Brewers And Red Sox Make Throwback Challenge Deal, Swapping Top Prospects (2025)

We baseball fans of a certain age often pine for the “good old days”, when team-building was done differently, players didn’t fit into cookie cutter molds, yada yada yada. Truth be told, there’s an awful lot that’s great about today’s game - players have never been more talented, and the greatest among them would excel in any era.

But outside of the Dodgers and perhaps a few other clubs, team-building has gotten a bit stale. Everyone is doing plenty of the same things, and way too many clubs are simply sitting tight, hoping to sneak into the postseason and then get hot. Two of the exceptions, the Brewers and Red Sox, zigged while others were zagging last week, making a good old fashioned challenge prospect trade as Boston sent righty starter Quinn Priester, 24, to the Brewers for youthful High-A outfielder Yophery Rodriguez, 19.

What makes these two teams, and this deal in particular, so interesting? The Red Sox have begun an on-field transition towards youth, simultaneously with their resurgence as potential contenders. I covered this recently with the insertion of Kristian Campbell into their starting lineup. He just signed an eight-year, $60 million contract, extending through his first two free agent seasons. He’s only the beginning of the youth movement in Boston, as two arguably even better prospects, RF Roman Anthony and SS Marcelo Mayer, lay in wait at Triple-A Worcester.

The Brewers, also covered last week in this space, have done more with less financial might than most MLB clubs, remaining perennial contenders despite the loss of the likes of Corbin Burnes, Willy Adames and Devin Williams to trades and free agency. Their starting rotation has been waylaid by a wave of injuries and a disastrous opening series in Yankee Stadium. They’re scouring every nook and cranny of the player acquisition market for reinforcements while their walking wounded recover. Jose Quintana was signed late in spring training and is still building up his pitch count in the minors. But more was needed.

So these two teams partnered up, saw something they liked, and gave something of value in return. The Brewers’ side of the deal is particularly interesting. Even if you asked them, they would likely (perhaps off the record) admit that they gave up the more valuable property in the trade. Each season I prepare my own minor league position player and starting pitcher rankings based on player performance and age relative to league and minor league level. It’s a purely statistically based ranking, that doesn’t adjust for position, home park, etc.. The rankings should be taken with a grain of salt, to a point, but over time they’ve proven to be solid indicators of future MLB success.

Rodriguez’ performance as an 18-year-old in the Low-A Carolina League last season placed him at #70 on my position player prospect list. He was among the very youngest full-season regulars in the minors last season, and more than held his own, batting .250-.343-.383. MLB Pipeline ranked him as the #7 prospect in the Brewer system. The lefthanded hitter stands 6’1", 185, and already has a pretty polished game for a youngster. Limitations? There’s a whole lot of projection being built in here - he only hit seven homers and stole seven bases last season, and doesn’t appear to have a massive power or speed upside. But he clearly is the higher-ceiling prospect of the players being exchanged, and the Brewers also threw a 2025 Comp Round A draft pick into the deal.

So why did the Crew give up so much for Priester? Well, their dire short-term need must be taken into account. Pitching, as always, is very difficult to obtain. There are some older, injury-prone free agents still out there, who would, like Quintana, need time to ramp up. In Priester, they have a guy with limited MLB experience who could be inserted into their MLB reputation as soon as tomorrow, in - ugh - Coors Field.

And Priester does have some pedigree. He was the Pirates’ 1st round draft pick out of high school in 2019, and has pitched well enough to be ranked on my last four starting pitcher prospect lists, progressively getting better from #162 in 2021 to #121 in 2022 to #57 in 2023 to #43 in 2024. He’s a bat-misser who also drives the ball down in the strike zone and gets plenty of grounders, a trait that would help in Coors and elsewhere. He’s considered to be quite athletic for a pitcher, and though he has struggled (6.23 ERA, 69/41 K/BB in 99 2/3 IP) to date in the majors, the Brewers appear willing to run him out there immediately.

Despite the trade of the 2025 draft pick, the Brewers retain four of the top 68 selections in this year’s draft. As usual, they are attempting to keep their youth movement humming while remaining in the playoff hunt.

And so are the Red Sox - adding a youthful prospect with significant potential and a draft pick while dealing a pitcher who in their eyes was expendable.

It’s refreshing to see a pair of clubs who fully intend to be in the 2025 playoff field playing poker, instead of treading water and playing it safe, like - well I could name 10-15 teams here. It’s a shame that it’s become so rare to see challenge deals like this being made. When one occurs, a spotlight needs to be directed towards it.