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With a little more than two days left until the trade deadline, it looks like the Brewers are still evaluating any and all options to improve their starting rotation.
The latest name to pop up is Miami's Dan Straily. According to the Miami Herald's Clark Spencer, the Brewers are one of a handful of teams who have checked in on the Marlins righty.
The Brewers, Rockies and Royals are among a small group of teams interested in Marlins starter Dan Straily.
— clarkspencer (@clarkspencer) July 29, 2017
The Marlins gave up a fairly significant haul to get Straily this offseason, including pitching prospect Luis Castillo, who struck out 9 Brewers over 5.2 innings in his second career start back on June 28th.
While the 28-year-old righty has been a fairly average starter during his career, part of the reason he returned such a strong prospect was the amount of team control he has left. Not even arbitration eligible until this winter, Straily has three more years beyond 2017 before he can become a free agent.
That, combined with his $552,000 salary for this year, means the Marlins may be looking for significant prospects in return if they deal him after just half a season. Reports circulated yesterday that the Marlins were taking him off the trade block, but the team was still actively calling teams to gauge interest just a day before.
Straily rebounded from a tough couple of seasons with Cincinnati last year, putting up a 3.76 ERA in 34 games (31 starts), but had a 4.88 FIP -- due in part to the league-leading 31 home runs he surrendered.
The switch to the spacious Marlins Park hasn't helped cut down his home run numbers -- with 19 allowed in 21 starts this year, his HR/9 is the same as it was last year -- but he has increased his strikeout rate from 7.6 K/9 last year to 8.2 K/9 this year. He's also cut his BB/9 from 3.4 to 2.5 this year, leading to a lower FIP (4.38) despite a slight increase in his ERA (3.84).
Still, he's been a perfectly solid starter this year. The question is if the prospect capital it would take to acquire a pitcher with three years of team control left would be worth it for someone with a career 4.16 ERA and 98 ERA+.
Statistics courtesy of Baseball Reference