{"id":781939,"date":"2026-07-24T14:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/781939\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T14:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:10:09","slug":"three-players-the-brewers-should-trade-for-at-the-trade-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/781939\/","title":{"rendered":"Three players the Brewers should trade for at the trade deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brewers are in prime playoff position. They lead the National League Central by seven games, and they\u2019re just a half game behind the Dodgers for the best record in baseball. But they are not a team without weakness, and recent failures in the postseason have the Milwaukee fanbase anxious to field a team that can truly compete with the Dodgers in the playoffs, after Los Angeles embarrassed them in a four-game sweep in last year\u2019s National League Championship Series.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee has three basic areas of need. At this point, the Brewers\u2019 most pressing need is probably a starting pitcher. Kyle Harrison is due back soon-ish, but Brandon Woodruff is out for the season, and Jacob Misiorowski, Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, and Brandon Sproat are probably all on pitch limits; the Brewers could really use one more player that they could count on to start a game in the postseason. The next need, almost as important, is a left-handed, high-leverage reliever \u2014 Aaron Ashby hasn\u2019t been particularly reliable, and most fans would feel far more comfortable with one more guy they could count on after Trevor Megill and Abner Uribe. The last area of need is a little more general: they could use a little more thump in their offense, though finding a player who fits is a bit of a challenge.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at three players who would address those needs.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Soriano, starting pitcher, Angels<\/p>\n

No one seems to know if John Mozeliak, who is working as the Angels\u2019 interim general manager, is even allowed to trade anyone who is under contract beyond this season, and Soriano \u2014 like another potential target in the Angels\u2019 rotation, Reid Detmers \u2014 has two more years of control after this one. But if Soriano and Detmers are on the table, the Brewers should investigate.<\/p>\n

Soriano fits what the Brewers do a little better. He\u2019s an extreme ground ball pitcher who throws hard and has a lot of what Statcast calls \u201cextension,\u201d traits that the Brewers value. While he has scuffled a bit since an incredible start to the season (Soriano had a 0.24 ERA through his first six starts, but just a 4.93 ERA in 15 starts since), he\u2019s still someone who intrigues me as a potential Brewers target.<\/p>\n

Some might prefer Detmers, whose surface-level stats aren\u2019t as good as Soriano\u2019s this season but who has some underlying indicators that suggest he\u2019s been pitching quite a bit better than his 4.05 ERA. Either target would be a good get, but Soriano looks more like a player the Brewers front office would target than Detmers does.<\/p>\n

Soriano is not, of course, Tarik Skubal, and Brewers beat reporter Adam McCalvy noted<\/a> on Wednesday that Milwaukee has \u201ctouched base\u201d with the Tigers about Skubal. But \u201ctouched base\u201d is not the same as \u201cmade an offer,\u201d and I just think that Milwaukee\u2019s front office is cautious enough \u2014 even in a season when they claim to be aggressively looking to improve \u2014 that they won\u2019t be the team to trade for Skubal, if he is even traded (not remotely close to being a given, as the Tigers are only 4.5 games out of a playoff spot).<\/p>\n

If not Soriano, Detmers, or Skubal, keep an eye on another Tiger who will be a free agent after the season, Casey Mize.<\/p>\n

Adri\u00e1n Morej\u00f3n, relief pitcher, Padres<\/p>\n

Morej\u00f3n\u2019s surface-level numbers (a 3.40 ERA in 53 innings pitched, translating to just a 122 ERA+) aren\u2019t as good in 2026 as they have been the last couple years. But don\u2019t let that fool you \u2014 his peripherals are right in line with 2024 and 2025, if not better. Morej\u00f3n\u2019s FIP is 2.46, almost a full run lower than his ERA. He\u2019s striking out 10 batters per nine innings, tied with 2024 for the best mark of his career in a full season, and he\u2019s walking fewer batters (2.2 per nine) than he did that season.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no reason to think that Morej\u00f3n, who is 27 but in his eighth season after debuting at just 20 years old, is anything other than one of the league\u2019s top relievers. He\u2019s also left-handed, which would fill a big hole in the Brewers\u2019 bullpen. But left-handed relievers are a hot commodity at the deadline, and quite literally every team in the playoff hunt would love to add a player like Morej\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

