Brewers Send Depth Out, Bring Organizational Pieces Back

Milwaukee traded outfielder Blake Perkins and reliever Craig Yoho to Cleveland on Saturday, receiving catcher Bo Naylor and pitcher Codi Heuer in return. Both Naylor and Heuer were assigned to Triple-A Nashville. It's a quiet move on the surface — depth for depth — but the direction of it is worth noting.

Two weeks ago the Brewers were acquiring arms, adding Lance McCullers Jr. and Colton Gordon from Houston and signing Bryse Wilson off the open market. Now they're shipping out pieces. That's not contradiction; that's a front office that has done its buying and is trimming the edges. The deadline window has closed, and Milwaukee is working with what it has.

What it has is still plenty. The rotation is a mess — Woodruff on the 60-day, Harrison on the 15-day, Shane Drohan being worked harder than usual to cover the gaps — but the offense is scoring close to five runs a game over the last 10, and the team is 63-38 with 61 games left. Naylor and Heuer go to Nashville and wait. If something breaks between now and October, they're organizational options. That's the whole point.

The Brewers aren't panicking. They're filing paperwork.