MLB-leading Brewers pivot after Skubal as Deadline nears

ANAHEIM – The Brewers’ front office still has time to fortify the roster ahead of Monday’s 5 p.m. CT Trade Deadline, but they found out Saturday night that they won’t be landing the biggest prize.

MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported that the Dodgers were finalizing a trade for Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, besting other suitors that included the Brewers, Yankees and Cubs – a development that broke just as Milwaukee was rallying for the lead in the eighth inning of a 3-1 win over the Angels at Angel Stadium.

The victory, cemented by Brice Turang’s tie-breaking single in the eighth inning and shutdown relief from Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill, pushed the Brewers (69-41) back in front of the Dodgers (69-42) for the best record in the Major Leagues. But there’s no way around it: Losing out to the Dodgers in the Skubal sweepstakes was a blow. Brewers officials have signaled a more aggressive approach to this year’s Trade Deadline than in recent years, and the clubhouse hopes had reached as far as the manager’s office on Saturday after word that the Tigers had signaled to other teams they were ready to listen to offers.

“I was late today because I was saying the rosary,” Milwaukee skipper Pat Murphy said during his afternoon media briefing.

He chuckled.

“I wish my mom was alive,” Murphy said. “She would have loved that quote.”

Now the Brewers, who have been casting a wide net for impact starters, relievers and infielders, will have to pivot. Skubal’s former teammate, Tigers right-hander Casey Mize, is among the other frontline starters believed to be available, as is Reds ace Hunter Greene.

The next tier includes veterans like the Blue Jays’ Kevin Gausman and the Angels’ Reid Detmers and José Soriano, the latter of whom was scratched from his scheduled start against the Brewers on Saturday night while his team considers trade options. An opener, left-hander Brent Suter, started against his former team instead.

“I trust our front office, and it does feel like there’s a clear message out there that we’re not going to be passive in this thing. We’re going to be aggressive,” Murphy said. “But it still has to make sense. It still has to be responsible.”

Murphy paused and added, “Hopefully not too responsible.”

A trade for any of the big names on the market would hurt in terms of the prospect price, especially for a club like the Brewers that has won three straight division titles and qualified for the postseason seven times in the past eight seasons largely on the strength of their prospect depth and knack for making shrewd trades that don’t always generate the biggest headlines. Overwhelming the Tigers with an offer for Skubal would have been a departure from that approach, more along the lines of then-GM Doug Melvin’s bold move to acquire CC Sabathia from Cleveland ahead of the Trade Deadline in 2008. Seventeen years later, there are two ways to view that deal.

On one hand, it was worth it because Sabathia carried the Brewers to the postseason for the first time in 26 years, a moment that went a long way to changing the culture of the whole organization. No matter what teams’ computer models say about the value of a trade like that or the marginal difference that one deal makes to a team’s World Series odds, anyone who was at Miller Park for the second half of that season would say it was worth it.

On the other hand, the Brewers lost Sabathia’s lone postseason start and were eliminated by the Phillies in that year’s NLDS.

It’s one of many reminders that making a big splash at the Trade Deadline is satisfying, but doesn’t guarantee anything. That’s the nature of baseball, that even for a pitcher as dominant as Skubal in recent regular seasons, the Tigers are 3-3 in his postseason starts, including losses three of the last four times he’s taken the mound in a playoff game.

That’s the debate that president of baseball operations Matt Arnold and his team of advisers have been engaged in for weeks. After making a trade with the Guardians on Saturday in the interest of depth, they were back to work throughout the day, looking to reel in something bigger.

It just won’t be Skubal.

“We have a lot of lines in the water, is what I would say,” Arnold said earlier Saturday. “I think things are moving, but who knows? We are certainly doing what we can to help the team in the next 48 hours.”