Milwaukee's best
Brewers may be Mets’ last hope to deal vets
THE Mets should be big fans of the Brewers this month. For Milwaukee lines up as perhaps the Mets’ last, best hope to trade veterans this month, because the Brewers have a need for both a lefty-hitting center fielder such as Curtis Granderson and a lefty-hitting second baseman, such as switch-hitters Asdrubal Cabrera and Neil Walker. In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, the Brewers began Tuesday just 1 ½ games behind the Cubs in the NL Central and 5 ½ behind Arizona for the second wild card. The Brewers did try to do some big things prior to the nonwaiver trade deadline, showing a willingness to include Corey Ray, the fifth pick in the 2016 draft, in a package for Jose Quintana. The White Sox, though, sent the lefty to the Cubs. That only furthered expectation the Cubs would eventually take off and leave the Brewers behind. Milwaukee’s GM, David Stearns, insisted that was not the thinking in why the club had a relatively low-key actual deadline, acquiring two useful relievers in Jeremy Jeffress and Anthony Swarzak, but not deploying a deep system to make a big splash.
“We were in on things big and small and were not able to line up anything [big],” Stearns said by phone.
In August, it is harder to make significant deals because players have to clear waivers to be eligible to be traded anywhere. Granderson, Cabrera and Walker already have cleared.
The Brewers feel with Chase Anderson about 10 to 14 days away from returning, they do not need to acquire a starter and that Jeffress and particularly Swarzak already have helped deepen the pen. But second base has been a black hole for Milwaukee, particularly because Jonathan Villar went from a breakout 2016 to an awful 2017. Brewers second basemen have an MLB-low .659 OPS and it would be far worse if not for a brief excellent spurt by Eric Sogard.
Walker is just 1-for-16 since coming off the DL, but he has plenty of NL Central experience from his days with the Pirates, plus he has an .809 OPS batting lefty this year; Cabrera is at .713 from the left side.
But second base is a position in which plenty of available players have gotten or will get through waivers such as Detroit’s Ian Kinsler, Miami’s Dee Gordon, Atlanta’s Brandon Phillips and Oakland’s Jed Lowrie.
Finding a capable lefty-swinging center fielder who passes through is not as easy. San Francisco’s Denard Span should, but he is signed through 2018. The Brewers would stay away from that in favor of someone who is a free agent after this season — like Granderson, Cabrera and Walker are. In addition, that trio has plenty of pennant race/playoff experience, which would be beneficial to a relatively inexperienced roster.
In addition, the Mets don’t plan on making a qualifying offer to any of that trio, so if they got salary relief and, say, a couple of low-minor league lottery tickets yet to harness big arms, that would probably motivate them to deal.
But the Mets need the Brewers to stay in the race to keep Milwaukee interested between now and Aug. 31.