Brewers bring back Jeremy Jeffress in trade with Rangers

This time last year, Jeremy Jeffress was sent to the Texas Rangers along with Jonathan Lucroy for Lewis Brinson, Luis Ortiz and a player to be named later that ended up being Ryan Cordell.

Now Jeffress is on his way back to Milwaukee in another trade deadline deal.

According to Joel Sherman, the Brewers are sending minor league reliever Tayler Scott to the Rangers to complete the deal (Sherman misspelled Scott’s name in the tweet reporting the news).

The team has yet to confirm the trade.

Before being traded to Texas, Jeffress was a dominating force at the back end of the Brewers’ bullpen, putting up a 2.22 ERA and 190 ERA+ last year, racking up 27 saves. After a rough first month with the Rangers, which included a DUI arrest, Jeffress settled down to finish the year with a 2.70 ERA in 12 appearances.

This year has been the worst of Jeffress’ professional career, though, as he’s put up a career-high 5.31 ERA in 39 appearances. He’s struck out just 29 batters and walked 19 in 40.2 innings, and has surrendered a career-high 8 home runs already. There’s a reason the Brewers were able to acquire him for a Double-A reliever who used to pitch in the independent leagues.

Still, Jeffress has worked as a reclamation project for the Brewers before, he’s comfortable in Milwaukee, and as Adam McCalvy has noted, there’s a strong support system in place to help him succeed.

If Jeffress does turn things around, the Brewers can retain his rights for two more seasons.

As for the player going to Texas, Scott has put up a 2.34 ERA in 42 appearances as a 25-year-old in Double-A. A former draft pick of the Cubs, the Brewers plucked him out of independent ball last year and sent him to the Arizona Fall League, where he had a successful run in 9 appearances.

UPDATE (3 p.m. CDT):

The Brewers have officially announced the move. Kirk Nieuwenhuis has been DFAd to make room for Jeffress’ return.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference