Yankees-Brewers Trade Giving Milwaukee Positive Early Returns

The Milwaukee Brewers have been looking for ways to add pitching left and right and pulled off yet another trade to do so last week with the New York Yankees.

Milwaukee brought veteran reliever Rob Zastryzny back to town by sending cash considerations to the Yankees on May 16th. He's already appeared in two games since for Milwaukee and hasn't allowed a run yet. He came out of the bullpen on May 17th against the Minnesota Twins and struck out three batters across two innings.

Zastryzny made his second big league appearance of the year on Monday and was the opener as the Brewers took on the Baltimore Orioles. He got the ball in the first inning and then turned it over to Quinn Priester. The strategy seems to have worked. Zastryzny struck out two batters and didn't allow a base hit in his inning of work. Priester pitched 5 1/3 innings afterward and allowed three earned runs while striking out two batters. Milwaukee ended up coming out on top, 5-4.

This is Zastryzny's second stint in Milwaukee. He appeared in nine games last year at the big league level -- including three starts -- and pitched to a 1.17 ERA across 7 2/3 innings. Zastryzny signed with the Yankees this past offseason to a minor league deal and didn't make an appearance with the club at the big league level in 2025. Clearly, the deal has worked out for him because he's back in the majors and the Brewers have gotten good early returns.