That list of teams in the playoff hunt very well may include the Padres, by the way. They\u2019re only a handful of games back of the third Wild Card in the National League, and may not be motivated to sell. If they do, Morej\u00f3n, who is a free agent after the season, should certainly be available. There are also rumors that a bigger prize could be available from the Padres \u2014 closer Mason Miller \u2014 but the cost there is too high for me to stomach, given that the Trevor Megill has been incredible for the Brewers since mid-April. (It also looks like Aroldis Chapman, Boston\u2019s star closer, won\u2019t be on the market after the Red Sox\u2019 recent 15-game winning streak.)<\/p>\n

Morej\u00f3n would be a huge get for Milwaukee, and while there will certainly be a lot of competition for his services if he\u2019s made available, the cost shouldn\u2019t be too bad for a non-closing reliever who is also a rental.<\/p>\n

Jo Adell, outfielder, Angels<\/p>\n

The Brewers have a good offense\u2014they\u2019re fifth in the league in runs scored, ninth in OPS, and sixth in stolen bases. They do have a glaring weakness, though: they\u2019re dead last in the league in homers. Joey Ortiz\u2019s recent offensive revival\u2014he has an OPS of .984 in July, and his underlying numbers were trending up since long before that\u2014has somewhat lessened Milwaukee\u2019s need. But Ortiz won\u2019t stay hot forever, and the Brewers could definitely still use another home-run hitter.<\/p>\n

Adell isn\u2019t a superstar, but he\u2019s a right-handed power hitter, and that\u2019s something that the Brewers could certainly use. Of the four players on the team with double-digit homers, only Jackson Chourio (13) and William Contreras (10) are right-handed.<\/p>\n

Adell is a bit of a liability in the field (despite this crazy game<\/a> earlier this season), and the Brewers value defense, so that\u2019s something they\u2019d need to work around. But in addition to getting some time in right field, Adell could also work as a transition point to moving designated hitter Christian Yelich into more of a platoon role.<\/p>\n

Though he has struggled to replicate last season\u2019s big breakout (when he hit 37 homers), Adell can still raise the ceiling on Milwaukee\u2019s offense. He\u2019s only hitting .243 and has an OBP of just .289, but Adell has hit 15 homers in 102 games, more than everyone on the Brewers except Jake Bauers. He\u2019s also been way better against left-handed pitching this season (he has a .917 OPS and nine homers in 119 plate appearances against lefties and a .601 OPS and six homers in 300 plate appearances against righties), and the Brewers can minimize his platoon disadvantage better than the Angels can.<\/p>\n

The questions about Mozeliak and the Angels apply here, but not as much as they do to Soriano and Detmers \u2014 Adell has just one more year of team control after this season, not two.<\/p>\n

If Adell isn\u2019t the move, the other good options are probably contingent on their teams scuffling a bit between now and the deadline. Another somewhat similar player to Adell is his old teammate, Baltimore\u2019s Taylor Ward, though his power numbers are down a bit this season. If the Astros decide to sell, Isaac Paredes is another right-handed power hitter who would be a good fit, though there are questions about how much Daikin Park is aiding his power numbers. Detroit\u2019s Gleyber Torres is another impending free agent who could raise the Brewers\u2019 offensive ceiling, though they\u2019d have to figure out where he\u2019d play. I don\u2019t see a fit for San Francisco\u2019s Luis Arraez, who wants to stay at second base if he is traded \u2014 the Brewers are set there with Brice Turang, and even if he were willing, I\u2019m not sure if Arraez could play third. The rest of the options that make some sense for the Brewers are down a tier, guys like Eugenio Su\u00e1rez, Spencer Steer, or Lane Thomas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brewers are in prime playoff position. They lead the National League Central by seven games, and they\u2019re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[292994,34978,363,99],"class_list":["post-781939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-milwaukee-brewers-analysis","tag-milwaukee-brewers-roster","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}