Two playoff contenders (one World Series level, one third wildcard in the AL level) made a trade of middle relievers and bench bats today as the Brewers traded right-handed reliever Craig Yoho and switch-hitting outfielder Blake Perkins to the Guardians for right-handed reliever Codi Heuer and catcher Bo Naylor.
First, for the Guardians: Yoho is a 26 year-old reliever with two options remaining. He has a 3.15 ERA and a 3.58 xERA (FIP and xFIP are in the mid 4’s). He has an 8.10/3.60 K/BB% but has given
up a 14% home run/fly ball which will have to be corrected for him to become a useful middle reliever. He throws three different fastballs around 20% of the time each (four-seam, cutter, sinker) and a changeup the other 40% of the time. He has thrown a slider in the past (which has great Stuff+ metrics) but has abandoned it this year. He is 6’2 and his extension is in the 93rd percentile so you know Cleveland wanted him. The Brewers and Guardians are both great at pitching development so swapping Heuer and Yoho is an interesting challenge trade. I think Yoho is clearly the more interesting pitcher… which probably shows that Bo Naylor had a little bit of value.
Blake Perkins… he is a 29 year-old who switch-hits but I am not sure why. He cannot hit left-handed at all but has a career 95 wRC+ vs. LHP while hitting from the right side. He’s competent in the corner outfield spots and can play center on a limited basis. He has two options. I suppose if they wanted to give Angel some time to find himself in Columbus, having Perkins up in his spot would be fine… but I can’t pretend I really understand his inclusion here. He certainly cannot be considered the kind of right-handed bat the Guardians need at this deadline.
I always believed Bo Naylor would find himself as a hitter, but he did not reward that faith in Cleveland or Columbus this season. Now, we will truly get a test of Cleveland’s hitting development group because Milwaukee is great at hitter and catcher development. If Bo finds something there… it will clearly be time to fire everyone connected to hitting… probably from Mike Chernoff on down.
Yoho is a mildly interesting piece. I hope we don’t see much of Perkins. What else you got for us, Antonetti?
