Grading the Brewers' last offseason through the first half of the 2023 season

Brewers Trades

Received William Contreras, Justin Yeager, and Joel Payamps in three team deal with Atlanta and Oakland

Traded Hunter Renfroe to the Angels

Traded Kolten Wong to the Mariners for Jesse Winker and Abraham Toro

Other minor trades including for Owen Miller, Javy Guerra, and Bryse Wilson

This is where Milwaukee shined the most last offseason as one move in particular was an absolute heist. The Braves were looking for a way to acquire Sean Murphy from Oakland last offseason and the Brewers managed to worm their way into being involved. Milwaukee did have to give up prospect Esteury Ruiz who is a terror on the basepaths, but then somehow got the second best player in the deal behind Murphy in William Contreras plus a pair of relievers. Ruiz is a fine player, but getting an All-Star talent in Contreras plus two legitimately useful relief arms for him is an absolute steal.

The Kolten Wong for Jesse Winker trade has ended up as a bit of a wash as both players have been bad this season. The return for Hunter Renfroe remains pretty underwhelming for the most part, although Elvis Peguero has turned out to be a very helpful piece of the Brewers' bullpen. Also, Renfroe was never a long-term solution for Milwaukee, anyways. The rest of the moves were pretty minor and haven't had enough time to really bake yet, but it was nice to see Milwaukee stay busy on the trade market.

Trades Grade - B+: Getting Contreras in that three team deal almost warrants giving Milwaukee an A here by itself. Unfortunately, Contreras isn't quite good enough to ignore the fact that Wong was basically wasted as a trade asset given Winker's struggles and the Brewers didn't make much of an impact on their big league roster beyond that. Still a very solid showing, though.