Brewers News: Victor Castaneda Sent To Rays To Complete Javy Guerra Trade

The Milwaukee Brewers have completed an earlier trade made in the offseason, with a player to be named later sent to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for reliever Javy Guerra.

Victor Castaneda was officially named on Wednesday as the player sent to the Rays in the deal. Castaneda was previously ranked a Top 30 Brewers prospect and had made it to the upper levels as a starting pitcher in the organization.

Guerra, meanwhile, is currently battling for a spot in the Brewers bullpen to begin the year.

The Brewers player to be named later in the Javy Guerra trade with the Rays is RHP Victor Castaneda.

Castaneda, 24, put up a 4.10 ERA in 120.2 IP last season between Double-A Biloxi and Triple-A Nashville. He spent the bulk of the season in Biloxi and made three starts in Triple-A.

In his minors career, Castaneda has a 4.46 ERA in 104 appearances with 60 of them being starts. He also has a solid 9.3 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 ratio. The Brewers signed him out of Mexico back in 2017. He was Rule 5 eligible this offseason but the Brewers opted not to protect him on the 40 man roster. With the Rays having a 40 man roster crunch of their own, they opted to wait to name Castaneda until after the Rule 5 Draft as the original trade occurred back on November 18th.

The fact that he's remained in the rotation this far into the minor leagues bodes well for his chances to stick as a starter, albeit a back end of the rotation type if he does. With the Brewers having lots of starting pitching depth that is MLB ready, Castaneda was facing an uphill climb with no easy path to playing time in Milwaukee.

Tampa Bay has shown a knack for finding the best role for pitching talent. They tend to get the most out of their pitchers and put them in situations they can succeed in. While Castaneda could end up being best suited for the bullpen, this is a solid get for the Rays considering where Castaneda ranked as a Brewers prospect.

This also shows how highly the Brewers think of Javy Guerra, giving up a solid arm in Castaneda. Guerra is out of minor league options which may help his chances of making the Opening Day roster, as well.

There is still one more PTBNL that the Brewers have to name from this offseason. Owen Miller was acquired for a PTBNL from Cleveland as well and that trade has yet to be completed.