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The Milwaukee Brewers are surely exploring the trade market for impactful offensive upgrades, but in the meantime, the club made a move on Friday afternoon to shore up their upper level depth in the outfield and on the mound. The Brewers and division-rival Pirates made a two-for-one swap:
OF Troy Stokes Jr. and RHP Jandel Gustave have been acquired from Pittsburgh in exchange for C Samuel Escudero and will be assigned to Triple-A Nashville. RHP Zack Godley has been assigned outright to Triple-A Nashville and elected free agency. pic.twitter.com/q8rbAcl5X2
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) June 25, 2021
Troy Stokes, Jr. was originally a 4th-round pick by the Brewers out of high school back in 2014 and was ranked a top-30 prospect while coming up through the system. Stokes, Jr. spent time on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster until he was designated for assignment and claimed by the Tigers back in September of 2019, then he went to Pittsburgh via waivers in January of 2021. Stokes, Jr. made his big league debut with the Pirates this season, appearing in eight games while recording two hits and a walk in 20 plate appearances before getting outrighted off Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster in May. He’s a .247/.349/.407 hitter with 59 home runs and 133 steals in 584 games across all levels of the minors and just turned 25 in February.
Jandel Gustave, 28, was an amateur free agent who signed with the Houston Astros out of the Dominican Republic back in 2010. He’s appeared in parts of three seasons at the big league level with Houston and San Francisco, accruing 44.2 frames with a 3.43 ERA and 6.4 K/9 versus 4.0 BB/9. Gustave had been pitching in Triple-A Indianapolis, recording a 3.60 ERA and 18 strikeouts versus five walks in 15.0 innings pitched. Gustave is a fastball/sinker/slider pitcher, and the last time he was in MLB in 2019, his fastball averaged 96.2 MPH.
Heading to Pittsburgh is catcher Samuel Escudero, who was a part of Milwaukee’s most recent international signing class. The teenager has yet to debut professionally and there isn’t much in the way of scouting information floating out there about him. But he’s surely a long way from contributing at the big league level for Milwaukee, while Stokes and Gustave could both see time in the big leagues with the Brewers this season as the club hopes to charge towards a postseason berth.
Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference