Brewers News: Crew Acquires LHP Bennett Sousa from the Reds

The Milwaukee Brewers recently found out that one of their 40-man pitchers will miss a vast majority of the 2023 season. So on Sunday, they went out and acquired another pitcher to fill that now open roster spot.

The Brewers completed a trade with the Cincinnati Reds to acquire 28-year-old left-handed pitcher Bennett Sousa in exchange for cash and international bonus money. Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed the signing on Twitter earlier today.

Sousa will be taking the 40-man roster spot previously owned by fellow pitcher Aaron Ashby. Earlier this week, it became known that the lefty who was already out with a shoulder injury would be missing most of this season due to shoulder surgery that ended up taking place on Friday. In today's transaction, Ashby was transferred to the 60-day injured list, thus freeing up his 40-man roster spot.

LHP Bennett Sousa, acquired via trade by the Brewers, will report to Triple-A Nashville.

Sousa was originally drafted in the 34th round of the 2017 draft by the Washington Nationals out of the University of Virginia. In a rare move, he returned to college for a fourth season and then was drafted again in 2018, this time in the 10th round by the Chicago White Sox.

The southpaw would move relatively quickly through the White Sox minor league system. By 2019, he would find himself at the Double-A level for a couple games. Then after the lost 2020 minor league season, Sousa made it up to Triple-A in 2021.

Sousa has some very good minor league numbers for his career. In 133 appearances, all of them coming out of the bullpen, he has a career 2.82 ERA, 1.135 WHIP, and 23 saves in 27 opportunities. He also sports a solid 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings for his minor league career.

Last year, Sousa saw his first action as a member of the White Sox. The results weren't quite as positive as he would've hoped as he compiled an 8.41 ERA and 1.721 WHIP across 20.1 innings, striking out barely more batters (12) than he walked (10).

Shortly after 2023 spring training began, Sousa was designated by assignment by the White Sox, only to be claimed quickly by the Reds. Then just last Wednesday, he was DFA'd by the Reds themselves, leading to today's transaction.

In his brief MLB stint with the White Sox last season, Sousa stuck to a two-pitch combo that included a high 80s slider and a mid-90s four-seam fastball, using the former a bit more than the latter. The Brewers will see if they can fine tune that repertoire into an effective bullpen weapon going forward.