Do the Tampa Bay Rays hold the missing piece for the Milwaukee Brewers?

The Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays have had a lot of similarities in recent memory and have also worked out several deals to send players back and forth.

The Brewers and Rays have already made one trade in 2024 when the Brewers acquired Aaron Civale for High-A infielder Gregory Barrios.

The Tampa Bay Rays were exactly at the .500 mark at the day of the Civale trade on July 3rd and as of July 26th are one game over .500 and seem to be waiving the white flag. The Rays currently sit fourth in the competitive AL East and 9th in the American League playoff picture. Also indicating their surrender, the Rays traded star outfielder Randy Arozarena to the team one spot above them in the standings, the Seattle Mariners.

If the Rays are truly open for business, who could the Brewers look to grab from their frequent trade partners?

Milwaukee Brewers trade targets on the Tampa Bay Rays: Garrett Cleavinger

Garrett Cleavinger is one of the Tampa Bay Rays best left-handed relief pitchers. While the Milwaukee Brewers aren't in desperate need of relievers, having reliable bullpen depth given the injuries that have befallen the Brewers pitching staff, both in the starting rotation and in the bullpen. Most recently the Brewers had to place Rob Zastryzny on the 15 day injured list and bring Janson Junk back into the fold.

Garrett Cleavinger would certainly be an upgrade from Janson Junk and other bullpen fill-in pitchers we've seen this season. Cleavinger has a 3.35 ERA in 45 appearances covering 40.1 innings pitched. He also has a solid 117 ERA+.

Although his WHIP is a little high at 1.314 but his career WHIP is 1.277 so it could come down a bit, and that's even before the Brewers pitching lab gets a hold of him.

Looking at Cleavinger's advanced stats his 95.9 mile per hour average fastball velocity puts him in the 81st percentile in Major League Baseball. He's in the 90th percentile for average exit velocity and 86th percentile for hard hit percentage, meaning he generates a lot of soft contact. Cleavinger also ranks in the 85th percentile for chase percentage, 88th percentile for whiff percentage and 88th percentile for strikeout percentage.

Garrett Cleavinger may sound a little too good to be true or like a player that would cost a lot to acquire but it's not all pros with Cleavinger, there are some cons. Firstly, he just turned 30 and is in the latter stages of his prime years, as a late developer into a contributor to a major league roster, he will be arbitration eligible starting in 2025, so any good performance he has in 2024 is going to drive up his price for next season.

As for on the field cons, Cleavinger is in just the 10th percentile when it comes to walk percentage, meaning he walks a higher percentage of players than 90 percent of qualifying Major League Baseball pitchers. Cleavinger also ranks in the bottom half of barrel percentage and does not generate great extension, basically the opposite of Bryan Hudson in that regard.

Cleavinger has a five pitch arsenal and outside of his sinker (his least used pitch) all of his pitches have a .257 or lower opponent batting average. His best pitch is his aforementioned fastball which sits around 96 mph and carries a .115 opponent batting average. Contrast that with his very above average breaking sweeper which averages around 81 mph and Cleavinger's strikeout numbers become quite easy to make sense of.