Brewers trade Garrett Cooper to Yankees for reliever Tyler Webb

While most of the baseball world is still buzzing about the Jose Quintana blockbuster, the Brewers are making a trade of their own at the tail end of the All-Star break.

According to Ken Rosenthal, the Brewers are acquiring left-handed pitcher Tyler Webb from the New York Yankees, according to Ken Rosenthal. In return, the Brewers will send first baseman Garrett Cooper to the Bronx.

Webb is a 6'6" 26-year-old lefty who will turn 27 a week from today. In 21 appearances for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this year, he's put up a 3.24 ERA in 33.1 innings, striking out 47 and walking just 3 batters. He recently made his MLB debut, appearing in 7 games for the Yankees, allowing 3 runs in 6 innings. The Brewers had a hand in most of that damage, scoring two runs against him last Friday. He was the pitcher on the mound when the Brewers came back to tie the game at 4 on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly. The Brewers eventually won that game 9-4 thanks to Tyler Clippard. Webb also appeared in the series finale, getting Eric Thames to ground out with two men on in the 6th inning.

Webb is a fastball-slider reliever who's average 91.2 mph on the fastball and 81.5 mph on the slider so far this year. He was actually taken by the Pirates in the Rule 5 draft this past year, but was returned to the Yankees at the end of spring training. During that time, Baseball America actually ranked him inside the Pirates' Top 30 prospects.

Cooper was named a Triple-A All-Star after hitting .366/.428/.652 with 17 HR and 82 RBI as a 26-year-old in the hitter-friendly environment of Colorado Springs. While the numbers are eye-popping, Cooper realistically had nowhere to play above Triple-A in the Brewers' system with Thames and Jesus Aguilar excelling at first base. The Yankees desperately needed help at first base while they wait for Greg Bird to return from the disabled list.

It's a minor move, but it's the type of move you can make when you have a deep farm system with high-floor, low-ceiling guys who are blocked at the major league level. The Brewers get someone who may help the big league bullpen right away in exchange for someone who had no true future with the organization, regardless of the numbers he was putting up.

UPDATE:

We’ll have to wait a little while to see Webb with the Brewers, as he’s being assigned to Triple-A. The Brewers will still need to make a move to replace Junior Guerra on the active roster after putting him on the DL on Sunday.

UPDATE UPDATE:

Maybe it won’t be Colorado Springs. The Brewers say they’ll make a determination on where Webb will play sometime in the next day or so. Stay tuned.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs