Brewers' Buzzer-Beating Deal at Trade Deadline Raises Eyebrows

Brewers' Buzzer-Beating Deal at Trade Deadline Raises Eyebrows originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

The Milwaukee Brewers were mostly idle through the final day of MLB's trade deadline. As teams around the league hurried to improve themselves or execute a fire sale, the Brewers were nowhere to be found on the transaction wire.

Until the final 10 minutes.

The Brewers sent Nestor Cortes to the Padres for a speedy outfielder in Brandon Lockridge. It helped clear a pending rotation logjam as Cortes was set to return to the IL. That would've been an eyebrow-raising performance at the deadline enough for the Crew. But the really puzzling part came several minutes after.

The Brewers swung a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks to acquire some pitching, which in and of itself doesn't sound too out of the ordinary. But the Brewers chose to acquire not one, but two pitchers who are currently on the injured list.

Shelby Miller, who has been great this year — pitching to a 1.98 ERA with 10 saves in 37 appearances before landing on the IL with a forearm strain — was the main get. He's due to return soon from that injury, and should help fortify the Brewers bullpen.

But the second piece of the trade was Jordan Montgomery, who underwent Tommy John surgery in April and is out for the entire season. He will be a free agent at the end of the year and will not pitch for the Brewers. He's due approximately $7.4 million the rest of the year on his $22.5 million salary. The Brewers will pay $2 million of that salary.

In return, the Brewers reportedly will send a player to be named later or cash considerations.

The Brewers took on some salary in Montgomery in order to not pay a big prospect price to acquire Shelby Miller, despite Miller currently being on the IL. That's how much the Brewers seem to value their prospects and not wanting to give them up.

This kind of move is out of the ordinary for the small-market Brewers, who pinch pennies where they can. But they also value their prospects as highly as anyone. By taking on a relatively modest dead salary in Montgomery, they are able to keep their better prospects. Though if they're only eating $2 million, it's hard to imagine the prospect cost for Miller alone would've been that high, though reliever price tags were incredibly high this year.

It appears GM Matt Arnold really wanted a bullpen arm to help out down the stretch and got creative with Arizona to get that done at the last minute without giving up the farm.

Miller is a solid addition to the Milwaukee bullpen. Trading for an injured pitcher is rare, but not unheard of.

The Brewers did something similar a few years ago with Trevor Rosenthal at the deadline. However, Rosenthal hurt himself on his rehab assignment and never actually pitched for the team. Hopefully for the Brewers' sake, the Miller trade doesn't end up the same.

Related: Brewers To Trade For Wisconsin Native To Boost Lineup

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 31, 2025, where it first appeared.