A Pair of Trades with the A's Are Helping the Milwaukee Brewers This Postseason

The A's have easily lost this trade, despite having the best player heading out when it went down. The Brewers ended up landing William Contreras, who has earned two Silver Slugger awards, finished 11th and 5th in the NL MVP voting, and secured an All Star nod in 2024. He also walloped a solo home run in Milwaukee's 3-1 win in Game 5, and ended up batting .300 in the series.

He's been a force in their lineup, and a huge addition to the roster.

The A's also sent over Joel Payamps in that same trade, and he was also a useful relief pitcher for the Brewers for a couple of seasons before struggling more this year. Funnily enough, he ended up landing with Atlanta after the Brewers designated him for assignment in late September.

A's Almost Had a Steal

The other piece that has played a big role for Milwaukee so far this postseason is Chad Patrick, whom they acquired directly from the Athletics in November of 2023 in exchange for Abraham Toro. The A's had acquired him just months earlier as the return for Jace Peterson from the Arizona Diamondbacks, but Patrick struggled mightily in his brief time in the A's system.

They initially started him out in Double-A, where he held an 8.44 ERA across 10 2/3 innings of work, giving up 21 hits and walking a pair while striking out 14. Batters hit .412 against him in that brief stint with Midland.

The A's decided to promote him to Triple-A Las Vegas anyway, and his struggles continued, leading to a 7.89 ERA over 21 2/3 innings of work, and he still gave up hits at an absurd clip (35), but his walk rate also spiked, as he gave up 15 free passes. The trade made sense at the time, but credit goes to Milwaukee for scouting him and working with him to get him to be the pitcher he is now.

He made his MLB debut this season with the Brewers, largely pitching in the rotation over the course of the year, but when September rolled around he turned into more of a bulk innings guy or a flat-out relief pitcher. He's shown he has the arm to get outs, but he wasn't going to make the Brewers' rotation this October, so he's been deployed as a relief ace this postseason.

Patrick pitched in four of the five NLDS games against the Cubs, and he tallied 4 2/3 innings of work (including 1 2/3 in Game 5) with a 0.00 ERA—not allowing a walk or a hit—while striking out six.

It's tough to blame the A's for either of these moves. While Contreras has been the best piece of the Murphy deal, Langeliers has turned into a solid backstop in his own right, so there just wasn't a need for the A's to grab Contreras. The ideal scenario would have been to move Murphy elsewhere, since the A's have nothing to show from that trade any longer.

This is just how the Brewers have built their roster, picking up guys from various moves and molding them into a force that will be looking to take down LA in the coming days. The last time they played in the World Series was in 1982 (losing to the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3), and they have never won a championship.