Former Padre Enabled Milwaukee To Acquire World Series MVP

There's a hoary old baseball saying that goes, "Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make."

For the Milwaukee Brewers, that can be modified to, "Sometimes the best trades are the ones you wedge your way into."

It was at the MLB Winter Meetings in December 2022 that the Atlanta Braves and then-Oakland A's were trying to finalize a trade headlined by catcher Sean Murphy, who would go from the perpetually rebuilding A's to the perpetually contending Braves.

The Braves were offering a four-player package consisting of three minor-league pitchers and a catcher, but the A's were holding out for an outfielder. That's when Brewers' GM Matt Arnold entered the fray and offered to add outfielder Esteury Ruiz to Oakland's return, making it a three-team deal.

Ironically, four months prior Arnold had angered Milwaukee fans when he manufactured a trade-deadline deal that sent four-time All-Star closer Josh Hader to the San Diego Padres for four players, one of whom was Ruiz, even though the Brewers were still in the playoff hunt.

Proving yet again that you can't always judge a trade by its cover, one of the players Milwaukee received for Hader was left-handed starter Robert Gasser, who, four years later, would end up a World Series hero as he won Game 3 on Monday night against the Tampa Bay Rays while facing the minimum 18 batters through six innings, which made him the first lefty to do so since legendary Los Angeles Dodgers' Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax in 1966.

The contribution of Ruiz - who played 14 games for San Diego in 2022 before appearing in all of three for Milwaukee after the trade, going 0-for-8 with two runs scored - to the Brewers' first-ever World Series title was the fact that his inclusion in the deal coaxed the Braves into parting with catcher Williams Contreras, with the Braves theowing in serviceable reliever Joel Payamps.

While Murphy, who has become injury-prone in recent seasons, was a well-regarded player at the time, it's still a little mysterious why the Braves were so quick to add Contreras to the trade package, especially since he had been the starting catcher for the National League in the All-Star Game a month prior, and would go on to hit .280 with an .860 OPS and 20 home runs for the season.

Contreras himself was also confused by the deal, saying he wanted to go back to Atlanta and even refusing to talk to his agent for a period of time.

"I just thought about the guys [in Atlanta] because it was a vibe," he was reported as saying in a report on Oct. 7 by Alyssa Polczynski for Fastball On SI that was a retrospective on the deal.

But one team's questionable decision is another team's treasure - hello, James Shields-for-Fernando Tatis Jr. in June 2026 - and Contreras paid off the deal in full this October.

In 13 playoff games, he hit .373 with a 1.037 OPS with two doubles, three home runs and nine RBIs. He also threw out six of the 13 runners who attempted to steal against him, a sterling 46.2% caught-stealing rate.

All of that earned Contreras the MVP trophy after the Brewers wrapped up  the World Series title with a 4-1 defeat of the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night.

As for Ruiz, he had -0.3- and -0.1-WAR seasons for the A's in 2023 and 2024, though he did steal an AL-best 67 bases in 2023. After appearing in 19 games with the Dodgers in 2025 he was traded to the Miami Marlins. In 109 games in 2026, he hit .216 with a .700 OPS and 34 stolen bases, good for a 0.3 WAR.

Now he will also always be remembered as a prominent footnote in the history of the Milwaukee Brewers.