Swarzak Trade

It looks like the Brewers have made their first of hopefully a few upgrades to their bullpen today. Jon Heyman tweeted that the Brewers and White Sox had an agreement in place for RP Anthony Swarzak. Later Dan Hayes tweeted that the Brewers would be sending the White Sox minor league OF Ryan Cordell to complete the trade. Swarzak figures to slide right into a late inning role setting up for closer Corey Knebel. Big question will be to make room for Swarzak who do the Brewers give the boot to? Torres? Drake? Peralta? Blazek? Hard to say, Blazek is the only one with an option which could determine what Stearns does. I think most fans would like to see Torres or Drake gone.

Hard to not like this trade for the Brewers. They fill a need for another quality RP on the big league club and deal from a organizational position of depth in the OF from the minor leagues. Swarzak is 31 yo and enjoying the best season of his career. 48.1 IP, 2.23 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 2.34 FIP, 52/13 K/BB, 1.8 WAR. That is a pretty impressive line. He will be a free agent after the season. Cordell who came to the Brewers as the PTBNL in the Lucroy trade with the Rangers is a nice OF prospect who was not in the Brewers top 10, but easily a top 20 guy. I liked Cordell and thought he could be a nice 4th OF for the Brewers at some point, but with all the other OF prospects they have it's not a huge loss. And for a quality arm like Swarzak to give this bullpen a boost it certainly seems worth it on paper. One more bullpen arm would be real nice; Neshek, Wilson, Reed or Ramos. We'll stay tuned.