Brewers general manager David Stearns confirmed to reporters this week that Milwaukee was pushing hard to get shortstop Manny Machado from the Orioles, but their bid fell short and Machado was traded to the Dodgers.
The move leaves Milwaukee still searching for a right-handed bat, and The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal believes the Brewers is Twins second baseman Brian Dozier.
Among the players the #Brewers are expected to target now that they have lost Machado: #Twins 2B Brian Dozier. Team also will explore pitching upgrades as well.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 19, 2018
It’d be highly unlikely that the Brewers would offers as much for Dozier as they were for Machado, but it’s still worth exploring top pitching prospects that the Twins would probably find appealing.
According to Baseball America, the Brewers’ top prospect is Double-A second baseman Keston Hiura, followed by three right-handed pitchers: Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta, and Luis Ortiz. They don’t have any other pitchers in their top 10 prospects.
Burnes and Peralta are currently up with the first-place Brewers. Burnes was 3-4 with a 5.15 ERA in 19 appearances (13 starts) at Triple-A. The Brewers called him up to help out in the bullpen and he’s off to a nice start with two clean appearances.
Peralta is also up with the Brewers and doing well. The 22 year old is 4-1 with a 2.65 ERA in seven starts, including two starts with 10+ strikeouts. His ability to make bats miss would be extremely appealing for the Twins, but would the Brewers be willing to trade a player who is making his mark in their starting rotation?
As for Ortiz, BrewCrewBall.com says he “is as dominant as they come when healthy.” And that’s apparently his problem – he can’t stay healthy.
The MLB trade deadline is just 11 days away (July 31), so we’re going to see more and more speculation about Dozier’s future.
