5 Brewers players who could be traded off the 40 man roster before 2024 Deadline

The trade winds are howling. Rumors are percolating. The Milwaukee Brewers, sitting in first place in the NL Central with a six game cushion could both buy *and* sell at the 2024 trade deadline.

We've already seen them act as buyers with the Aaron Civale and Nick Mears trades. But as the roster crunch grows with players returning from injury and external additions brought in via trade, the Brewers may be forced to sell off some pieces from their 40 man roster in order to make the roster math work.

For example, Bradley Blalock was on the Brewers 40 man roster when they included him in the deal to Colorado for Nick Mears. It's highly likely that before this trade deadline is over, the Brewers will trade a few more players from their current 40 man roster.

But who could those players be? Here are five possibilities.

1. OF Garrett Mitchell

The Brewers first round pick in the 2020 Draft has faced some tough challenges thus far in his pro career. After a great debut late in 2022, Mitchell missed all but a few weeks of the 2023 season with shoulder surgery, then he missed the first three months of 2024 with a broken bone in his hand.

Mitchell can be a sparkplug when healthy, and he has excellent prospect pedigree. Fansided's Robert Murray reported recently that teams were calling about Mitchell and that he could be included in a trade to get some starting pitching.

The Brewers do have a surplus in the outfield. Sal Frelick, Jackson Chourio, and Blake Perkins have all done extremely well this season, plus there's Christian Yelich. Yelich's injury may change the calculus on a potential Mitchell deal, though. The Brewers are seeking a left handed bat to help fill the void, while Mitchell himself is a left handed hitter and plays the same position as Yelich.

Either the Brewers are going to shut down trade conversations involving Mitchell in the wake of Yelich's injury or they can look to bring in a different left handed bat to help fill out the lineup and ship Mitchell elsewhere to get some pitching help.

That surplus means Mitchell is not the only outfielder from the 40 man roster who could find himself with a new team soon, though.

3. Eric Haase/Gary Sanchez

I'm going to cheat and include both Eric Haase and Gary Sanchez here because likely one of these two is going to be gone in the near future, I'm just not sure which.

Currently, the Brewers are carrying three catchers on the active roster. That's not a sustainable roster construction. Instead of having to DFA one of the two catchers shortly after the deadline and losing them for nothing in return, the Brewers could simply trade one of them to a team that's looking for catching help at the deadline. This opens them up to a possible contender-to-contender trade.

It's been reported the Brewers are seeking to add a left handed bat at the deadline in the wake of Yelich's injury. If they do add that bat, how will they fit him on to the 26 man active roster? The easy solution is to clear one of the extra backup catchers.

There's little chance the Brewers could sneak Haase through waivers this time around. He's been excellent in a limited role and his trade value has skyrocketed as a result. If the Brewers know they want to roll with Gary Sanchez as the backup to William Contreras, then the best course of action would be to trade Haase now and get something for him rather than lose him on waivers for nothing.

If the Brewers prefer to keep Haase, then Gary Sanchez could be a hot name on the trade market. Teams are always looking for a little extra power at the deadline and Sanchez's name carries weight in that regard. Haase has impressed so much, it's entirely possible they move Sanchez instead.

There's virtually no chance both of these players stick around through the rest of the season. Haase can't be optioned and neither can Sanchez. Don't be surprised if either one of them gets shipped out before Tuesday is over.

4. RHP Joel Payamps

The Brewers bullpen is going to go through a bit of a shakeup. Relievers are going to be on the table in trade talks. It's already a crowded group and it's going to get more crowded. Devin Williams is due back soon and Nick Mears will join the team in the coming days as well. That means two bullpen spots will need to be opened.

Plus there's other relievers due back from injury, so this is again an area of the roster where the Brewers may need to do some shuffling to make the roster math work out.

Joel Payamps is one such bullpen arm who could find himself on the outside looking in. Payamps has had a bit of regression this year, pitching to a 4.14 ERA in 43 appearances. It's a far cry from the 2.55 ERA he put up last season in a high leverage role.

Because of his struggles, Payamps has been moved out of some of the higher leverage spots this season. He's also out of minor league options.

The Brewers like having flexibility with their bullpen group and since Payamps can't be sent back down to the minors, they may be more suited to trade him and the two and half years of control he has remaining. The Nick Mears trade on Saturday showed that even a reliever with a not-so-great ERA with years of control can command a solid return.

5. RHP Bryse Wilson

I'm not entirely convinced the Brewers would actually trade Bryse Wilson, considering how valuable he's been, but hear me out on this.

The Brewers have a bunch of bulk options that aren't trusted enough to be regular starting pitchers but can fill multiple innings. Wilson, Jakob Junis, DL Hall, and Joe Ross make up that group. Hall and Ross will soon return to the active roster, but it's highly possible neither fit back in the rotation, which means they would move to the bullpen.

Do the Brewers really need four long relievers in their bullpen? The answer is no. That's too many "bulk" options to have with a full rotation. They need to thin that group out somehow.

Of those four, DL Hall is certainly not going anywhere, so let's eliminate him. Between Wilson, Junis, and Ross, who has the most trade value? It's Wilson. Ross is still returning from injury and is a free agent at the end of the year, so he's not going to bring much to a trade package. Ditto for Junis, who missed time early and is a free agent at season's end. Wilson, however, has been an effective and reliable arm for the last two seasons and he has another 2.5 seasons of team control.

Wilson has a 3.99 ERA this year, he's split time between the rotation and bullpen, and he could help out another team for the next few years.

That production and those years of team control make him all the more valuable to the Brewers as well, which is why it's difficult to see them actually pulling the trigger on a Wilson trade. Rental veterans like Ross and Junis do nothing for clubs that are selling this year. If a team has plans on competing in the near future, why not pick up a guy like Wilson?

Toronto comes to mind. They want to contend in 2025 but are sellers this year. Hypothetically, including Wilson in a package for one of their current starters like Yusei Kikuchi may not be a bad deal for either side. Wilson would need to be packaged with another player, I'd imagine, but it saves the Brewers from including a top prospect in Wilson's place.

By the time this trade deadline is over, we're likely to see some more players from this Brewers current 40 man roster shipped out. These five seem like very likely candidates.