ended up landing one in the same deal with St. Louis. 29-year-old JoJo Romero has a track record of success dating back to the 2022 season when he joined the Cardinals. Since then, he has a 3.18 ERA while averaging nearly 44 appearances per season. However, in 2025 Romero really took a step forward, posting a 2.87 ERA in 65 appearances while maintaining a ridiculous 57.1% ground-ball rate. He's taken a small step backwards this year, but remains a high-leverage option and elevates the Brewers' bullpen to one of the best in baseball.

Understandably so, given how difficult it is to acquire a playoff-caliber starter and a high-leverage bullpen weapon from a division rival at the deadline, the Brewers gave up a significant prospect haul to land the two rental pitchers from the Cardinals. Outfielder Josiah Ragsdale was drafted by the Brewers in the 7th round of the 2025 MLB Draft out of Boston College and has put together a breakout campaign in his first full season in the minor leagues this year. In 86 games split between High-A and Double-A, Ragsdale is slashing .316/.441/.581 with 19 homers and 21 doubles. However, Ragsdale never had anywhere close to this much power in college, so there's reason to believe the Brewers are selling high on the 22-year-old outfielder.

18-year-old Alexander Frias, meanwhile, broke out in the Arizona Complex League this year, posting a 1.196 OPS in 32 games with 16 extra-base hits. His blend of power and plate discipline is intriguing for such a young prospect, but his numbers did see a pretty sizable drop-off when he was promoted to Low-A.

It's certainly a sizable trade package for the Brewers to surrender, but both teams did exactly what they needed to do in this trade. Milwaukee dealt from their deep farm system and didn't give up any of their key top prospects to make what could be two very impactful additions to their major league roster. The Cardinals, accepting their 2026 fate, turned two of their soon-to-be departing players into an impressive amount of prospect capital. Because the intradivision trade seemingly raised the prospect price for the Brewers, and gave the Cardinals the clear win on paper, St. Louis comes out slightly ahead in the trade grades, but there's a very good chance this deal ends up working out for both parties.

Cardinals' grade: A-

Brewers' grade: B+

3. Brewers acquire RHP Antonio Senzatela from Colorado Rockies for LHP Mark Manfredi and SS Juan Martinez

Matt Arnold and the Brewers' front office rounded out the 2026 trade deadline by snagging the Rockies' starter-turned-reliever Antonio Senzatela. After debuting for the Rockies back in 2017, Senzatela has spent the nine years since making half of his appearances in the hitter's paradise of Coors Field. Up until August of last year, practically all of those outings came as a starting pitcher, but following a Tommy John surgery in 2023 and a subsequent period of underperformance, the Rockies elected to convert Senzatela into a reliever, and the decision has revitalized the 31-year-old right-hander's career.

In 34 appearances out of the Rockies' bullpen this year, Senzatela has a 3.61 ERA, has seen his fastball velocity jump up to 97 mph, and is striking out opponents at a higher rate than he ever has in his 10-year MLB career. Take away his appearances at Coors Field, and Senzatela's season-long ERA drops down to 2.57, suggesting he will see some improvement simply by not pitching half of his games a mile above sea level.

Senzatela is an experienced, veteran arm who should be able to make high-leverage, multi-inning appearances out of Pat Murphy's bullpen. He has one postseason start in his career, which came in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Brewers back in 2018. He tossed 5.2 innings and allowed three hits and two earned runs in a game the Brewers ended up winning in extra innings.

Senzatela, though he is certainly an intriguing option, somewhat flew under the radar at the deadline, and as a result, the Brewers didn't give up a huge haul of prospects to land him. For Senzatela, who has an expensive $14 million club option for the 2027 season that the Brewers are unlikely to pick up, Milwaukee gave up a pair of prospects who didn't appear on MLB Pipeline's list of the Top 30 prospects in the Brewers' farm system prior to the trade: left-handed pitcher Mark Manfredi and infielder Juan Martinez.

Manfredi is knocking on MLB's door and could even debut for the Rockies later this year, but his path to playing time in Milwaukee was less clear. Though he holds a 3.35 ERA and an impressive 35.2% strikeout rate in 45.2 innings split between Double-A and Triple-A this year, Manfredi didn't have an obvious place on the Brewers' 40-man roster for the foreseeable future. Eligible for the Rule 5 Draft this year, Manfredi could have been lost for nothing had the Brewers not dealt him or added him to their 40-man roster in the next few months.

Martinez, on the other hand, is just 19 years old and still requires plenty of development. Though he impressed with a 1.074 OPS in 29 games in the Arizona Complex League this year, he, like Frias, has struggled in his first few games in Low-A. He has speed, a little bit of power, and consistently walks more than he strikes out, but Martinez has a long way to go before he's eating into the value that the Brewers will receive from Senzatela down the stretch this year.

Senzatela is certainly an intriguing addition to the Brewers' bullpen and due to his unorthodox path to the bullpen and his numbers being inflated due to Coors Field, he didn't cost too much to acquire. It's a savvy, low-risk, high-reward move from the Brewers' front office that earns them a favorable grade. Just like the deal with the Cardinals, both teams did exactly what they should be doing by executing this deal.

Rockies' grade: B+

Brewers' grade: B+

Average out two B+'s and a C, and what do you get? Somewhere between a B- and a B. Matt Arnold and company, however, have earned the benefit of the doubt with their stellar track record in trades, so the Brewers' overall trade deadline grade lands at a "B" in 2026. Milwaukee didn't land the big name on the market that fans were hoping for, but May has a great deal of upside, and was quietly one of the best options for the Brewers at the deadline.

The Brewers' deadline outcome, though understandably underwhelming to some, was better this year than last year and the year prior. It may not have been what fans were hoping for, but Milwaukee did an excellent job of threading the needle between reinforcing their current roster and maintaining their organizational depth for future seasons, following the formula that has led to seven posteason appearances in the last eight years.

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