Brewers To Acquire Dustin May, JoJo Romero

Milwaukee can plug May into their rotation behind Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison (once he’s healthy). He’s likely to displace Robert Gasser in the short term. Harrison’s return from the injured list could bump one of Brandon Sproat, Shane Drohan or Logan Henderson. It’s a deep starting pitching group even after the Quinn Priester and Brandon Woodruff injuries. There’s no guarantee May starts a playoff game, but he’s likely to be on Milwaukee’s postseason roster in some capacity.

Romero will become the latest lefty reliever to land on Milwaukee’s injured list. He’s currently working back from an appendectomy which he underwent a couple weeks ago. The Brewers can afford to be patient given their cushion in the NL Central. They’re simply hoping for Romero to be at full strength by the postseason. Romero will slot behind Aaron Ashby on the left-handed hierarchy in Pat Murphy’s bullpen. Lefty relief was an unexpected need for Milwaukee due to injuries suffered by Angel Zerpa and Rob Zastryzny.

The 29-year-old Romero has been a solid leverage piece for St. Louis over the last few seasons. He’s having a fourth straight productive year, pitching to a 3.35 ERA with a 23.1% strikeout percentage and 8.6% walk rate. Romero keeps the ball on the ground at an above-average rate but has a career-low 8% swinging strike percentage this year. He has reverse splits this season but is traditionally better against lefty batters, as one would expect from a reliever who relies mostly on a sinker-slider combination.

May is playing on a $12MM salary and will collect a $500K buyout on a $20MM mutual option at the end of the season. Romero is making a $4.26MM salary. The reliever will make around $1.26MM the rest of the way, while May is owed a little over $4MM between the remaining salary and the buyout. The Brewers entered the day with a payroll around $136MM, as shown on MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker. That’ll climb into the $140MM range if there are no cash considerations involved.

St. Louis appears to have done quite well in their return for a pair of good but not elite rental trade chips. The 18-year-old Frias is the headliner, a long-term development flier who is one of the most talented players in the lower minors. Eric Longenhagen and Brendan Gawlowski of FanGraphs recently ranked him among the top 50 prospects in the sport, praising his bat speed.

Other outlets aren’t quite that bullish and the Brewers certainly wouldn’t have made this trade if they considered Frias a top 50 overall prospect. That said, he’s clearly a player on the rise in scouting circles. Baseball America pushed him to #9 in the Milwaukee system in their most recent update, writing that he has the bat speed to be a 30-homer bat at his peak if he can get the ball in the air consistently. Frias has a 6’2″ frame and projects to a corner outfield spot, so he’ll need to hit, but there’s significant offensive upside from the lefty batter’s box. He destroyed complex league pitching early in the year and has hit .236/.328/.418 in 28 games since being promoted to Low-A.

Ragsdale, 22, was Milwaukee’s seventh-round pick out of Boston College last year. MLB Pipeline has him 13th in an excellent Brewers’ system, while he’s 22nd on BA’s most recent list. FanGraphs bumped him up to 17th in the system, projecting him as a fourth outfielder but with an outside chance to be an everyday player.

The 6’0″ outfielder is an elite runner who has a chance to play a plus center field. Scouts aren’t as bullish on his offensive upside but he’s having a huge first full minor league season, hitting .316/.441/.581 with 19 homers and 31 steals between High-A and Double-A. Ragsdale has a very patient approach that has led to a lot of walks but also some strikeout issues that could be an issue against higher level pitching.

Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic first reported the Brewers were getting May and Romero. Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that it’d be for multiple prospects. Adam McCalvy of MLB.com first identified Ragsdale and Frias.

Respective images courtesy of William Purnell/Brad Penner, Imagn Images.