Brewers take bargain bin route with first trade to address biggest weakness

The Milwaukee Brewers have exceeded expectations thus far, going 46-33 almost halfway into the 2024 campaign despite getting virtually nothing from their starting rotation. Corbin Burnes was traded over the offseason and Brandon Woodruff missing the entire season due to injury was going to hurt the rotation, but they've had brutal luck on top of that.

Robert Gasser, DL Hall, Wade Miley, and Joe Ross are all on the injured list right now, with Gasser and Miley set to miss the remainder of this season after undergoing Tommy John Surgery. They've had to rely on the likes of Bryse Wilson, Colin Rea, Carlos Rodriguez, and Tobias Myers to step up.

While most of them have, the Brewers rank 18th in the majors in starting pitching ERA and 29th in innings from their starters. Ranking 29th in the majors in innings from starting pitchers puts a huge strain on the bullpen. The Brewers do have a strong bullpen, but the last thing anyone wants is to see them worn out in the regular season. That's something that's going to have to change when the trade deadline rolls around.

General manager Matt Arnold was proactive on Tuesday, making a trade with the Seattle Mariners to address the issue, but the deal he made doesn't accomplish much in the grand scheme of things.

Brewers address biggest weakness, but take bargain bin route

The Brewers have traded for Dallas Keuchel. If this was 2015 when he won the AL Cy Young Award, this would be quite the pickup. If this was 2020 when he finished fifth in the AL Cy Young balloting, this would be quite the pickup. Unfortunately, it's 2024, and 36-year-old Dallas Keuchel just isn't anything to get excited about.

In the 56 MLB games he's appeared in since that 2020 season, he has posted a 6.29 ERA in 260.1 innings of work. He had a 5.97 ERA in 10 appearances (six starts) for the Twins last season.

He's had a solid season for Triple-A Tacoma, posting a 3.93 ERA in 13 starts while pitching in the notoriously hitter-friendly PCL, but there's no reason to believe he'd put up a comparable ERA in the majors. What's most alarming about Keuchel's Triple-A numbers is the fact that he has just 45 strikeouts in 71 innings of work. He's never been a big strikeout pitcher, but there's a good chance he'll get hit hard in the majors if he can't miss bats at all.

It's good to see Matt Arnold do something to address a huge problem, and giving up virtually nothing to do that obviously helps, but Keuchel doesn't come close to solving the issue. In fact, an argument can be made that the Brewers would be better off without giving Keuchel a chance in the majors at all at this point given what he's done in the last three seasons.

Hopefully as we get closer to the trade deadline we'll see a bigger move or two to truly address the starting rotation.