Ranking 5 trade candidates Brewers could shop around this offseason

The Milwaukee Brewers are no strangers to making trades. Last offseason, they made nine trades between the end of the 2023 season and Opening Day 2024. As the Brewers face a pending 40 man roster crunch and another likely limited budget, there are sure to be plenty more trades in store for Milwuakee this offseason.

Milwaukee traded six players from their 40 man roster last offseason (Mark Canha, Abraham Toro, Adrian Houser, Tyrone Taylor, Corbin Burnes, and Clayton Andrews) and also traded several minor league prospects to get some big league help in return.

This winter, the Brewers could certainly deal from their prospect depth again to acquire some help, but there's also likely to be moves among the 40 man roster. Since so many players have to be returned from the 60 day IL and there aren't a ton of free agents, Milwaukee will face a roster crunch and will need to clear up spots for offseason acquisitions. The easiest way to clear those spots is to make trades from the 40 man.

Here's our ranking of potential Brewers trade candidates from the 40 man roster heading into the 2024-25 offseason.

1B Tyler Black

Tyler Black had some big prospect hype coming into the season. Ultimately, he was beat out by Joey Ortiz for the third base job in spring training. After that, he was then moved to first base, a less valuable position, and struggled to find big league playing time. He earned a couple of promotions, but failed to show very much at the major league level and couldn't force the struggling Jake Bauers out of his job.

His numbers continued to dip even down in the minors as the season went on, perhaps a sign of his confidence being a little shaken. What could benefit Black is a change of scenery, especially if another team sees his on-base skills and knows they could give him an easier path to everyday playing time and boost his confidence.

Despite that, the Brewers would be selling low on Black's value, who was a Top 100 prospect coming into the season. Milwaukee doesn't like to do things like that considering how important their prospects are to remaining competitive. The chances are pretty low Black gets moved, but if the Brewers can't find a path to regular playing time for him in 2025, they'd almost be better off moving him now than waiting until later.

Probability of being traded: 10%

RHP Carlos F. Rodriguez

Another young prospect the Brewers were expecting more out of in 2024, Carlos F. Rodriguez has seen his prospect shine dim a little bit. When the Brewers starting rotation was in desperate need of help early on in the season, Rodriguez was struggling in Triple-A, delaying his promotion and allowing a relative unknown in Tobias Myers to earn some opportunities.

Eventually, Rodriguez did earn some big league starts, just three, and they didn't go particularly well, pitching to a 7.30 ERA. His results in Triple-A weren't great either, finishing with a 4.51 ERA, though he pitched much better in the 2nd half. Rodriguez was passed up by Myers, who earned a regular rotation spot the rest of the season and Rodriguez was not seen in the majors again.

A bad three starts doesn't mean Rodriguez isn't ever going to be able to cut it at the major league level, but it does put into question where he fits in on this 2025 Brewers roster. While you can never have enough pitching depth, the Brewers will have a large number of starting rotation candidates entering next spring and Rodriguez is highly likely to be on the outside looking in.

Brandon Woodruff will be returning from injury, DL Hall and Aaron Ashby could very likely be heading back to rotation roles, Jacob Misiorowski could go back to starting, and Logan Henderson is likely to get a 40 man spot.

The Brewers could trade a young, controllable starter in Rodriguez and get a pretty decent return back. Because there's always a need for pitching, I wouldn't put the chances of a Rodriguez trade very high, but it wouldn't be all that surprising either.

Probability of being traded: 15%

RHP Aaron Civale

The Brewers traded for Aaron Civale in early July to help fill their desperate rotation need. They gave up a quality prospect in Gregory Barrios to get him for a year and a half. That extra year of team control gave Civale value that the Brewers wanted.

Civale had an ERA north of 5.00 when the trade was made. With the Brewers, Civale shaved his ERA to 3.53 in those 14 starts. That's a much more tolerable number.

Civale is projected to earn $8MM in his final year of arbitration in 2025. That last year before free agency is around the time the Brewers have looked to trade some veterans. Corbin Burnes was traded with one year to go. Granted, Civale has nowhere near the accolades nor potential earning power of Burnes, but the final year of team control is something to consider. Adrian Houser is another example who had one year left before free agency and was traded during that offseason.

This isn't to say the Brewers should trade Civale. The starting rotation could certainly use him and the innings he can provide, especially since he improved down the stretch. There's no guarantees with what Brandon Woodruff will be able to bring next year, or if DL Hall and Aaron Ashby can earn back rotation spots. Keeping a bona fide starter like Civale would make sense.

This is simply to say the final year of team control plus the arbitration price tag could combine for the Brewers to be open to moving Civale for the right return.

Probability of being traded: 20%

1B Jake Bauers

It appears likely that Rhys Hoskins will opt-in to his 2025 contract and return to the Brewers next year. Should Hoskins return, it seems highly unlikely that the Brewers would retain both Jake Bauers and Tyler Black as well, which is why both are on this list of trade candidates.

Bauers somewhat surprisingly made it through the entire season on the big league roster as the backup first baseman, despite hitting just .199 on the year. He added some power off the bench, including a clutch home run in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card, but there simply wasn't enough overall production.

Some may ask what Bauers could actually net you in a trade. Well, he performed in 2024 about the same as he has for his whole career and the Brewers traded two low-level prospects in Jace Avina and Brian Sanchez for him. Both prospects had a lot of upside but also were high risk and were very far away from the majors. That's probably similar to what the Brewers could expect to net in return for a Bauers trade this winter.

If the Brewers don't trade Bauers, they could simply non-tender him instead. Bauers is projected to earn $2.3MM in arbitration next year and he has two years of team control left. He's a likely non-tender candidate just like he was in New York a year ago when the Brewers decided to trade for him.

The Brewers can shop Bauers around the trade market before the tender deadline and if a team wants to make a deal for Bauers, it would not be surprising to see that deal get done. It's probably a 50/50 chance Bauers gets traded this offseason and if he doesn't, a non-tender is the fallback option.

Probability of being traded: 50%