Ranking the Brewers most impactful Trade Deadline deals in history

July 7, 2008. Ask Brewers fans to point to the biggest trade deadline deal in franchise history and they’re likely to agree on the trade pulled off by Doug Melvin that brought C.C. Sabathia to Milwaukee.

Sabathia was a free agent to be and thus a rental. But the Brewers were in no position to be picky; absent a playoff berth since 1982, they were breathing down the figurative necks of the division-leading Chicago Cubs as the deadline approached.

The Brewers sent four prospects to Cleveland as the price for Sabathia, the best of whom turned out to be Michael Brantley. But Sabathia’s half season was worth the expense.

He made a workmanlike 17 starts down the stretch, winning 11 of them against just two defeats. The Brewers still finished seven and a half games behind the Cubs, but they outlasted the Mets by one game to win the wild card. Sabathia’s final win, on the season’s concluding Sunday, was the post-season clincher.

July 12, 2011. The Brewers spent all of 2011 in an extended back-and-forth with the division rival St . Louis Cardinals. The difference that brought Milwaukee the regular season title may have been GM Doug Melvin’s deadline acquisition of closer Francisco Rodriguez from the Mets.

Rodriguez was already an established star, having helped the Anaheim Angels to the 2002 World Series win as a rookie.  He had 208 saves with the Angels and 95 more with the Mets before being acquired by Milwaukee for Danny Herrera and a minor leaguer.

Rodriguez pitched in 31 games with the Brewers in 2011, compiling a 4-0 record and 1.86 ERA. In those days the crew had John Axford for the saves, so Rodriguez filled the setup man role. During Milwaukee’s 2011 post-season run, he pitched in two NLDS games versus Arizona and three more against St. Louis in the NLCS, allowing just one run in five innings.

Traded away in July of 2013, Rodriguez returned as a free agent in 2015, only to be traded away again at season’s end. But he made a big impression during his Milwaukee tenure, good enough to be installed on the team’s Wall of Fame in 2021.