The Yankees are complicating the Brewers' trade deadline strategy

The MLB Trade Deadline is now just four days away, with teams having to finalize their deals by this Thursday at 5:00 p.m. CT. However, that doesn't mean front offices have to wait until Thursday afternoon to swing a trade or two. In fact, some organizations have already begun the process of shipping out prospect capital for reinforcements to their big league rosters.

It started with Jerry Dipoto, the Seattle Mariners' trade-enthused president of baseball operations, acquiring Josh Naylor of the Arizona Diamondbacks for two mid-level pitching prospects. For Naylor's impact bat, something the Mariners desperately needed, it was a fair swap. Each of the two prospects, Brandyn Garcia and Ashton Izzi, has some upside, but also comes with a few question marks in their profiles. For two months of Naylor, who currently sports an OPS+ of 122, it seemed like a reasonable cost, and a template that the Milwaukee Brewers could easily replicate should they choose to add a power bat ahead of this year's deadline, as explained by Reviewing the Brew's Tremayne Person.

However, then came two trades that may have significantly impacted the asking price for infield help going forward. Thanks to the New York Yankees, the Brewers may now have to part with significant prospect capital if they want to add an impact bat at this year's deadline.

Yankees trades for Ryan McMahon and Amed Rosario raise the prospect price for infield help at this year's deadline

Following the Naylor trade on Thursday evening, two of the three position players to be dealt have gone to the New York Yankees. Brian Cashman, the Yankees' long-time general manager, acquired third baseman Ryan McMahon from the Colorado Rockies on Friday afternoon and infielder Amed Rosario from the Washington Nationals on Saturday night.

Neither McMahon nor Rosario was a perfect fit for the Brewers. The former is an expensive league-average hitter, and the latter is a poor defending platoon bat with a rocky track record. However, the Brewers were still certainly impacted by the trades, in particular because of how the two moves affected the price that Milwaukee will have to pay for an upgrade to their infield group.

The Yankees traded two of their top 30 prospects in pitchers Griffin Herring and Josh Grosz, for McMahon. As noted in a Reviewing the Brew article published on Friday, that's essentially the equivalent of the Brewers' parting with talented minor league pitchers Bishop Letson and Josh Knoth. By some metrics, McMahon actually has a negative trade value because of the $32 million he is owed over the next two seasons. Meaning, the Rockies actually should have had to include cash or prospect capital of their own to make the trade more even.

Then, on Saturday night, Cashman and company parted with their No. 20 ranked prospect Clayton Beeter and a lottery ticket in 18-year-old outfield prospect Browm Martinez for two months of Rosario. It's another hefty prospect price to pay for a role player who comes with some question marks. Rosario hasn't been worth more than 0.4 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) since the 2022 season. Sure, Beeter has struggled in his brief time in the majors, and he was taking up a spot on the Yankees' 40-man roster, but half a season of an aging infielder for a top 20 prospect who can touch 99 mph and has a 65-grade slider? That's not cheap.

You have to give something to get something — a phrase that is often used this time of year, but the Yankees have parted with some significant prospect capital to fortify their infield group. In baseball, whether it be trades, free agent signings, or arbitration contracts, past examples are used to determine what the value of the current transaction should be. In other words, teams will now point to what the Yankees gave up when negotiating a trade with the Brewers ahead of Thursday's deadline. Now that a benchmark has been set, one that was much lower after the Naylor trade and before the McMahon deal, expect the price of a player like Eugenio Suárez to only increase.

Additionally, the Yankees have created scarcity in the infield market by taking two intriguing infield trade candidates off the board several days before the deadline. That too will raise the price of the remaining bats on the market.

It will be interesting to see how Matt Arnold and the Brewers' front office navigate the next few days, but the Yankees certainly aren't making their lives any easier.