PHOENIX -- Last season, the Brewers became just the second team in history to have four-plus players receive Rookie of the Year votes: Caleb Durbin (third), Isaac Collins (fourth), Chad Patrick (seventh) and Jacob Misiorowski (11th).
And unlike the 78-84 2006 Marlins, who had six such players on their way to a fourth-place finish in the National League East, the Brewers managed to feature that many rookies while rolling to their third straight NL Central title and winning a franchise-record 97 games.
Having so much young depth is a luxury, and it afforded president of baseball operations Matt Arnold the flexibility to make some moves that made a little history this offseason.
With a December trade that sent Collins to the Royals for lefty Angel Zerpa and this week’s deal that sent infielders Durbin, Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler and a Competitive Balance Round B Draft pick to the Red Sox, the Brewers became the first team to trade two Rookie of the Year vote-getters in the same offseason.
Only twice in the past 14 years has even one player who received ROY votes been traded the following offseason: Andrés Giménez after the 2020 season and David Lough after ‘13.
It was no doubt tough to let go of a player like Durbin, who made such an impact in last year’s historic season. But Arnold saw an opportunity to add a pair of young, controllable left-handed pitchers in Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan, which was key in the wake of the club dealing ace Freddy Peralta to the Mets for infielder Jett Williams (Brewers’ No. 3 prospect) and right-hander Brandon Sproat (No. 6).
"I look at it like you got to give up something to get something in these deals,” Arnold said Thursday at Cactus League media day. “We value Caleb Durbin, obviously, and the other guys involved. Seigler and Monasterio and the pick, like those things really matter to us, but we also have to be able to access young starting pitching, and I think that that's really important for us to survive here.”
Parting with an ace like Peralta and a high-energy versatile grinder like Durbin definitely stings. Add in last offseason’s trade of closer Devin Williams, and that’s a lot of talent. But when you zoom out and consider the moves all together, rather than as individual swaps, the vision starts to become clearer.
Durbin was acquired in the Williams deal, along with Nestor Cortes. Cortes only pitched eight innings for the Brewers, but they flipped him to the Padres for then rookie Brandon Lockridge. So 14 months later, here is essentially what Milwaukee got when you layer together the Williams and Durbin trades:
Brewers trade away
One year of closer Devin Williams -- Struggled to a 4.79 ERA for the Yankees in ‘25
INF Caleb Durbin -- Controllable until 2032
INF Andruw Monasterio -- Controllable until 2030
INF Anthony Seigler -- Controllable until 2032
Brewers receive
INF Caleb Durbin -- For one 2.6 fWAR season
OF Brandon Lockridge -- Outfield depth, controllable till 2032
LHP Kyle Harrison -- Likely to make rotation, controllable till 2031
LHP Shane Drohan -- Club’s No. 30 prospect
INF David Hamilton -- In the mix for 3B job, controllable till 2030
Looks pretty good, especially when you consider that Durbin significantly outperformed Williams last season. And the exchange of depth pieces Lockridge and Hamilton for Monasterio and Seigler can be viewed basically as a wash, so the deals will boil down to Harrison and Drohan providing more value than Durbin over the next several seasons.
Even if Durbin shines, the trades still make sense in Milwaukee due to the club’s significant depth of middle-infield talent waiting in the wings, led by 18-year-old phenom Jesús Made, the No. 3 prospect in baseball.
“I feel like when you look at the totality of the deals that we're making, we're adding guys like Brandon Sprout in a different deal, we're adding guys like Harrison and Drohan,” Arnold said. “The ability to sustain the loss of a guy like Freddy Peralta, who matters a ton to our franchise, is really important, and so we just have to backfill those innings somehow.
“So we have to make tough decisions to trade from what we think is a surplus, because again, we feel really good about our young left-side infield options. We felt like it was a nice win, win for both sides.”
It takes years to fully evaluate a trade. While we wait, it’s fair to say Arnold and the front office have earned the benefit of the doubt.