The Milwaukee Brewers aren’t going to make the playoffs in 2016, and will have a hard time doing so in 2017. 2018, however could be a big year for the Brew Crew.
The Brewers finally traded Jonathan Lucroy at Monday’s trade deadline, netting them Lewis Brinson, Luis Ortiz and a player to be named later for Lucroy and reliever Jeremy Jeffress. Brinson immediately vaults to number two on the Brewers prospect rankings according to MLB Pipeline, while Ortiz, a righty that was selected by Texas in the first round of the 2014 draft, slots in at number six.
At the top of the list is shortstop Orlando Arcia, the number 13 prospect in all of baseball, while the number four slot belongs to an addition from last year’s deadline in Josh Hader. Hader and number eight prospect Brett Phillips were acquired last season from Houston in the deal that netted the Astros Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers. It’s hard to call that one the Carlos Gomez trade with the way that the outfielder has struggled since arriving in Houston, so in time is may be named after one of the Brewers additions, whether it is Hader, Phillips, Domingo Santana or Adrian Houser.
Along with Brinson and Ortiz, the Brewers also sent lefty reliever Will Smith to the San Francisco Giants for baseball’s number 65 prospect, Phil Bickford and the one-time heir to Buster Posey‘s throne in Andrew Susac. Bickford slots in at number six in the Brewers system and is one of the eight Milwaukee prospects ranked in the top 100.
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Seven of the Milwaukee Brewers top eight prospects have an ETA of 2018 or sooner, with number seven prospect Trent Clark being the lone exception. Hader, Ortiz and Bickford have the potential to give the Brewers a solid three starters, or perhaps a couple of starters and a bullpen option, and that’s just the players in the top eight.
Santana figures to continue to receive playing time when healthy, and could form a pretty solid outfield with Brinson and Phillips later next year.
As of right now, the Brewers and Astros have the most prospects in the top 100, but the Brewers have been set on acquiring more top talent to lead their farm system, while the Astros, perhaps a little gun-shy after recent trades that haven’t quite panned out (the Ken Giles deal gets lumped in here), and sat on one of their biggest asset, the depth of their farm system, this deadline. It should come as a surprise to no one that the Brewers GM, David Stearns, was the assistant general manager under Houston’s Jeff Luhnow.
Stearns has added a slew of former Astros in his brief tenure, both prospects via trade like Hader, Phillips, Santana as well as catcher Jacob Nottingham in the Khris Davis deal, but also Chris Carter and Jonathan Villar at the big league level.
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The one downside of Luhnow’s reign has been in trading prospects to acquire talent to help the big league club, arguably whiffing on his three big gambles (Scott Kazmir, Gomez, Giles), but has done one neck of a job in both assessing and acquiring minor league talent. For Stearns, it will be interesting to watch from afar whether or not he follows Luhnow down that same path when his time comes to bringing the Brewers to the forefront of the playoff picture. Being that he has already swindled his former boss, the outlook is bright.
After I finished writing this piece, this news broke:
Craig Counsell confirms Orlando Arcia coming up. New starter at SS. Jonathan Villar moving to 3B.
— Todd Rosiak (@Todd_Rosiak) August 2, 2016
So it looks like we’ll be getting a glimpse of the Brewers future as early as tonight.