Brewers trade top prospect Yophery Rodriguez for former first-round pick Quinn Priester

On Sunday evening, the Brewers optioned pitcher Grant Wolfram again to Triple-A Nashville, who had been introduced up that morning to function an additional arm within the wake of the Nestor Cortes harm, with out including a twenty sixth man to the roster.

We now know why.

Yophery Rodriguez, Milwaukee’s No. 7 prospect, may be actually good. He’s a 19-year-old outfielder who has all of the instruments and is presently hitting .417 at Single-A. He’s additionally a great distance from the large leagues. The Brewers desperately want beginning pitching assist and have already got a glut of younger, proficient outfield prospects.

Dropping Rodriguez isn’t best, however right-handed pitcher Quinn Priester provides Brewers followers one thing to be enthusiastic about this season. Priester ranked No. 60 on MLB Pipeline’s listing of baseball’s prime prospects as lately as 2023. He was the No. 18 general decide again in 2018 by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who traded him to the Crimson Sox final July in alternate for Nick Yorke. Priester, who debuted a sinker in the beginning of final 12 months, pitched very nicely as a member of the Crimson Sox. He now finds himself a member of a corporation recognized for profitable pitching reclamation initiatives.

And Priester does certainly scream profitable reclamation undertaking. He’s nonetheless solely 24 and has two pitches that recurrently impress — the sinker and a slider. Priester additionally throws a changeup, curveball, and four-seam at nearly an equal fee — 15%. He has good things however has gotten principally unhealthy outcomes the previous few seasons, particularly within the large leagues (profession 6.23 ERA). The Brewers are determined for beginning pitching proper now, so the group should assume they will repair him — and shortly. We must always see him begin a sport in a Brewers uniform throughout the subsequent week. He’s began only one sport at Boston’s Triple-A affiliate after shedding a spring coaching battle with veteran Sean Newcomb.

The remainder of the deal features a aggressive stability decide on this 12 months’s draft and a participant to be named later. Wolfram was additionally designated for task to make room on the 40-man roster.

Talking of, I wish to pour one out for Wolfram. Introduced as much as the majors Sunday morning, he was despatched again down with out getting the chance to make his main league debut and now finds himself off the 40-man roster. After taking a look at doubtlessly making his big-league debut 24 hours in the past, he now has to face the indignity of being lower by a workforce who may area two completely different beginning rotations utilizing simply their IL. He’s pitched nicely the final couple of seasons, so hopefully he’ll catch on someplace.