The Milwaukee Brewers made five total deals at this year’s trade deadline. Three of them will improve the big league club this year as they brought in first baseman Carlos Santana, outfielder Mark Canha, and left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin. Two minor league trades involving Luis Urias and catcher Alex Jackson will not impact the Brew Crew this year.
In the National League Central there are two other contending teams who made moves at the trade deadline. The Cincinnati Reds acquired just one player in left-handed reliever Sam Moll. Just south of Milwaukee the Chicago Cubs added third baseman Jeimer Candelario and two fringe major league pitchers.
During a recent publication by MLB writer Will Leitch he listed the Cubs as trade deadline winners and claims the Brewers and Reds did not improve much.
MLB writer disrespects the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds for their trade deadline decisions and labels the Chicago Cubs as big winners.
The blurb on the Chicago Cubs starts off by praising them for getting the best hitter available at the deadline. There is some surprise that it is the Chicago Cubs, but he also praises them for addressing an area of need.
One month ago, if you’d have asked the question, “What team will get the best hitter available at the Deadline?” it’d be difficult to find anyone who would have chosen the Cubs. But Jeimer Candelario — who, we remind you, has a World Series ring with the Cubs (he played five games for them in 2016 before being traded to the Tigers for Alex Avila and Justin Wilson) — might be the biggest bat who ended up shifting teams, and he plays a position (third base) where the Cubs desperately needed help.
Following this the writer goes on to say that the Milwaukee Brewers did not get much better. He implies a similar idea with the Cincinnati Reds.
And of note: The Brewers and (especially) the Reds went very small at the Deadline. Neither looks that much better today than they looked last week. The Cubs sure do. They’ve got an uphill climb to catch those two. But they’ve got the best run differential in the NL Central and are red-hot. They’ve given themselves a chance.
It will be interesting to see how the NL Central division race shakes out. As of August 3 the Reds have a half game lead of the Brewers and three game lead over the Cubs.
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