MLB insider cites trade for All-Star starter as Brewers' perfect 2025 offseason move

One of the biggest question marks for the Milwaukee Brewers entering the 2025-26 offseason was how their starting rotation picture would shake out. With ace Freddy Peralta entering the final year of his contract, a telltale sign that trade rumors will start to emerge, and Brandon Woodruff hitting free agency with a $22.025 million qualifying offer from the Brewers to consider, Milwaukee's president of baseball operations, Matt Arnold, has some work to do before his team's NL Central title defense begins next April.

However, while much of the baseball world generates trades that would send Peralta to a big market and concocts long-term contracts for Woody that would take him away from the organization he has spent his entire career with, many are failing to consider an alternate reality where the Brewers retain both pitchers and add another arm to their rotation. With many starting pitchers rumored to be trade candidates this winter, Arnold and company could construct an elite starting staff while staying within the confines of the Brewers' relatively modest budget.

The Brewers constructing their own version of a super rotation to compete with the one that the Los Angeles Dodgers rode to their second consecutive World Series in 2025 starts with Woodruff accepting the team's qualifying offer. After that, assuming Arnold decides to keep Peralta around for the final year of his contract, the Brewers will find themselves just one major blockbuster away from having one of the best starting staffs in all of baseball. One MLB insider cited such a trade as the Brewers' perfect transaction of the 2025-26 offseason.

ESPN's Jeff Passan cites a trade for Washington Nationals' starter MacKenzie Gore as the Brewers perfect offseason transaction

On Tuesday morning, ESPN's MLB insider, Jeff Passan, published an article on ESPN.com detailing the perfect offseason transactions for all 30 MLB teams. When it came to the Brewers, Passan acknowledged that while perhaps the wisest move would be for the front office to trade away Freddy Peralta and continue their focus on sustained success, Milwaukee's trip to the NLCS last year suggests that they should instead be adding players to their roster. In Passan's eyes, the perfect move would be to trade for Washington Nationals left-handed starter MacKenzie Gore.

Gore appeared on Reviewing the Brew's list of trade candidates that the Brewers could go "all-in" for during the 2025-26 offseason, meaning the package of players Milwaukee would have to send to Washington to acquire him would be significant. However, perhaps far more significant would be the impact that Gore would have on the Brewers starting rotation in 2026. Adding the All-Star southpaw to the mix could give the Brewers a proposed starting rotation of:

1. Freddy Peralta
2. MacKenzie Gore
3. Brandon Woodruff
4. Quinn Priester
5. Jacob Misiorowski

Such a scenario would leave Chad Patrick, Tobias Myers, Logan Henderson, and Robert Gasser as depth pieces for the Brewers' starting staff, assuming none of them are included in the trade package for Gore. The combination of those four starting pitchers in reserve and the starting staff listed above not only gives the Brewers the depth to make it through a 162-game season, but also the top-tier ceiling to advance through the postseason.

The Brewers were reportedly interested in Garrett Crochet last offseason before the Chicago White Sox decided to trade him to the Boston Red Sox, so a trade for a frontline starter is not entirely far-fetched. Additionally, Gore is projected by MLB Trade Rumors to make just $4.7 million in his second year of arbitration in 2026, meaning he is well within the Brewers' budget even if they do retain Woodruff and Peralta.

With one of the deepest farm systems in all of baseball, one that includes a great deal of redundancy, the Brewers are well-positioned to make a splash trade this offseason, and depending on how the rest of their offseason plays out, said trade could create a super rotation in Milwaukee for the 2026 season.