Proposed Devin Williams trade with Brewers rival makes no sense on multiple levels

Milwaukee Brewers closer Devin Williams is five-plus years into what's been an astounding career in the big leagues. The right-hander sports a career ERA of 1.83, has two All-Star appearances under his belt, is a former Rookie of the Year and even earned Cy Young votes in 2020.

He also could very well be on his way out the door in the near future. Early on in the Brewers' offseason, GM Matt Arnold said the club would "never close the door on anything" when it comes to moving their superstar closer, and that their status as a small-market team will play a factor in their decision.

That...does not sound promising for Brewers fans hoping to see Williams stick around. He's set to hit the open market following the 2025 season, so the Crew flipping him before he can leave in free agency is hardly a foreign concept to the organization.

Naturally, this means that the rumor mill is completely full of mock trades that will send Williams all over the sport in exchange for pennies on the dollar. Most mock trades (but not all) come up short, with the Brewers getting hosed in the vast majority of these pretend moves.

One in particular stands out amongst the others in the "will never happen" department.

Devin Williams mock trade with division rival makes no sense

In a recent piece penned by Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller, he floats a trade involving a pair of NL Central rivals. In this "wild" deal, the Brewers would send Williams to the surging Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for pitching prospect Braxton Ashcraft. That's it. No other pieces involved.

Miller points out that the Brewers will pick up Williams' $10.5 million club option for the 2025 season, but then the proposal goes off the rails. The long story short of his mock trade is that the Pirates need a closer and that Williams is not great in October, so the Brewers need to move on.

Ashcraft, 24, made 16 appearances (14 starts) split between Double-A and Triple-A in the Pirates' system this season, posting a combined 2.84 ERA with 77 strikeouts and just 12 walks in 73 innings of work. He excels at limiting unnecessary baserunners and, when he's at his best, is a strikeout machine. On his own, he'd be a great add, but he alone is not quite enough.

While the "you can't trade with teams in your division!" thing is overblown, this just doesn't feel like a deal that'd work out for the Brewers. At all. The Pirates are chasing after the Crew in the standings and, truthfully, are not far away from being legitimate contenders in the division. Giving them a superstar closer is only going to accelerate their ascent to the top, even if it is only for just one season.

There's also the return the Brewers got for Josh Hader back in 2022. He had additional control tied to his name, which led to the package heading to Milwaukee being bigger, but there's no shot the Crew landed two prospects and two big leaguers for a year-and-a-half of Hader and then get just one piece for Williams.

Trades at this year's deadline prove the Brewers wouldn't make this move

For further proof that Milwaukee would never do this deal, take a look at some of the trades made at this season's deadline involving rental closers. Sure, teams were only acquiring a half-season of these arms, but the total value heading the other way was off the charts. Certainly much higher than Ashcraft alone would be for the Brewers.

The Marlins landed their new No. 4, No. 5, No. 11 and No. 23 prospects when they traded Tanner Scott to the Padres.

The Angels got their new No. 3 and No. 8 prospects when they traded Carlos Estevez to the Phillies.

The Athletics received their new No. 6, No. 16 and No. 28 prospects in the deal that sent Lucas Erceg to the Royals.

As of right now, Ashcraft is the No. 4 prospect in the Pirates system (per MLB Pipeline) and is No. 85 in all of baseball. He's not a bad get by any means, but the more accurate way to say this is that he's not enough on his own to land one of the best closers in baseball.

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