Crew trades for McCullers, Gordon from Astros to bolster pitching depth

MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers reached the All-Star break with the second-best record in the Majors but also in need of starting pitching, and so they made a move Wednesday to expand their depth.

Milwaukee finalized a trade with Houston to acquire former All-Star right-hander Lance McCullers Jr., left-hander Colton Gordon and cash for Minor League outfielder Jadyn Fielder, who is the son of Prince Fielder. To make room on the 40-man roster, left-handed pitcher Rob Zastryzny was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

TRADE DETAILS
Brewers get: RHP Lance McCullers Jr., LHP Colton Gordon, cash
Astros get: Minors OF Jadyn Fielder

The additions arrive at a time the Brewers have varying levels of concern about three key starters in Brandon Woodruff, Kyle Harrison and Jacob Misiorowski. Woodruff’s move late last week to the 60-day injured list was indicative of the severity of his recent shoulder setback, though president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said the club still hopes to get innings from Woodruff this season. Harrison landed on the 15-day IL before the break with left forearm tightness. Misiorowski isn’t injured, but the Brewers scratched him from his scheduled start against the Pirates in the first-half finale and held him out of the All-Star Game, citing arm fatigue. It would not be a surprise to see Misiorowski get an extended rest coming out of the break.

With few established starting options beyond that trio, and with 2025 standout Quinn Priester sidelined until 2027 by thoracic outlet syndrome, Brewers officials have been looking to re-establish some depth. They made one move just before the break by re-signing right-handed swingman Bryse Wilson after he’d been released by the Cubs.

“We definitely want to insulate ourselves with as much pitching depth as we possibly can,” Arnold said.

Gordon, 27, similarly has bounced between the Majors and Minors, and between starting and relief. He also has Minor League options remaining, all of which adds up to the sort of flexibility the Brewers so often covet.

In McCullers, 32, they acquired a veteran who helped the Astros win a pair of World Series titles in 2017 and ‘22 but has endured a long list of injuries since then, including a right rotator cuff impingement that currently has him on the 15-day injured list. McCullers had limited no-trade protection in his contract, but he also has "10-and-5 rights," which gave him complete veto power on any trade proposal. A 10-and-5 player has accrued 10 years in the big leagues and five with the same organization.

McCullers is expected to be in Milwaukee on Thursday for a discussion with Brewers officials about what comes next. There’s a chance his next outing is a Major League start, Arnold said.

It’s believed that Gordon was just as important to the Brewers’ motivation in making the deal, or even more so. He’s likely to be assigned to the starting rotation at Triple-A Nashville to begin his Milwaukee tenure.

“He’s a guy that we've targeted for a while,” Arnold said. “He's got really good pitchability. We really like his secondary weapons. He's more of a deception and command type of guy, but he's pitched very well in Triple-A.”

McCullers was scheduled to make his fourth Minor League rehab start on Friday, this one for Double-A Corpus Christi, coming off a 77-pitch outing for Triple-A Albuquerque in his most recent outing on July 7. His pitch count and velocity in that outing suggested he was nearing a return to Houston’s rotation, as McCullers topped out at 93.3 mph, right in line with his peak velocity during his eight starts in the Majors to begin this season. He was 2-3 with a 6.86 ERA in eight Astros starts before being scratched from a scheduled start on May 19.

The shoulder issue that landed him back on the IL for a fifth consecutive season was the latest in a series of injuries -- Tommy John surgery forced him to miss the 2019 season, and various forearm injuries cost him two more full seasons in 2023 and ‘24 -- that have kept McCullers from fulfilling the promise he showed while breaking into the big leagues with Houston in 2015 at age 21, making the American League All-Star team in 2017 at age 23, and posting a 3.47 ERA in 19 career playoff games (12 starts).

“There's definitely risk associated here, but we talk about the upside with a player that has a really good track record as a winning pitcher and has pitched very well in postseason games,” Arnold said. “He’s struggled a little bit this year. But there's definitely upside here.”

McCullers’ most notable postseason moment came in Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS against the Yankees, when he threw the final four innings in relief in Houston, allowing no runs and one hit to clinch the AL pennant. He famously threw 24 consecutive curveballs to end the game.

McCullers also started Game 7 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium that season and tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings -- a game more notable for him hitting four batters and driving in a run with the bat -- to help Houston win its first World Series.

The son of former big league pitcher Lance McCullers, McCullers Jr. is 53-40 with a 3.85 ERA and 904 strikeouts in 813 1/3 regular-season innings in his career. He is earning $17 million this season in the final year of the five-year, $85 million contract extension he signed with Houston in 2021 Spring Training, but has been limited to 142 1/3 innings over the five injury-interrupted seasons covered in that deal.

In one stretch from his early exit in Game 3 of the 2022 World Series and his return to action on May 4, 2025, McCullers went 915 days between Major League starts.

“I have no reservations about my future in baseball,” he said earlier this year. “God’s blessed me, man. I have two beautiful daughters. I have a beautiful wife. We’ve been married 10 years, together 16, 17 years, so if the future for me is to be home with them, I’ll be happy with that. I’ll be content with that, you know? But if the future for me is to be in this game, if I can be healthy and help a team win, I’ll be happy with that, too.”