On Thursday night, the Milwaukee Brewers made a massive move, trading away starting rotation stalwart Corbin Burnes. With one year left on his contract, the former Cy Young winner was shipped to the Baltimore Orioles for infield prospect Joey Ortiz, pitcher D.L. Hall and a competitive balance draft pick.
It's the end of an era for the Brewers, who were led for years by rotation stars Burnes and Brandon Woodruff. Both are now gone, as Woodruff was non-tendered in the offseason.
Here's a little more about the pieces that Milwaukee has acquired:
Hall is a 25-year-old Georgia native who made his major league debut in 2022 with the Orioles. He's 4-1 lifetime with a 4.36 ERA. He's pitched in 29 career games, 28 of which came as a reliever. There are already talks about him moving into the Brewers rotation. That seems reasonable enough given that Burnes, Woodruff and Adrian Houser have all moved on this offseason.
As for Ortiz, he's the No. 63 prospect in all of baseball, per MLB.com. The following comes from a portion of his prospect profile:
Since being drafted, Ortiz has added a lot of strength that’s enabled him to consistently register high exit velocities. He hasn’t sacrificed any of his elite bat-to-ball skills, striking out just 17.2 percent of the time in his Minor League career while showing the ability to drive the ball to all fields with solid in-game pop.
There’s never been any question about his ability to defend. He has plus hands, actions, instincts and the ability to slow the game down, not to mention more than enough arm for shortstop. He’s shown the ability to play a plus second base and can even slide over to third, something that could come in handy given Milwaukee’s larger need at the hot corner with Willy Adames handling short...
Ortiz did make his major league debut in 2023 with Baltimore, hitting .212 in 33 at-bats. He hit .321 at Triple-A.
The Brewers won the National League Central a season ago and were eliminated in the wild card round of the playoffs by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
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