Milwaukee Brewers: building a champion

Brewers—Key Players Acquired by Trade

LF Christian Yelich (7.6 WAR)—It could be argued that the Brewers adding Yelich in a trade with the Marlins was the best move of the offseason, not just for the Brewers but for any team. To get him, they had to send the Marlins outfielder Lewis Brinson and minor leaguers Isan Diaz, Monte Harrison and Jordan Yamamoto. Three of these players were top-100 prospects. Brinson was ranked 18th on the Baseball America top-100 prior to this season. Diaz made the Baseball Prospectus top-100, ranking 85th. Harrison was ranked 75th by Baseball America and 49th by Baseball Prospectus. The Brewers wouldn’t be in the playoffs without Christian Yelich.

INF Travis Shaw (4.1 WAR)—Prior to the 2017 season, the Boston Red Sox packaged Shaw with minor leaguers Mauricio Dubon, Josh Pennington and a player to be named later in a trade to the Brewers for relief pitcher Tyler Thornburg. The PTBNL ended up being Yeison Coca. Since the trade, Shaw has 63 home runs and 187 RBI in two seasons with Milwaukee (8.0 WAR). Tyler Thornburg missed all of the 2017 season. He pitched 24 innings for the Red Sox this year and had a 5.63 ERA and 6.04 FIP (0.0 WAR). This was a major win for the Brewers.

RHP Jeremy Jeffress (3.4 WAR)—When the Brewers were vying for the NL Central title last season, they acquired Jeffress from the Texas Rangers for minor leaguer Taylor Scott at the trade deadline. He was okay in 24.7 innings with the Brewers down the stretch last year (3.65 ERA, 4.25 FIP), but much better with them this year (1.29 ERA, 2.78 FIP).

LHP Josh Hader (2.1 WAR)—Hader came to Milwaukee in a trade with the Astros on July 30, 2015. At the time, the Houston Astros were becoming relevant again after a teardown and rebuild. They made a deadline deal with the Brewers to push their team to the playoffs. The Astros added pitcher Mike Fiers, outfielder Carlos Gomez and cash for Domingo Santana, Josh Hader, Brett Phillips and Adrian Houser.

At the time, Hader was a 21-year-old pitcher in Double-A who was still mostly being used as a starting pitcher. He wouldn’t be shifted full-time to the bullpen until the middle of the 2017 season and hAs excelled ever since, with a career ERA of 2.30 (2.52 FIP) and a strikeout rate of 42.7 percent. He’s this postseason’s Andrew Miller.

Other trade acquisitions:

C Manny Pina (1.1 WAR)—December, 2015, from Tigers

OF Domingo Santana (1.0 WAR)—July, 2015, from Astros

LHP Gio Gonzalez (0.7 WAR)—August, 2018, from Nationals

3B Mike Moustakas (0.4 WAR)—July, 2018, from Royals

RP Freddy Peralta (0.4 WAR)—December, 2015, from Mariners

OF Curtis Granderson (0.3 WAR)—August, 2018, from Blue Jays

LHP Xavier Cedeno (0.3 WAR)—August 2018, from White Sox

RHP Corey Knebel (0.3 WAR)—January, 2015, from Rangers

C Erik Kratz (0.1 WAR)—May, 2018, from Yankees

INF Jonathan Schoop (0.1 WAR)—July, 2018, from Orioles

RHP Joakim Soria (-0.2 WAR)—July, 2018, from Rangers