A Trade With the Brewers May Be a Tough Proposition For the A's

When Taylor Smith took over as the Athletics' president of baseball operations at the end of October, the first move he made was to trade for outfielder Nate Eaton from Smith's former team, the Boston Red Sox. This is fairly common practice when a person switches from one front office to another. But it may be a little more difficult for new A's GM Cam Castro to pluck a piece from the Milwaukee Brewers. 

That trade for Eaton appears to have been a signal that the A's will upgrade the team's defense where they can, and an extra outfielder like Eaton is a nice starting point for that project. The Brewers were a top-five defensive team with +62 defensive runs saved, while ranking eighth in outs above average (+19), and 14th in fielding run value (+7).

No matter which way you look at it, the Brewers were a solid defensive team, and given the organization's small-market status and a 19th-ranked payroll, it's not likely that they'll be moving key defensive pieces that just helped them win the World Series. 

The same will likely go for the team's terrific pitching staff, which ranked second in team ERA behind the New York Yankees with a 3.51 (3.71 FIP). 

The goal for the A's will be to model themselves after the Brewers and Red Sox behind the scenes, which means a focus on the development of talent. Smith also mentioned at his introductory press conference that he will be focused on acquisitions, development, and in-game strategy.

The in-game piece will have to wait until the season begins, but the acquisition piece can begin now. Not only will the Brewers be looking to hold onto their own key players, but it would be perfectly reasonable for Milwaukee to be wary of any pitcher that Castro and the A's come asking about, since Castro has intimate knowledge of their system. 

The Brewers' best skill on the mound was the team's strikeout rate, which sat at 25.8%, tied for the best in baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies. Milwaukee was roughly league average in walk rate at 8.6% (league average was 8.8%), ranking them 12th, while the Brewers ranked 20th in ground-ball rate at 40.7%. 

Strikeouts are expensive to acquire, so the A's may refrain from going that route via trade or free agency and look to draft and develop that skill instead. 

Toward the end of September, it became clear that the A's will be after two skills from pitchers they bring in: limiting walks and keeping the ball on the ground. If you do one of those at an elite rate, the A's may want to talk to you. 

Limiting walks would be one way to keep runs off the board, as the ball tends to fly a bit more at the ballpark in Sacramento. Fewer free passes means fewer runs on the board. Ground balls simply cannot be home runs, so with an improved defense, that also means more outs. 

While trading for a Milwaukee pitcher with some combination of those skills could be difficult due to those players' roles on the Brewers, one name that stands out on the free-agent market will be 30-year-old left-hander JoJo Romero. 

Acquired by Milwaukee from the St. Louis Cardinals in the same trade as Dustin May, Romero tossed 13 ⅓ innings with the Brewers, holding a 3.38 ERA (3.85 FIP) and posting a 59% ground-ball rate and a 3.8% walk rate in that span. Over the full season he pitched 56 ⅓ innings with a 3.36 ERA (3.97 FIP) and a 50.9% ground-ball rate, topped with a 7.6% walk rate. 

Having the beginning of a relationship between Castro and Romero already built in could be huge for the A's, as the left-hander is exactly the type of arm they'll likely be after. He's not a high-priced addition, as he made $4.26 million in his final year of arbitration in 2026, and he also fits their specific needs very well. 

A trade between the A's and Brewers could still happen, but a signing like Romero to Sacramento makes a little more sense.