The Quinn Priester Trade Shows Brewers’ Desperation

The Milwaukee Brewers typically don’t make moves out of desperation. Whenever their depth has been tested in the past, they’ve been able to address such adversity by embracing a next-man-up mentality. They get the most out of their internal options, and their ability to do so has played an integral role in the ball club’s success.

However, their depth has never been tested to this degree.

Milwaukee’s rotation is completely decimated at the moment. They have a whopping seven starters currently on the injured list, including Nestor Cortes, Tobias Myers, Aaron Civale, Aaron Ashby, Brandon Woodruff, DL Hall, and Robert Gasser.

Freddy Peralta is the only healthy starter remaining from their Opening Day rotation.

As a result, the Brewers needed to find an answer to their rotation woes, and they needed to do so quickly.

So when the Brewers swung a trade for right-hander Quinn Priester on Monday morning, it was a desperate attempt to keep the big-league rotation afloat. But just because the trade was a break from their usual way of operating doesn’t mean that it was a bad one.

The Brewers need all the help they can get at the moment, and while they paid a hefty price tag, the organization clearly views Priester as an arm who can help them remain competitive in 2025 and beyond.

The Brewers Get Rotation Depth, but at What Cost?

When the deal was officially announced, it sparked a good amount of confusion and dialogue amongst Milwaukee’s fanbase for a multitude of reasons, and rightfully so.

In exchange for Priester, the Brewers sent Boston outfield prospect Yophery Rodriguez, a Competitive Balance Round-A selection, and a player to be named later or cash considerations.

Generally speaking, the Brewers have been on the other side of these transitions in years past. But that speaks volumes to just how concerned they are with their big-league rotation.

Rodriguez, 19, was Milwaukee’s No. 5 prospect heading into 2025, and he was even a member of the final update to Just Baseball’s Top 100 prospect list a few months ago. Rodriguez has yet to make it above High-A, but he’s showed an intriguing skillset throughout his young professional career.

He had the potential to be a piece of the Brewers’ big-league outfield down the road. However, the Brewers already have plenty of young, controllable outfield options at the major league level. While there’s no denying what kind of player he could develop into later on, he’s a player who was still years away from his major league debut at a position of strength within the Brewers’ organization.

Whether or not the Brewers got enough for Rodriguez is debatable, but they clearly deemed him as an expendable asset and capitalized on an opportunity to flip him in order to improve the major league rotation.

The most puzzling part of the entire package was the competitive balance pick that the Brewers sent along with Rodriguez.

Perhaps no team in MLB values their draft capital more than Milwaukee. They’ve built a large portion of their current major league core through recent drafts, as well as established one of MLB’s deepest farm systems by hitting on draft selections.

So to see them part ways with the No. 33 overall selection in the upcoming draft, on top of moving on from their top outfield prospect, seemed like an enormously rich price tag.

Milwaukee does still own five selections within the top 100 picks after the Priester transaction, so having an abundance of draft selections likely made it a bit easier to pay the price that the Red Sox were asking for.

But once again, that should tell you all you need to know about how the Brewers view their current pitching situation — not just in 2025, but moving forward as well.

Priester’s Impact in 2025 and Beyond

As it currently stands, the Brewers’ starting rotation consists of Peralta, Tyler Alexander, Elvin Rodriguez, and Chad Patrick.

Alexander and Patrick have done well in their handful of starts to this point, but there’s obvious risk in relying upon those two arms to be focal points in the rotation. However, the Brewers may have no choice but to hope they can maintain that efficiency until some of their regular starters return to the mound.

Rodriguez, who was forced into the rotation as a result from all of the injuries, has struggled mightily in his first two turns through the rotation. In his two outings (nine total innings), Rodriguez has surrendered 11 runs (11.00 ERA) and 14 hits, including five home runs.

The Brewers have been so successful over the years due to their ability to find arms who can keep them in games and eat innings, but Rodriguez has not demonstrated an ability to do so. One would think his performance contributed to the organization’s decision to swing this trade.

Myers, Civale, and Woodruff are slowly working their way back to the mound, and Jose Quintana is building himself up in the minor leagues. Quintana is eligible to join the major league team at the end of the week, assuming he is ready to go. So, reinforcements are on the way, and they can’t come soon enough.

But it’s fair to assume that Cortes’ injury from earlier in the week played a big role in this decision as well. It’s the same injury (left elbow flexor strain) that forced him to miss some time at the tail end of last season. While the Brewers initially claimed that it’s not expected to be a long-term absence, perhaps further testing unveiled a more concerning prognosis.

Moreover, beyond this year, there’s not a lot of certainty in the big-league rotation either. Cortes and Civale are set to hit free agency at the end of the 2025 season, and Woodruff has a mutual option for $20 million for 2026.

Priester not only gives them a big-league option this season, but he also comes with six years of team control. It was a very similar sentiment surrounding DL Hall, an arm the team acquired for Corbin Burnes an offseason ago.

Clearly the Brewers think there’s some untapped potential with Priester, and he appears to be the next reclamation project for the Brewers’ pitching lab.

Despite His Struggles, Priester Has Some Intrigue