Brewers trade PTBNL and cash to Toronto for OF Derek Fisher

One of the few spots on the Brewers’ roster that may still be up for grabs during spring training is backup outfielder.

Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain and Avisail Garcia have starting spots locked up, but who makes the roster behind them remains a question. Tyrone Taylor figures to have a leg up on the other contenders, but that may not be guaranteed.

The Brewers are adding another name to that mix with a trade tonight, sending cash and a player to be named later to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Derek Fisher.

Fisher was a supplemental first round pick of the Houston Astros in 2014, when David Stearns was working as the Assistant GM at the time. Fisher made an appearance on a Top 100 prospects list a few years after being drafted, coming in at #83 on Jonathan Mayo’s MLB.com list before the 2017 season, but he’s struggled to translate good raw power into actual game performance.

That’s mostly due to the fact there’s a lot of swing-and-miss in his game — he’s struck out in a Broxton-ian 35.8% of his major league plate appearances, but when he does make contact, the ball tends to stay hit. He also walks a good amount, making him a bit of a Three True Outcomes type. Unlike a lot of players of that type, though, he may not be a total butcher in the field — historically he’s graded out pretty well in left field, and has a limited amount of big league innings in center and right field, too — although not enough that you’d feel comfortable with him at all three spots.

Unfortunately for Fisher, the Astros’ stacked roster over the last few years didn’t leave much opportunity for him. He performed well at Triple-A, but struggled in limited playing chances in 2017 and 2018 before being dealt at the 2019 trade deadline in the Aaron Sanchez trade.

Likewise, the Blue Jays soon found themselves with a number of outfielders better than Fisher. He was available after being designated for assignment by the Jays, who needed to make room on their roster for old friend David Phelps.

With the addition, the Brewers have now 39 players on their 40 man roster.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs