Brewers trade deadline primer, part 4: Position player targets

Welcome back to the five-week-long trade deadline primer! After surveying the Brewers’ roster and the landscape in week one, in the past two installments we’ve looked at potential targets among relievers and starters. Today, we’re going to look at the third identified potential need on the Brewers: offensive help.

A lot has changed since I first examined the team’s needs at the beginning of the month. After Wednesday’s game, Joey Ortiz had a .984 OPS in July, and if there’s any sort of longevity to that, it solves many of Milwaukee’s problems. Cooper Pratt, also, is trending up: he hit his first home run on Monday, and in 16 games this month is batting .291/.375/.418.

I don’t expect Ortiz and Pratt to both maintain those levels for the rest of the season, but if you think these guys can both be even average hitters, it really changes what you might perceive as needs for the Brewers. There’s also an issue of where any potential new signing would play. Milwaukee clearly values defensive prowess in their bench players, and once you start adding up the names that it’s difficult to see moved away from, you get to 13 pretty quickly:

• William Contreras and Gary Sánchez seem set at catcher
• Jake Bauers and Andrew Vaughn will continue to play at first base unless one of them is traded, which seems unlikely but not outside the realm of possibility—Bauers is a free agent after the season, and Vaughn will be very expensive in his last year of arbitration next season, possibly more expensive than Milwaukee is willing to pay. I could see a situation where if the Brewers made a move for a player who they thought could approximate either player’s production while moving back the free agency timeline, they might shuffle things around.
• Brice Turang, Cooper Pratt, and Joey Ortiz have infield positions locked down—say what you will about Ortiz’s offense keeping up at this level, his defense is immensely valuable and he will, at minimum, be a bench player in the postseason.
• Jackson Chourio and Garrett Mitchell are locked into outfield spots. With Sal Frelick on the injured list (for who knows how long), I could potentially see a situation where an outfielder is acquired and Luis Lara is optioned back to Triple-A.
• Christian Yelich isn’t going to go anywhere, and he’s not going to get benched.
• Players not accounted for at this point include Braden Shewmake and Blake Perkins, plus two more players on the injured list and presumably back soon, David Hamilton and Brandon Lockridge

So, the way I see it, ten of Milwaukee’s 13 available position player slots are occupied by guys who will be, barring injury or an unexpected trade, on a potential postseason roster: Contreras, Sánchez, Vaughn, Bauers, Turang, Pratt, Ortiz, Chourio, Mitchell, and Yelich. I’d add Frelick to that group if he is healthy (and it looks likely that he’ll be back), so that would make 11. (Whether rostering Frelick over Lara—particularly as a defense-first fourth outfielder—would be wise is a different conversation, but I’m going to presume that Frelick would not get optioned.)

That leaves two spots. One will be an outfielder, probably Lara, but that’s a spot that I could see the Brewers hunt for a short-term upgrade. The other would be an infielder, an upgrade over Shewmake and Hamilton. This is where the Brewers could conceivably look for an offense-first solution at third base, either a left-handed hitter to function in a sort of platoon with Ortiz, or a right-handed hitter who would take many of Ortiz’s starts. In either situation, Ortiz would then move to a super-sub defensive utility role.

That was a long preamble, but I found it necessary because it is particularly difficult this season to find players who fulfill all the following criteria:

• They improve the Brewers’ offense
• There is a logical positional fit (that doesn’t require benching Yelich, which Pat Murphy is clearly not going to do, though I did consider right-handed platoon options)
• They are available in a tough trade market

Let’s see what we found.

Potential Options

For this one I’m going to go team by team amongst the teams who I think either will or might sell, then I’ll wrap up with my thoughts about the best potential targets.

Reds (47-54, 5.5 games back of Wild Card, 16.5 in division)

Stop me if this sounds familiar, but… what about Eugenio Suárez? He was awful to start the season, but over his last 21 games, he’s got an OPS of .846 and six home runs. He’s a major defensive liability at third base but even in a down season he’s got 13 homers in 286 plate appearances, and he’s the type of player who can carry a team for a couple weeks if he goes on a heater. Suárez has a mutual option for $15 million next season.

Spencer Steer could be a viable target in a platoon role—he has destroyed left-handed pitching this year (.342/.442/.620). He also conceivably can play other infield spots besides first base, but he’s not very reliable there. Steer has two more years of arbitration after this season.

Nathaniel Lowe started the season hot but hasn’t been very good over the last two months, a pretty large sample. He’s also a left-handed first baseman, so there’s not much of a fit. J.J. Bleday also started the year hot but has cooled considerably.

Mets (43-60, 10.5 GB in WC, 17 in division)

Not much here that makes any sense. Old friend Tyrone Taylor is a free agent after the season and can hit lefties, but his defense has fallen off some this year and he’s not really good enough to take a roster spot just to hit lefties. Brett Baty broke out in 2025 and still could be an intriguing acquisition, but he’s having an awful year. A look under the hood suggests he’s underperforming his expected outcomes, but not by so much that you’d expect a huge rebound.

Giants (42-60, 11 GB in WC, 22.5 in division)

The obvious target here is second baseman Luis Arraez, who will be a free agent after the season. Arraez is doing his thing offensively (hitting .320, 22 doubles and seven triples) and is even showing some shocking signs of defensive value at second base. But where does he play on the Brewers? You don’t trade for Arraez if he’s not going to play every day, and the Brewers aren’t going to move Brice Turang off of second, which is complicated by the fact that Arraez has publicly stated he wants to keep playing second if he gets traded. (That’s probably smart on his part—if potential free agent suitors think he’s a viable second baseman, he’s far more valuable.) He could conceivably go back to first base and Andrew Vaughn could move into a DH platoon, but the fit is weird enough that I don’t think he’ll be a primary target for the Brewers.

It’s not clear how deeply the Giants are committing to a rebuild, so I have my doubts that a guy like Heliot Ramos, who has three more years of team control, would be available. The Giants would surely love to get off of any and all of Willy Adames, Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman, and maybe Jung Hoo Lee, but all four make way too much money to justify their mediocre performance really for any team, but especially for a team like the Brewers.

Rockies (41-63, 13 GB in WC, 24.5 in division)

A couple of outfielders who feel like journeymen but who are still in their 20s are having solid seasons: Mickey Moniak and Jake McCarthy. Both are offensive upgrades if they keep up their current production, but there’s reason to be skeptical of those offensive gains over a larger sample. Both are also left-handed, and seem a bit too duplicative of Frelick.

Hunter Goodman is a star, and he already has 31 homers this season. But he’s also a catcher, which is not a position of need for the Brewers. He’s not such a good catcher that you wouldn’t consider moving him off the position, and maybe there’s a way that the Brewers could use him as a DH this season and then trade Contreras in the offseason, as Goodman has three more years of team control while Contreras has just one. But for now, Goodman hasn’t played anywhere other than catcher or DH for two years, the fit is just too weird, and the cost would be very, very high.

One more to just mention: TJ Rumfield is having a very nice season, but he’s a rookie, so I don’t see Colorado moving him yet.

Blue Jays (46-56, 6.5 GB in WC, 13.5 in division)

It’s a surprise to see the Blue Jays in this category, but they enter play on Thursday six-and-a-half games back in the Wild Card and 13 1/2 in the division, so we need to consider them sellers. The problem: there’s not really much here to get excited about in terms of players who would realistically be moved. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ernie Clement, and Addison Barger would be the most interesting players, but none will be traded by a team that will certainly expect to bounce back next season even if they decide to sell this year.

That leaves a couple of less interesting options. George Springer is a free agent after the season and has had an excellent career, but he turns 37 soon and his great 2025 season now looks like quite an outlier in his late career—his OPS+ the last four seasons has been 102, 91, 159, and 90. Daulton Varsho is also a free agent after the season but offense is not his selling point.

The one potentially interesting player is Jesús Sánchez, who has one more arbitration season next year and has a lot of red on his Statcast page despite mediocre results so far. He’s a terrible fielder and he’s a lefty, so my concern here is that he’s too duplicative of Yelich.

Tigers (48-54, 4.5 GB in WC, 6 in division)

Detroit is another mystery team but I suspect they’ll end up doing at least a limited sell, but we’ll have to see what happens with Tarik Skubal. If they do unload a few pieces, an obvious one would be Gleyber Torres, who is an impending free agent and was recently out for a month but returned to the lineup on Monday. He’s not really a power hitter but he’s a good offensive player, and his defense looks solid. He’s really only played second base in the last five years, but is there a possibility of getting him over to third? If so, he’s a good fit.

If Detroit is looking to sell a couple of pieces who will still be under contract next year, there are a couple of change-of-scenery candidates here. Spencer Torkelson, a former consensus top-five prospect, is still hitting homers—19 this season—but he’s striking out 32% of the time with an OBP barely above .300. He’s also a lousy fielder who could only play at first base. Kerry Carpenter, too, is struggling this season—he’s been trending downward for a couple of years and his Statcast page doesn’t show anything more than a mediocre hitter. Both players have two more arbitration seasons after this one.

