WASHINGTON -- The Brewers waited four months to add veteran left-hander Justin Wilson to their bullpen after he completed his comeback from Tommy John surgery, only to lose him late last week to a new injury as he was warming up for his first Major League outing in 15 months.
So they went out and found a replacement at Tuesday’s Trade Deadline in the D-backs’ Andrew Chafin.
The Brewers are sending a Major League arm, right-handed reliever Peter Strzelecki, to Arizona in the most prominent of three deals just before the 5 p.m. CT Deadline. General manager Matt Arnold also traded infielder Luis Urías -- Milwaukee's Opening Day third baseman, who'd slumped this season and been optioned to the Minors -- to the Red Sox for 22-year-old pitching prospect Bradley Blalock and dealt Triple-A catcher Alex Jackson to the Rays for right-handed pitcher Evan McKendry.
TRADE DETAILS
Milwaukee-Arizona
Brewers receive: LHP Andrew Chafin
D-backs receive: RHP Peter Strzelecki
Milwaukee-Boston
Brewers receive: RHP Bradley Blalock
Red Sox receive: INF Luis Urías
Milwaukee-Tampa Bay
Brewers receive: RHP Evan McKendry
Rays receive: C Alex Jackson
Chafin, 33, has a 3.31 ERA in 519 appearances over 10 years with four Major League teams, including eight seasons in two stints with the D-backs. He’s had relatively equal success against left-handed hitters (.621 OPS) and right-handed hitters (.654 OPS) in his career, but this season he has much better numbers against righties (.637 OPS) than lefties (.848 OPS).
Chafin will fill the role expected to go to Wilson -- a complement to the Brewers’ primary left-handed reliever, Hoby Milner.
"Credit to Matt for kind of acting quickly on this one," manager Craig Counsell said. "Three days ago, this is maybe not something we would have considered, but just filling that piece of the bullpen to give Hoby some support and really a good arm that's experienced and has pitched in a lot of big innings in the last 6-7 years in the big leagues here. I feel like we're lucky to get a guy like that who we can put in the mix with this crew."
This season, Chafin had a 4.19 ERA in 43 games for the D-backs and earned eight of his 19 career saves, including one against the Brewers on April 10 in Phoenix.
“He hopefully fortifies our bullpen in a way we were hoping Justin Wilson would be able to,” Arnold said. “We’ve had to overcome [injuries] throughout the season and just had to stay aggressive on the market.”
Hiccups like Elvis Peguero's eighth-inning letdown in Monday's loss to the Nationals aside, the Brewers' bullpen has become a strength since Bryse Wilson settled into a varied middle-innings role, Milner locked in after a blip in May and Peguero and Joel Payamps claimed late-inning setup duties in front of closer Devin Williams. But the Brewers have put a strain on those arms because their relatively low-scoring offense, coupled with solid pitching and defense, means they play a lot of low-scoring, close games. Counsell said in mid-July that he was eager to find one more reliable arm to add to that core group of five, and after Wilson went down with a lat injury, Chafin, the Brewers hope, is it.
"Now it feels like every day, in those big spots, we have somebody to go to," Counsell said. "It's going to lead to less defined roles here for guys, but that's OK. That means you have a lot of good pitchers."
Strzelecki, 28, was expected to be one of those core relievers. He appeared in 36 games with the Brewers this year, posting a 4.54 ERA and striking out 9.3 batters per nine, but he was optioned to the Minors on June 28 amid a rough stretch.
Chafin was Milwaukee's third addition ahead of the Deadline, as the club also acquired first baseman Carlos Santana from the Pirates and outfielder Mark Canha from the Mets.
Tuesday also marked the last chance for teams to make Minor League trades, the most notable of which for Milwaukee was cutting ties with Urías after four seasons with the Brewers. He had a breakthrough in 2021, when he hit a career-high 23 home runs with a career-best .790 OPS in his age-24 season, but he suffered hand and quadriceps injuries in the run-up to 2022 that set him back, then he strained his left hamstring in the Brewers' Opening Day loss to the Cubs this season and missed two months.
When he returned, Urías produced a .157/.318/.255 slash line in the Majors and after 19 games was demoted back to Triple-A Nashville, where he'd been playing since July 3. With a $4.7 million salary this season and two more years of arbitration eligibility, Urías would have been a non-tender candidate this winter.
“He had moved down our depth chart,” Arnold said. “I don’t think that’s anything against Luis, because he’s been a great Brewer here. … It’s hard to say [why his production plummeted]. We’ve seen this guy do some amazing things, especially with what we saw in the World Baseball Classic [when he played for Mexico] and in big games for us throughout his career.”
So the team flipped Urías for 22-year-old Blalock, a 32nd-round Draft pick in 2019 who was 6-1 with a 2.19 ERA for Boston's Single-A and High-A affiliates this season in his first year back from Tommy John surgery. He did not rank among MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Red Sox prospects, but Arnold made a pitch for that to change as Blalock jumps to a new system.?
“Coming back from Tommy John surgery not too long ago, he has come out guns blazing,” Arnold said. “It’s a power curveball. It’s 92-95 [mph with the] fastball. I think he immediately slots into one of our better pitching prospects in our system.”