Why Brewers fans shouldn't be too upset about trading away Yophery Rodriguez

Who could predict that the Brewers would lose five starting pitching candidates to injury by the second week of April? And that's not including the long-term injuries that have kept Brandon Woodruff and Robert Gasser off the active roster. In times of anomaly such as this, front offices are forced to get creative in order to keep their ball clubs above water. This often means dealing from positions of strength for positions of need.

One area of strength that the Brewers currently possess is draft capital. The organization has acquired several draft picks from various places, including a compensation pick after Willy Adames rejected the Brewers' qualifying offer and subsequently signed a contract worth more than $50 million. The Brewers are also awarded a competitive balance pick each year, which are draft picks given to small-market teams in an effort to counteract their lack of spending ability. The organization received a third additional pick after their 2024 second-round draft pick, Chris Levonas, decided to attend Wake Forest rather than sign with the Brewers.

Another position of strength for the Brewers is lower-level minor-league outfielders, especially after this year's international free agent signings. The Brewers also took a high school outfielder, Braylon Payne, with their first round pick in the 2024 MLB draft, giving them another young outfielder with high upside.

With plenty of draft picks and several exciting young outfielders, the front office made the decision to package Yophery Rodriguez, the Brewers' top outfield prospect who started the season in High-A, and the 33rd pick, their competitive balance pick, for much needed starting pitching help in Quinn Priester.

Yophery Rodriguez's sophomore season revealed a concerning change from the previous year

While many Brewers' fans and others around the baseball world speculated that the team may have overpaid for Priester, who sports a career ERA of 6.23, a closer look at Rodriguez's 2024 season with the Carolina Mudcats is necessary before final opinions are formed.

As a 17-year-old in the Dominican Summer League (DSL), Rodriguez caught the eye of evaluators with his mature approach at the plate and impressive control of the strike zone. In 52 games in the DSL, Rodriguez walked more than he struck out, while showing signs that he could stick at any of the three outfield positions. As a result, Rodriguez followed the path of fellow international signees Jackson Chourio and Luis Lara by skipping the Arizona Complex League (ACL) and jumping right to Low-A.

It must first be noted that Rodriguez was just 18 years old while playing in Low-A last year, an impressive feat to say the least. However, the elite plate discipline that he displayed in the DSL seemingly disappeared last season with the Mudcats. According to FanGraphs, Rodriguez's strikeout rate jumped from 17.9% to 23.8%, while his walk rate fell from 18.3% to 12.2%. To be fair, those are still very serviceable strikeout and walk rates, but the trend is concerning for Rodriguez. Additionally, an increase in strikeouts is playable if it coincides with an increase in power, but Rodriguez saw his power numbers decrease as well last year. His isolated power (ISO) decreased from .197 in 2023 to .133 in 2024, and he hit just one more home run while playing twice as many games.

In contrast, Lara improved both his strikeout and walk rate after making the jump from the DSL to Low-A in 2023. Chourio's strikeout rate increased significantly when he made the jump to Low-A, but he paired it with a major increase in power, with his ISO increasing from .151 to .250. Additionally, both Lara and Chourio were promoted to High-A before the end of their first season stateside, whereas Rodriguez spent the entire season in Low-A.

With Rodriguez still several years away from the big leagues, it will be a while before it's clear who won this trade, but there's reason to believe that Rodriguez's previous rank as the seventh best Brewers' prospect was an overrating.