Milwaukee Brewers to Receive Another “Significant Piece” From Rangers

The Milwaukee Brewers received a nice haul at the trade deadline in trading away catcher Jonathan Lucroy along with relievers Will Smith and Jeremy Jeffress to the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants. Ken Rosenthal is now reporting that the Player to Be Named Later in the Lucroy deal could be another significant piece from Texas.

According to Rosenthal’s Full Count video yesterday, the Brewers last acquisition in the trade is going to be a “significant piece” adding, “perhaps along the lines of Lewis Brinson and Luis Ortiz, who were included in the original deal.” The Brewers will now get to choose from a list of possibilities, and with Brinson (#21 prospect in baseball) and Ortiz (#61) being very well regarded by MLB Pipeline, that list should be fairly short.

Rosenthal reports that the reason the player was not agreed upon before the deadline is because they ran out of time trying to decide who it might be.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at which Rangers farmhands could be both comparable and on the list from which the Brewers can choose from. Of course there is Joey Gallo, who many believed would be included in the deal when terms started leaking out. The corner infield prospect is ranked number 14 in the minors and has a ton of power. The problem that the talented 22-year-old has had however has been with strikeouts. In his stint last season, which lasted 36 games resulting in 123 plate appearances, Gallo struck out in 46.3 percent of his at-bats. This year in a much smaller sample size with the Rangers (16 plate appearances) he struck out 56.3 percent of the time. 

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Given that Brewers GM David Stearns came over from Houston, he may not be overly concerned by a young player with tremendous power striking out a lot. He did add three true outcomes first baseman Chris Carter via free agency last offseason. Yet, Gallo appears to be a very specific type of player, and if Milwaukee is looking to field a different kind of team, perhaps one that generates a lot of contact, he may not necessarily fit that mold. He is also likely the only player in the Rangers system that may not be on the list to begin with.

The only other prospect that the Rangers have that is in the top 100 according to MLB Pipeline is left-hander Yohander Mendez, who is projected by Pipeline as a mid-rotation starter. Coming into this season Mendez had a career high in innings pitched of 66.1 coming in 2015. This season the Rangers have been more aggressive with him after starting in Hi-A, he has made two starts with Triple-A Round Rock. The first came on July 5 when he allowed three hits and walked three over five innings of work, striking out seven. The second came almost a month later on August 4, another five inning, three-hit performance, this time walking two and striking out three.

The bulk of his innings have come in Double-A (46.2) and his strikeout and walk rates have been solid at 8.87 and 2.70. The 6’5″ Venezuelan has a heater that sits 90-94, but it’s his changeup that is his best-rated pitch at 60 on the 20-80 scale.

The only other player that would seemingly be on par with Brinson and Ortiz would be Rangers number three prospect Andy Ibanez, a 23-year-old second baseman out of Cuba currently playing in Double-A with the RoughRiders. While he is outside of the top 100, he is ranked as the fifth-best at his position in the minor leagues.

After starting the season in A Ball with the Hickory Crawdads, Ibanez skipped Hi-A altogether to land in Frisco, which could be part of the reason for the steep drop in batting average (.324 to .256), while at the same time his strikeout percentage has stayed relatively consistent, going from 12.7 percent with the Crawdads to 13.8 percent in Double-A. Pipeline gives a player comp of Howie Kendrick, who in his prime with the Angels from 2009 to 2014 averaged a WAR of 3.1.

Of these three players (assuming they’re on the table, which may not be the case), the big question is what kind of team would the Brewers prefer to have. Gallo has the most upside, but his strikeout rate could turn some off. Mendez has yet to prove that he can handle the workload of a starting pitcher but could be a valuable depth option at the very least. Ibanez is far from a flashy name, or defender, but could end up being a consistently solid player both in the field and with the bat.

Given some of the Brewers recent additions over the past two trade deadlines in players like Brinson and Brett Phillips, my guess would be that Stearns would be more inclined to take Ibanez to solidify the Brewers up the middle for years to come with Brinson or Phillips in centerfield, and Ibanez paired with Orlando Arcia on the diamond.

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That said, if Gallo is indeed available, with the Brewers likely not ready to contend for a year or two, they could offer him some much needed big league experience in order to prepare him for what will hopefully be a return to the postseason for the Brew Crew in the nearish future.