With the MLB trade deadline less than a week away, there are a ton of rumors going around. This year, the Milwaukee Brewers happen to have their name in a number of the rumors given their status as one of the best teams in baseball.
As we sit here and dream about what a Brewers team with Tarik Skubal, Mason Miller, and CJ Abrams would look like, there have also been plenty of trades that make you think, “What if?”
What if the trade with the New York Mets back in July 2015 went through and the Brewers
had a young Zack Wheeler in their rotation? What kind of impact would Wheeler have had on the rotation over the following years? Other pivotal guys like Domingo Santana, Josh Hader, and Adrian Houser would’ve never been on the team.
What if the Brewers didn’t trade away David Fry to the Cleveland Guardians in March 2022 for J.C. Mejía? Mejía pitched in just 11 games over the course of two seasons for the Brewers, finishing with an 8.56 ERA. With that being said, at the time, the Brewers were running Omar Narváez and Victor Caratini as their catching duo. Had David Fry been on the team, would we have seen him blossom in a Brewers uniform, thus never needing to trade for William Contreras?
Everything happens for a reason, of course. But for how successful the Brewers have been over the last nine years, it’s fun to look back at some trades that could’ve desperately derailed how dominant the team has become today, even if those players who never became Brewers turned out to be All-Stars.
Today, we flip the calendar back 20 years, to the 2006 MLB Trade Deadline. The Brewers were involved in a significant trade that sent Nelson Cruz and Carlos Lee to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Laynce Nix, Kevin Mench, Francisco Cordero, and Julian Cordero.
Cruz had bounced around a couple of different organizations at the time of this trade; however, all of them occurred while he was in the minor leagues. At the time, Cruz was sitting in the minors in the Brewers system, struggling to find playing time on a team that had outfielders like Lee, Brady Clark, Geoff Jenkins, and the young Corey Hart.
Before we dive too thick into the weeds, it’s important to remember that even though Cruz made his MLB debut with the Brewers in 2005, he didn’t get consistent playing time and burst onto the scene until 2009, when he was nominated for his first All-Star Game. In 2008, Cruz played in 31 games for the Rangers and had a fantastic line, despite the small sample size. He batted .330 and got on base at a .421 clip, while smashing seven home runs and driving in 26, foreshadowing how great he was about to be in the Lone Star State.
After his first All-Star appearance, Cruz went on to have a season where he batted above .300 while crushing 22 home runs. He was on the Rangers through the 2013 season before signing with the Baltimore Orioles in the winter of 2014.
Given the time frame and how long he was on his rookie contract, it’s interesting to think back on how he would’ve impacted those late 2000s/early 2010s Brewers squads. In 2007, the Brewers just missed their first playoff appearance in 25 years after blowing an 8.5-game lead in mid-August. That was a lineup where their outfielders were definitely not the worst players on the team, as Hart posted a .295 batting average, slugging 24 home runs. Had they had Cruz in the lineup that season, what would that have looked like? Even on the Rangers, he was a bench bat, but had the Brewers had that tool at their disposal, perhaps things would look a little differently.
Skipping forward to 2009, the Brewers took a step back after a successful previous couple of seasons. Again, not included in this step back were the Brewers outfielders, as Ryan Braun had a monstrous season at the dish, while Hart continued to be consistent and Mike Cameron slightly improved from the year before. There’s no doubt that offense wasn’t the issue for the 2009 Brewers, but to have Cruz in the outfield to replace either Hart or Cameron, I’m sure, would’ve made a sizable difference.
Moving forward, 2010 was another season where they didn’t need a ton of outfield help either. Having Jim Edmonds on the bench, a young Carlos Gomez, and, of course, Braun and Hart on the corners.
All in all, having high-quality outfield bats was never a problem for the Brewers during this stretch. Having Cruz on the team would’ve only bogged down the lineup for a team trying to turn things around. The pitching staff was the main issue at the time.
So while we can reminisce on what Cruz would’ve looked like on those late 2000s and early 2010s teams, it would’ve most likely been the same outcome for the Crew in the end. Trades happen for one reason or another, and this one was just shedding weight at the deadline to beef up a run later down the road.
What’s a trade you think about often?
