Brewers Interested In Erick Fedde.
The Brewers are in contact with the White Sox regarding starter Erick Fedde, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. The Cardinals are also known to be involved on Fedde, while he’s one of a number of pitchers in whom the Astros have reportedly shown interest. Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes that the Mets have also checked in with the Sox on Fedde, though it’s not clear how seriously they’re pursuing him.
Fedde is one of the top targets for teams seeking mid-rotation help. The righty enters tonight’s start against the Mariners with 117 2/3 innings of 2.98 ERA ball. He’s running average or better strikeout, walk and ground-ball marks. His .261 average on balls in play will probably come up a bit and push his ERA above 3.00, but the former National looks like a #3 caliber starter.
The Sox signed him to a two-year, $15MM deal after an MVP season in Korea. That was one of the best value pickups of the offseason and should net them a strong prospect return. Fedde is making $7.5MM in each season. Less than $2.6MM remains to be paid, so he’s appealing both to lower-payroll clubs and those that have luxury tax concerns. The Brewers, of course, fit in the former category.
Milwaukee already acquired a back-end starter this month, bringing in Aaron Civale from the Rays. Fedde is a cleaner fit to start a postseason game, though. Even with Civale in the fold, Milwaukee is running something of a patchwork rotation behind Freddy Peralta. While they’ve gotten good work from journeyman Colin Rea and 26-year-old rookie Tobias Myers, Milwaukee could certainly accommodate another starter.
Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tweeted yesterday that the Brewers were open to the possibility of trading from their big league roster. The Sox are near the bottom of a rebuild and won’t be competitive for multiple seasons. That frees them up to take upside shots on low minors talent, but they could also take a flier on a controllable big leaguer who isn’t playing a significant role. Milwaukee has a lot of outfield talent. FanSided’s Robert Murray wrote yesterday that 25-year-old Garrett Mitchell has come up in some of the Brewers’ trade discussions.
Murray did not report that the Brewers have discussed Mitchell with the White Sox specifically or that Chicago would have interest in him as part of a Fedde deal, to be clear. Speculatively speaking, taking a shot on a player with Mitchell’s physical tools could be intriguing for the White Sox. (That’s also true of Joey Wiemer, a former top prospect who hasn’t produced in the majors but is only 25 himself.) Chicago made a similar roll of the dice in an offseason trade with the D-Backs for Dominic Fletcher.
The Mets weren’t expected to be in the rotation market. As recently as a couple weeks ago, New York was contemplating trading away a starter. That was based on their optimism in Kodai Senga returning from the injured list and Christian Scott coming back from the minors. Instead, Scott suffered a UCL sprain and Senga is likely to miss the rest of the season after straining his calf last night.
That could make the Mets a surprising bidder for rotation help. The Athletic’s Will Sammon indeed writes that New York is likely to at least explore the market. The Mets were reportedly the runner-up for Fedde in free agency last winter, so they were optimistic about the pitcher even before his successful return to the majors.
