Brewers renew interest in reliever Joe Smith, per report

Another day, another reliever being connected to the Brewers in trade rumors.

This time, it's Toronto's Joe Smith, according to Ken Rosenthal.

The 33-year-old righty was a free agent this past offseason after helping the Cubs win the World Series as a trade deadline acquisition last year. He ended up signing a one-year, $3 million deal with the Blue Jays, for whom he's put up a 3.58 ERA (but a 2.13 FIP and 2.96 DRA) in 32.7 innings. Usually more of a groundball reliever, Smith has increased his K/9 to 13.5 this year.

Smith had been on the disabled list for the past month with shoulder inflammation, but was activated on July 22nd.

This would seem to be one of the rumored half-measures we've seen pop up over the past few days, trying to toe the line between significant deadline addition and still being conservative in case this playoff run doesn't work out. Adding Smith to the bullpen would help shore up middle relief, hopefully providing more confidence in the 6th and 7th inning than Carlos Torres or the revolving door of Triple-A callups. As a rental reliever over 30 -- albeit a good one -- it doesn't seem like the Brewers would have to give up a ton to get him.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball Reference and Baseball Prospectus