Tigers Promotion Another Reminder of a Brutal 2021 Brewers Trade

The 2021 Milwaukee Brewers, with their eyes set on a franchise record fourth straight postseason appearance, didn't end up making a ton of moves at the trade deadline that season. One of the ones they did make, though, ended up drawing the ire of their fanbase in the end.

Needing some additional relief help, one of the players they acquired was Daniel Norris from the Detroit Tigers. In return, the Brewers shipped off right-handed pitching prospect Reese Olson, a starter who hadn't yet pitched above High-A but had showed some promise.

Norris had just been converted from starter to reliever the season before and shown some success in the new role but was not faring as well in 2021. There were thoughts, though, that the underlying numbers indicated that perhaps things weren't as bad as they seemed and a change of scenery could possibly help.

Well, that was very much not the case as Norris was even worse for the Brewers than he was for the Tigers that season. Now, to add some delayed insult to injury, it's become quite clear that Detroit were the clear winners in that 2021 trade.

The Tigers are promoting Reese Olson to the majors, serving as another brutal reminder of the ill-fated 2021 Brewers trade.

On Wednesday, word came out that the Tigers would be promoting Reese Olson to make the first major league start of his career. That news came via Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press.

In a system with some solid names, Olson ranks as the 11th best prospect in the Tigers organization according to MLB Pipeline. That future potential even led Detroit to add him to the 40-man roster last fall, thus protecting him from the rule 5 draft.

Though Olson hasn't exactly had low ERA numbers since joining the Tigers organization - it's been over 4.00 at each of his stops outside of a two-gamer with their High-A squad in 2021 - he has kept his WHIP at a respectable level and struck out many more batters than he has walked.

Meanwhile, for the Brewers, Norris ended up pitching in 18 games for Milwaukee in 2021, compiling an unsightly 6.64 ERA, posting a 1.574 WHIP, and serving up five homers in 20.1 innings while walking nearly as many batters (15) as he struck out (18).

Norris would become a free agent after the season and then go on to play for the Cubs and Tigers (again) in 2022. He became a free agent again after that and was signed to a minor league deal by the Reds for 2023, was released by them in March, and has since been on another minor league deal with the Guardians.

Some trades work out and some trades don't. Today's news was another reminder of a Brewers trade that definitely fell into the latter category.