MLB writer predicts Brewers will find a familiar trade partner this offseason

When national writers start tossing Freddy Peralta into trade proposals, Milwaukee Brewers fans usually shrug it off as background noise. They just exercised his absurdly team-friendly option after watching him pitch like a legitimate front-line arm during the 2025 campaign. This isn’t a guy you move lightly. But every now and then, one of these ideas at least makes you stop and think.

Anthony Castrovince’s latest bold-offseason prediction over at MLB.com did exactly that. Instead of shipping Peralta off to some random big spender, he sent him to a team the Brewers know intimately well: the Baltimore Orioles. And he didn’t just hand-wave the return, either. Castrovince specifically floated outfielder Dylan Beavers as part of the package — and even noted that Beavers’ left-handed swing has been compared to Christian Yelich’s. 

Brewers trade prediction sends Freddy Peralta to Orioles for rising OF Dylan Beavers

The Orioles are a logical “familiar” trade partner. They’ve already lined up with Milwaukee on a blockbuster before, when the Burnes deal helped fuel Baltimore’s rise and restocked the Brewers with Joey Ortiz, DL Hall, and a valuable draft pick. In the time since, Ortiz has settled in as an everyday building block, and Hall has flashed when healthy. If the Brewers ever decide to listen on Peralta, they’d love a similar path: talent that can help now, upside that grows into the next core, and cost control throughout.

Castrovince’s framework checks a lot of those boxes. The Orioles just added Taylor Ward to an already crowded outfield, which could make Beavers more expendable. Beavers isn’t some throw-in, either. He’s a big, athletic lefty with real pop, and enough tools to project as an everyday corner outfielder with impact. Pair him with Jackson Chourio, and the additional young bats already in place, and you can see the outline of a lineup that stays dangerous without needing a $250 million payroll.

The Peralta side of this is where the conversation gets uncomfortable. One more year of an ace-level arm at a bargain price is the kind of asset small and mid-market teams almost never let go of unless the return is overwhelming. That’s why, as intriguing as Beavers is, he would definitely be a starting point, with additional prospects also included.

So what does Castrovince’s prediction really tell us? Mostly, it underlines where the Brewers live in the MLB ecosystem. As long as they’re operating on this kind of budget, they’re going to be the team everyone calls about their best players — and sometimes, they’ll have to listen. If they ever decide that this is the winter to cash in on Freddy Peralta, it wouldn’t be shocking at all if the Orioles are on the other end of the line. And if Dylan Beavers is part of that conversation, that’s one “bold prediction” Brewers fans can’t just brush aside.