After an offseason of minimal spending and head-scratching signings, Milwaukee Brewers fans had tempered expectations entering the 2023 season.
The year started with promise- the Brewers opened at 14-5- but has lost momentum, as Milwaukee is 9-13 since. Fortunately for the Crew, the rest of the NL Central has been mired by the same inability to win.
The Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs are slumping after hot starts, while the Cardinals — following one of the worst Aprils in team memory — are finally finding their footing. This all leads to a tight division with every ball club still in contention.
If the Brewers want to break away from the pack, they need to start looking at ways to improve their weaknesses.
For most of Craig Counsell's managerial tenure, the bullpen has been the overriding strength for the Brewers.
Counsell could count on the starting pitcher going six strong innings, then sending in his three best relievers to secure the win.
This year, the Milwaukee bullpen does not inspire that kind of confidence. Devin Williams has the ninth inning locked down, but outside of him, the Brewers have a worrying lack of experience in late-inning situations.
In 2022, moves for veteran relievers Matt Bush and Taylor Rogers backfired and ultimately cost the Brewers a playoff spot, but it is difficult to see the club as a contender without a reliable setup man.
Offensively, the designated hitter spot has been a magnet for mediocrity. Jesse Winker and Luke Voit are batting a combined .226 with one home run while striking out almost one-third of the time.
This lefty/righty platoon has failed so far, as the Brewers are hitting just .210 versus left-handed pitchers.
With Voit on the injured list, the Brewers signed free agent Darin Ruf, who began the season with the San Francisco Giants.
Ruf is a career .271 hitter against lefties, but it is hard to get excited about a guy with a career WAR of 1.5 in 571 games played.
Milwaukee needs more than a low-cost roll of the dice; it needs a consistent power hitter who will solidify the middle of the lineup.
With these needs in mind, these are the players the Brewers should be targeting in the trade market.
3 players Brewers must trade for
Aroldis Chapman (RP), Kansas City Royals
Outside of the ever-steady Devin Williams, Brewers relievers are 4/9 in save situations this season. Counsell has used a committee of pitchers to hold leads in the seventh and eighth innings, but the Brewers need a go-to guy out of the bullpen.
Meanwhile, in Kansas City, Aroldis Chapman has rediscovered the life in his fastball and normalized his strikeout and walk rates. He is looking more like the all-star reliever that terrified hitters for a decade.
The Royals are already 19 games below .500, so Chapman is an obvious trade candidate during the team's continued rebuild.
Jorge Soler (DH/OF), Miami Marlins
Four years removed from his 48-homer season with the Royals in 2019, Soler has failed to return to that echelon of home run prowess. That being said, he is still a solid power hitter that would provide a noticeable boost to any pennant contender.
Soler ranks in the top eight percent in MLB in expected slugging percentage, which also coincides with a 95th-percentile barrel rate (both per Baseball Savant).
His strikeout numbers are not the most desirable (42 in 39 games), but his .239 batting average is respectable for a guy on pace for 37 home runs this year.
The Marlins are too good to tank but probably also not good enough to earn a playoff spot, leaving Soler and the other elder members of the Miami roster in limbo.
Tanner Houck (SP), Boston Red Sox
Looking at the Brewers' pitching depth in Spring Training, it is hard to believe that the Brewers would need a starting pitcher only a quarter of the way through the year.
The quartet of Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Eric Lauer, and Freddy Peralta represented one of the best rotations in baseball, and Wade Miley, Aaron Ashby, and Adrian Houser all had the ability to become that fifth starter.
Now, midway through May, Woodruff and Ashby are on the 60-day IL, Lauer is in the bullpen, and Houser missed all of April with an injury — leaving a lot of “TBD's” as the Brewers' probable pitchers.
Tanner Houck has been a swingman for much of his career, with this year his first as a regular starter. His 5.48 ERA isn't pretty, but a 4.00 expected ERA shows promise for a guy with one of the nastiest sliders in baseball.
Tanner Houck, Filthy 83mph Slider. 😷 pic.twitter.com/dQHLt2AMvU
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 15, 2023
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