Brewers Rumors: Crew to be both buyers and sellers at 2024 Trade Deadline?

The Milwaukee Brewers are sitting in first place in the NL Central with a several game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals. With the Trade Deadline approaching, they are in a clear position to add and be buyers.

However, could they also look to sell? That's what the latest rumors are according to Mark Feinsand.

The Brewers are among a group of several teams that are going to possibly both buy and sell over the next week. With so few clear sellers out there, teams may need to get creative to fill needs. It's a muddied playoff picture and teams may just need to tweak as necessary.

Brewers rumored to be looking to both buy and sell at the Trade Deadline

The Brewers tried to do something like this back in 2022 when they traded away Josh Hader but also made a number of other additions to supplement the big league club. The strategy didn't work back then.

However, 2022 is a rather extreme example of trying to buy and sell. The Brewers didn't get the big additions they were looking for following the Hader deal and Milwaukee is not going to find themselves in a situation where they're "selling" a similar caliber of player in 2024.

The Brewers "selling" at the 2024 deadline may look more like clearing out a bench spot or low leverage reliever in order to make the roster math work out. Milwaukee does have a number of players slated to return from the IL soon, which will create a roster crunch the Brewers could solve through creative trading. By trading a big league contributor away, it technically would qualify as "selling" under the definition Feinsand is using.

For example, the Eric Haase/Gary Sanchez situation. Sanchez will return soon from the IL and Haase is playing well in his absence. Haase is without minor league options and will need to be DFAed to be removed from the roster. The Brewers could opt to trade Haase, or even Sanchez if they want to, in order to make the roster math work. They can't carry three catchers the rest of the way. A trade to solve that situation would qualify as "selling" in this case.

The Brewers were listed along with the Rays, Guardians, Mets, Giants, Diamondbacks, Cubs, and Reds as teams that could both add to their big league team and subtract from it.

Milwaukee still needs to add more pitching. They have four players out on rehab assignment and a logjam in the outfield. There is going to have to be a lot of roster shuffling in order to make it all work out and build the best possible roster for the postseason and beyond.