Royals (43-60, 10 GB in WC, 11.5 in division)

A low-key pickup that would probably not cost much but wouldn’t exactly light the fanbase on fire would be outfielder Lane Thomas. He’s a free agent after the season, and he’s just a pretty decent player—not a ton of power, but he’s very fast and has a solid hit tool. He’s right-handed, too, so he could be a Perkins replacement if Lockridge doesn’t lock down that role.

Michael Massey is another potential guy, but he may not have the arm to play anywhere in the infield except second base. He’s much slower than Hamilton, too, so while he is a better hitter against righties than Hamilton is, he doesn’t do any of the secondary stuff as well and I don’t see him as a fit.

Athletics (43-59, 9.5 GB in WC, 8.5 in division)

There is no shortage of interesting names here, but I doubt the availability of most of them. Shea Langeliers, like Goodman, is a stud catcher who would be a huge get but I’m not sure one that makes sense for the Brewers. Langeliers, unlike Goodman, has only one more season of control than Contreras does, so even going that route—a longer-term replacement enabling you to trade Contreras—doesn’t make that much sense.

Nick Kurtz isn’t going to be traded, sorry. Tyler Soderstrom and Jacob Wilson are also both locked into long-term contracts. So is Lawrence Butler, though I assume there’s some significant buyer’s remorse there; I might be interested in Butler as a bounce-back candidate if he weren’t owed an average of over $9m a year for the next five years, but he is, so that’s not happening.

Zack Gelof is having a really nice year, but with three more years of team control and the Brewers’ glut of infield prospects, this doesn’t seem like a fit to me. He’d be a straight upgrade over Ortiz offensively, but Ortiz is better defensively and I don’t think it’s enough of an offensive upgrade to justify parting with real prospect capital, especially with Ortiz playing as well as he is right now.

Angels (41-62, 12 GB in WC, 11 in division)

Mike Trout? (Just kidding.)

A name that does intrigue me here is Jo Adell, who is under control for one more season after this one. He’s terrible defensively and last season was the only time in his career he’s had an OPS+ better than this season’s 94. But: he’s a right-handed power hitter (15 homers despite a .241 batting average and .288 OBP), he hit 37 homers last year, and he’s not a big financial risk. The cost should be reasonable, too.

Oswald Peraza hits lefties okay and isn’t a bad defender, but he can’t play every day and he’s got three more years on his contract, raising the same “where does he fit into future plans” questions that a Gelof acquisition would. Jorge Soler is a free agent after the season and can still run into them, but he’s not hitting lefties at all this season (despite a career platoon advantage, though not as large as you might expect), harming his only possible utility to the Brewers—as a right-handed platoon option with Yelich.

One last one to mention is Nolan Schanuel, who has three more years of control and could potentially be a post-2026 Bauers replacement as a left-handed first base platoon option. Right now, though, he feels too duplicative. Schanuel is in his fourth season but he’s still only 24—he was called up way too early—but hasn’t shown a ton of improvement since coming up, which is somewhat concerning.

Zach Neto is a big name here, but I don’t think the Angels would trade him, and even if they did, I don’t think it makes a ton of sense for the Brewers to be the team to pay what would certainly be a huge cost given that they’re pretty well covered for the future at shortstop. He’s got three more years of control, and at this stage in Trout’s career, Neto is probably the Angels’ best player.

Astros (50-54, 3.5 GB in WC, 2.5 in division)

Now we’re getting to teams that probably won’t sell unless they struggle over the next couple of weeks. We’ll start in Houston, where there are a lot of intriguing players—and, if it means anything, the Brewers have already made two trades this month with the Astros, which netted them Shewmake, Lance McCullers Jr., and Colton Gordon.

Here’s a hypothetical: would you trade Jesús Made for Yordan Alvarez? What about a package of, say, Luis Peña, Logan Henderson, Josh Adamczewski, and Andrew Fischer? I’m not sure the Astros would do it in either situation, and the acquistion of Alvarez—maybe the league’s best hitter, and a pure DH—would essentially be telling Yelich that he’s a full-time pinch hitter. This is more of a psychological exercise than a real trade proposal.

(It also got me wondering if a player has ever been traded in a season in which they won MVP, and the answer is no—in fact, only Sal Maglie, who made only two appearances early in the 1956 season with Cleveland before he was acquired by the Dodgers, is the only player to ever finish as high as second in a season in which they were traded. A lot of you will remember that one pitcher has won the Cy Young in a season in which they were traded—Rick Sutcliffe, who went 16-1 with a 2.59 ERA with the 1984 Cubs after going 4-5 with a 5.15 ERA in 15 starts with Cleveland.)

