The San Diego Padres acquired All-Star reliever Josh Hader from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for Dinelson Lamet, Esteury Ruiz, Taylor Rogers, and a minor league player.
It was a curious decision by the Brewers, considering they are first in the NL Central division with a solid 57-45 record.
They even have a three-game cushion over the second-ranked team in the division, the St. Louis Cardinals.
“The Brewers are in 1st place. Josh Hader was an All-Star this year. The last time a first-place team traded a player who had been an All-Star for them that year was 2014, when the 1st-place A’s traded All-Star Yoenis Céspedes to the Red Sox, for Jon Lester h/t @EliasSports,” MLB analyst Sarah Langs tweeted.
The Brewers are in 1st place. Josh Hader was an All-Star this year.
The last time a first-place team traded a player who had been an All-Star for them that year was 2014, when the 1st-place A's traded All-Star Yoenis Céspedes to the Red Sox, for Jon Lester
h/t @EliasSports
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) August 1, 2022
An Odd Decision, But That Doesn’t Mean The Trade Was Bad
Clearly, the decision to deal Hader, a known, consistent performer, was odd to say the least.
However, we can’t say they didn’t get talent from the Padres.
Ruiz has an extraordinary power-speed combo and could be a fixture in center field, Rogers is a very good lefty reliever, and Lamet has talent despite being injury-prone.
The Padres are going all-in with the trade, and there could be more moves on the horizon given the fact they retained star-level prospects such as CJ Abrams, Robert Hassell III, James Wood, MacKenzie Gore, and others.
As for the Brewers, they could sell catcher Omar Narvaez, too.
It was certainly surprising to see them trade Hader, who has a career 2.48 ERA and a boatload of strikeouts.
He was likely getting too expensive for them to retain after the 2023 campaign, so they decided to pull the trigger on a deal.
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