The Brewers have already struck in the trade market, landing Aaron Civale from the Tampa Bay Rays. In order to acquire Civale, Milwaukee had to give up one of their trade chips in shortstop Gregory Barrios.
Barrios was having a breakout season and was rising quickly in a loaded Brewers farm system. Milwaukee has plenty of trade chips they could deal in order to make more moves this month. The tough part for the front office is deciding which prospects they would be willing to part with and which ones they would prefer to keep.
Lately, the Brewers front office has leaned more towards keeping as many of their prospects as possible rather than parting with them. Still, there are a number of players in this system that the Brewers could view as trade chips and other teams would be interested in.
As rumors unfold over the next few weeks about which pitchers the Brewers might try to acquire, here are some names who could be traded away to get that pitching.
1. OF Carlos D. Rodriguez
The Brewers have no shortage of outfielders at the big league level. They're quite set at that position group for the next several years. One of those outfield prospects that played with all those outfield prospects up in Milwaukee is Carlos D. Rodriguez.
Rodriguez has always had great bat-to-ball skills. The 23 year old is currently repeating Double-A and is hitting .302/.382/.367 with 10 doubles, zero homers, and 13 stolen bases.
In his six minor league seasons, Rodriguez is a career .295 hitter. The man can hit, though he doesn't do much for damage. He has just 10 home runs in his entire minors career. The lack of power in his profile has slowed his ascent up the minors, but Rodriguez is still young enough to entice another team into acquiring him.
It's clear Rodriguez isn't going to have a future in Milwaukee's outfield with the bevy of options they already have and he's Rule 5 eligible this offseason. Given his strong season, another team could very well take a chance on Rodriguez's hit tool being good enough to carry over to the big league level.
Rather than potentially lose Rodriguez for nothing in the Rule 5, the Brewers could maximize his great performance this year and get some pitching help for him. Milwaukee has done that a lot in past trade deadlines, trading away prospects that were soon to be Rule 5 eligible that weren't going to make the cut for the 40 man roster.