Another big name on Houston is Jeremy Peña, who is under control next season, too. If he’s traded, he’ll be one of the deadline’s biggest prizes. He’s hitting .304/.363/.475 over the last two seasons (a 133 OPS+) and has a some pop, though his shortstop defense is a little bit of a question mark and he would also bring inevitable questions of “where would he play” on the Brewers.

Isaac Paredes was a popular name during the offseason, and he makes sense now, too. He has a team option in his contract for next season (which becomes a mutual option if he manages to finish top-ten in MVP, which is, we’ll say, unlikely), so that provides some flexibility. He’s kind of a weird player—a hyper pull-side fly ball guy—but he’s on track to get to at least 19 home runs for the fifth straight year, and he’s a passable defensive player at third, and he could platoon at DH with Yelich, though his career platoon split is

Twins (50-53, 3 GB in WC, 4.5 in division)

I’m going to get this out of the way: Byron Buxton is not going to get traded to the Brewers. His name has been very popular amongst Brewers fans for basically a whole year, and it’s 100% correct that he would solve a lot of issues. But Buxton holds a no-trade clause and he’s made it pretty clear that he would not allow a trade, and from the rumors that have been going around, it sounds like the only team he’d even consider allowing a trade to is his hometown team, the Braves. Plus, the Twins are better than expected and in the thick of the race at the moment, and it sounds like ownership does not want a repeat of last season’s sell-off.

That could also mean that Ryan Jeffers is going to be a tough get. Jeffers, unlike Buxton, is a free agent after the season, so if the Twins aren’t sure, they might trade him. Jeffers has been fantastic when he’s been on the field this year, one of the very best hitters in the AL. But he, like Goodman and Langeliers, is a catcher or a DH and doesn’t make a ton of sense for the Brewers’ roster.

Royce Lewis was awful to start the season, but he’s quietly hit .254/.316/.465 with seven homers and nine doubles in 37 games since returning from a somewhat shocking demotion. I don’t see this happening, but it would be somewhat interesting. Josh Bell is fine, but he’s a DH only, and I don’t see a fit. Trevor Larnach is also a good hitter, but a left-handed bad defensive outfielder doesn’t seem to have a place with the Brewers.

Orioles (50-53, 3 GB in WC, 10 in division)

Another player who started poorly but has rebounded some is Tyler O’Neill, who has hit .286/.362/.643 with four homers in his last 17 games. He’s expensive, though, and is under contract for $16.5 million next year.

A name that does make some real sense is Taylor Ward, who is a free agent after the season. He’s been decent this year but after hitting 36 homers last year, he has only seven this year despite leading the AL in plate appearances. He’s not much of a fielder, but he’s a solid offensive player.

What do you think it woul take to buy low on Gunnar Henderson? (That’s mostly a joke.)

Padres (50-52, 3 GB in WC, 14.5 in division)

Ty France is having a monster season. Is it real? He was a very good hitter from 2020-22 but then pretty bad from 2023-25. It’s unusual for players to bounce back after three down years, but he’s also shown real ability as a hitter in the past. Hard to say. He’s very cheap and will be a free agent after the season.

The last guy I’ll mention is Gavin Sheets, who is a capable left-handed hitter but whom I don’t really see as a fit for the Brewers.

Who’s it gonna be?

I gave most of my analysis, so I’m going to list a few players who fit my earlier criteria: a realistic target who fits and who makes the team better. I’ll list them in order of my personal preference.

1. Isaac Paredes
2. Jo Adell
3. Gleyber Torres
4. Taylor Ward
5. Luis Arraez
6. Spencer Steer
7. Eugenio Suárez
8. Lane Thomas

Paredes was a popular name in the offseason for a reason, and to me he’s the player who is the best combination of fit and ability among those who could be available. But… Paredes might not be available, as the Astros look like they’re going to hang around in the very poor AL West. The same might be true of Torres—I’m not at all convinced the Tigers are going to sell.

That means that Adell is the name that I think is most likely to be realistically available and offers the most upside—a right-handed power hitter who can be subbed off for defense late in games or work as a platoon option with Yelich. Ward would be a similar add to Adell, though without the extra year of service and in a season in which he isn’t really hitting homers. I don’t really think Arraez is a realistic target for Milwaukee given the fit issues, but he should get traded, and he’d help the offense. Steer, Suárez, and Thomas are not exciting options, but they could all offer some marginal improvement for the Brewers and they’re all on teams that should be looking to trade them.