Brewers Could Be 'Opportunistic' Trade Deadline Sellers, Per ESPN Insider

The Major League Baseball trade deadline is still more than two months away, but every game between now and then brings teams closer to a decision.

While it's still early in the 2025 campaign, the Milwaukee Brewers look like they'll have a tougher decision than they did in the last few years. The Chicago Cubs are the hottest team in the division, and the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals are tied with the Brewers for second place.

However, the Brewers wouldn't have to fall out of the race to consider selling. At least, that's what one baseball insider has heard through the grapevine.

On the most recent episode of the "Baseball Tonight" podcast, ESPN's Buster Olney described a conversation with a rival evaluator in which he was told the Brewers could be among the teams who decide to take advantage of the seller's market and trade off some of their pieces.

"He said, 'I think there could be some opportunists,' like the Rays were last year, where the Rays looked at the trade market, knew there was very little available. and said, 'You know what? In a soft market like this, we could take advantage of it, get some good value on players,' So they put them out on the market."

"This evaluator mentioned, among possible teams that could look at it as sort of a reset, perhaps Minnesota, perhaps Milwaukee, in a very competitive National League Central with the Cubs playing well, and the Tampa Bay Rays again."

Who could be on the move? Well, starting pitching is always in short supply, and the Brewers' ace will be a free agent in year and a half. Moving Freddy Peralta would certainly ruffle some feathers with the fan base, but there could be no better time to maximize his trade value.

Meanwhile, fellow starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff is still rehabbing from shoulder surgery and hasn't pitched since 2023. But he'd be another prime trade candidate if he fares well in his return, since he's due to hit free agency this winter.

There could be other surprise moves to consider as well. The bottom line is that the Brewers would get great value for any players they sold off, which makes it worth considering. But trading away good players also doesn't guarantee a brighter future even if it does increase the odds.