5 Milwaukee Brewers Players Who Won't Survive The Trade Deadline

Trade Deadline season is upon us. The Milwaukee Brewers will be buyers and that means fresh faces will be joining the roster over the coming weeks to help the playoff push.

The addition of players from the outside will mean that players who currently have jobs on the team will be pushed out of them. Who could be in jeopardy?

While the Brewers have had a lot of success this year, a lot of players have fallen short of expectations or are simply not providing enough to secure their job on the roster and make the front office not look elsewhere for upgrades.

Here are five Milwaukee Brewers players who won't survive the 2023 Trade Deadline in their current role.

Brewers who won't survive the Trade Deadline: DH Jesse Winker

Jesse Winker was brought to Milwaukee to hit bombs and return to his former, productive self. He was expected to hit for both average and power.

Instead, he's done neither.

Winker was a .288 hitter over his five seasons in Cincinnati. He averaged 17 homers a year over his final three years with the Reds. Then he went to Seattle last year and put up awful numbers in his lone season out there. He hit just .219 with a .688 OPS and 14 homers.

As much of a down year that was for Winker, the Brewers would give anything for him to be putting up that kind of production right now.

We're into the second half of the season and Winker is hitting a lowly .200 with a .581 OPS and just one home run. He's shown no signs of turning things around, either. This is beyond just a cold stretch. It's Winker's worst season to date and he's been a black hole in the lineup.

Hitting is Winker's only job. He's the primary DH. The Brewers don't have him play the outfield much, and even when he is out there, he isn't good defensively.

The Brewers need to search for a bat at the deadline to take over the DH spot in the lineup from Winker. They can't make a serious push for the playoffs or a run in October if their DH position is a black hole.

Winker is a free agent at the end of the season and at this pace, the Brewers can't wait that long to get him off the roster. Barring a miraculous turn of Winker's hitting fortune, he won't survive the Trade Deadline.

Brewers who won't survive the Trade Deadline: OF Blake Perkins

By the time the end of August 1st comes around, Blake Perkins is likely to be out of a roster spot. The backup outfielder made his MLB debut this year and he's gotten a good amount of run despite not being one of the Crew's top outfield prospects.

The injuries to Garrett Mitchell and Sal Frelick contributed heavily to Perkins being called upon so much. Now, Frelick is healthy and should be up relatively soon, although he hasn't been lighting the world on fire since his return from injury. If the Brewers don't call upon Frelick, they'll likely look elsewhere for an immediate upgrade in right field.

As bad as the DH position has been this year with Winker, the production at the plate from right field has been nearly as bad. Perkins has been part of that, hitting just .216/.296/.318 with an OPS+ of 70.

The Brewers are likely to pursue offensive upgrades, either in the infield or the outfield. If they add to the infield, that's going to put Brian Anderson in right field more often to make the infield picture work, and that means Perkins won't be in the lineup since right field is the primary position he's been playing.

Even if the Brewers don't get external additions to the offense, which would be a mistake, Perkins is not going to be able to hold off Sal Frelick forever. Frelick is a first round pick and Perkins was a minor league free agent. Frelick is the future, Perkins simply isn't. It's only a matter of time until Frelick heats up and as soon as he does, he'll take Perkins' spot.

Even if Perkins starts improving at the plate, it's hard to see him surviving the Trade Deadline on this roster.

Brewers who won't survive the Trade Deadline: INF Andruw Monasterio

Andruw Monasterio has done an admirable job filling in as the backup utility infielder. As injuries and poor performance have taken Luis Urias and Rowdy Tellez out of the lineup, we've seen Monasterio take on a bigger role than the Brewers ever anticipated.

So far, Monasterio is hitting .259 and has drawn walks at a pretty high clip. He really hasn't been bad. But he also isn't going to stop the Brewers from looking to address the infield at the Trade Deadline. When they do add someone, that moves Monasterio down the depth chart and potentially off the roster.

Monasterio does have minor league options remaining, which means the Brewers will have no problem moving him back down to Nashville and going with Owen Miller, Brice Turang, and Brian Anderson being among the backup options at every spot on the infield, depending on who the Brewers acquire.

It's the nature of being a player like Monasterio at this time of the year. When an external position player is added, the current starter moves down to the bench or a platoon role and the current bench player moves down to the minors. That's the Trade Deadline food chain.

Someone has to be removed from the active roster when a new player is brought in and Monasterio is a clear candidate to lose his roster spot when the Deadline additions arrive.

Brewers who won't survive the Trade Deadline: RHP J.C. Mejia

In all likelihood, the Brewers will look to acquire at least one relief pitcher before the Trade Deadline passes. Milwaukee's rotated through several different middle relief options and one of their current options in that role is righty J.C. Mejia.

The Brewers acquired Mejia last season and he ended up getting suspended for PEDs. They brought him back on a minors deal this year and recently selected his contract. He's appeared in just a handful of games so far, but his performance won't exactly force the Brewers to keep him in the big leagues.

Mejia is also out of minor league options, so if the Brewers want to send him down, they have to put him on waivers and outright him off the 40 man roster.

Looking at the Brewers bullpen right now, there aren't many candidates to be sent down. Joel Payamps and Elvis Peguero have been excellent, Hoby Milner as the only lefty is safe, Bryse Wilson has been reliable, Abner Uribe is one of the Crew's top prospects and they want to keep his fastball up here. There's also of course the closer Devin Williams. The only remaining pieces are Mejia and long reliever Julio Teheran, who's been excellent since his pickup.

J.C. Mejia isn't long for the roster. If he makes it long enough for a Trade Deadline acquisition to be what removes him from the roster, then that's probably the best possible outcome for Milwaukee. That would mean he's pitched well enough in his opportunities. But it's highly unlikely he's on this active roster come August 1st.

Even if an external addition doesn't happen, the Brewers have lefty Justin Wilson rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. He's on a rehab assignment at Triple-A and is nearing a return to the big leagues. The low man on the totem pole to clear room for Wilson's arrival is going to be Mejia.