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The 2015 trade deadline has come and gone, and boy what a day it was for the Brewers. In the end, Milwaukee has traded 20% of their active roster in the past week, acquired numerous prospects, brought in one player off the waiver wire, and emphatically put the franchise on a new course.
Moves began on July 23, when the Brewers traded Aramis Ramirez to the Pirates for Yhonathan Barrios in what was a relatively minor deal. Ramirez had caught fire in the weeks before the trade, but was still having a down season and is going to retire at the end of the season. Barrios is a hard-throwing converted infielder who may or may not be able to become a solid reliever. The Brewers have some work to do, but there are some exciting tools. Since the trade, Ramirez is 4-22.
Then, for a week, everything was quiet. There were some minor murmurings here and there, but those were more along the lines of 'Brewers could still be interested in trading Carlos Gomez', 'Teams interested in Gerardo Parra', 'Hearing Jonathan Lucroy had vermont cheddar, does he hate Wisconsin?', that kind of thing.
A week of nothing, causing some concern that maybe the Brewers wouldn't make the number of deals for which we were hoping. Then, everything blew up.
Beginning with Carlos Gomez getting traded by the Brewers. Twice.
The first time was to the Mets. Here's the links to the major events:
- The Mets were on the verge of a big trade, and were rumored to really want Gomez
- Word broke that the Brewers and Mets agreed to a deal that would send Zack Wheeler and Wilmer Flores to Milwaukee
- Mets GM Sandy Alderson said point blank that a deal would not be made with Milwaukee
- What caused the trade not to happen? Apparently the Mets wanted the Brewers to throw in a draft pick or money and, when the Brewers said no, New York found Gomez's medicals to be unsatisfactory
That was Wednesday. On Thursday, with 24 hours before the deadline, the Brewers still hadn't made an actual trade since the Ramirez deal.
Then, over the course of about 18 hours, the Brewers went hog wild. The first chip to fall, and the biggest, was Carlos Gomez, again. This time, the Brewers traded him out of the National League, to the Houston Astros. Not just Gomez, but Mike Fiers as well. Fiers, a 30-year-old with years of control remaining, was a crucial part in the trade as it allowed the Brewers to bring in the Astros best prospect, Brett Phillips (profile). Along with Phillips, the Brewers got Josh Hader (profile), Domingo Santana (profile) and Adrian Houser (profile), a haul that has received rave reviews.
To fill the roster spots vacated by Gomez and Fiers, the Brewers recalled Logan Schafer and Elian Herrera.
All that took place Thursday night. Then we got a little sleep, and the Brewers got back to action on the day of the deadline. Rumors had been flying that Gerardo Parra was being shopped to the Orioles, but until today nothing had come of it. Friday Morning, the Brewers made it official, trading Parra to Baltimore for pitching prospect Zach Davies. Davies has been an under-the-radar prospect, but has consistently moved his way through the minors and should absolutely have a shot in Milwaukee's rotation in the near future.
At that point, it seemed fairly likely the Brewers were done dealing. But they had one more trick up their sleeve, saving salary by shipping reliever Jonathan Broxton to the Cardinals for a low-level outfield prospect. Not the most glamorous move, but it saved Milwaukee some money and bought them a lottery ticket.
With two empty roster spots vacated by Parra and Broxton, the Brewers first recalled Tyler Thornburg from Triple-A. The final roster spot went to a waiver claim, Preston Guilmet.
All in all, here's exactly what happened over the past week+:
Traded from the Brewers:
Carlos Gomez
Aramis Ramirez
Mike Fiers
Gerardo Parra
Jonathan Broxton
Acquired via trade:
Yhonathan Barrios (sent to Double-A Biloxi)
Brett Phillips (sent to Double-A Biloxi)
Josh Hader (sent to Double-A Biloxi)
Domingo Santana (sent to Triple-A Colorado Springs)
Adrian Houser (sent to Double-A Biloxi)
Zach Davies (sent to Triple-A Colorado Springs)
Maik Collymore
Acquired off waivers:
Preston Guilet
Called up to majors:
Tyler Thornburg
Elian Herrera
Logan Schafer
David Goforth (called up when Ramirez was traded, demoted when Wily Peralta was activated off DL)
A wild few days, with lots of fall out. We'll have lots more on the impact of these trades in the coming days!