In the aftermath of the news that Tarik Skubal was on the move at the trade deadline, widespread questions rang out about why the Milwaukee Brewers would not match the Los Angeles Dodgers’ offer for the Detroit Tigers ace.
Back home two days later, Pat Murphy wanted to address that narrative.
The Brewers, he said, not only did make a heavy push for Skubal but the Tigers’ decision did not ultimately boil down simply to which trade package was best.
“The initial reaction was that it was kind of us against the Dodgers for Skubal. I don’t believe that for one minute,” Murphy said. “Meaning, I’m not saying – I know we went after it trying to get that player. I don’t know exactly the details of it all but I know this: It isn’t as simple as ‘That’s a better package.’ It’s not as simple as that. There’s a lot more, a lot more layers to it.”
The Brewers entered the deadline with the best record in baseball, with the Dodgers right behind them.
There was chatter across the industry in the aftermath of the Skubal to Dodgers trade – which brought back prospects Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith – wondering why teams like the Brewers wouldn’t make a harder push to keep the left-hander from their biggest competition in the National League.
The timing of the trade, which came two days before the deadline, caught the attention of some, including in Milwaukee.
The Brewers, the Journal Sentinel was told from multiple sources around the league, made a strong push. One executive for a different team indicated the Brewers were willing to, in his eyes, give up more in aggregate than Los Angeles while also taking on the contract.
Murphy confirmed as much in his pregame press conference.
“This is a bigger situation than, ‘Oh, that was a better [package]. To say that the Brewers didn’t try is simply incorrect…I know Tarik a little bit. I respect the hell out of him. I know that we worked hard on the deal. I know that.”
President of baseball operations Matt Arnold, along the lines of his standard policy, didn’t comment specifically about Skubal. But his tone of words strongly hinted at the Brewers’ involvement.
“We were in a lot of things,” Arnold said in his opening answer to reporters about the deadline at large. “We did what we can to help the team. When you’re in a lot of stuff, there’s some things where you come up short. You just got to pick yourself up and dust yourself off to get the next thing. I think we were able to accomplish some things over the last 48 hours to help the team.”
What happened with roughly 48 hours to go until the deadline? Skubal to the Dodgers.
“I’m not going to talk about specific guys,” Arnold said. “Obviously we were in on a lot of different things. If you’re able to access what you can, you get it. If not you move on.”
The Brewers’ efforts in attempting to procure Skubal were a far cry from their usual method of operation, which is rational and patient. Details have not emerged about what the club’s final offer was willing to be, although Logan Henderson and Luis Pena are considered to be the biggest names Detroit would have coveted.
“We were prepared to push a lot of chips in,” Arnold said.
Instead, Milwaukee pivoted and added Dustin May to its starting rotation and relievers JoJo Romero and Antonio Senzatela to the bullpen before all was said and done.
May and Senzatela could join the active roster as soon as Aug. 4 while Romero, recovering from a removed appendix in July, is expected back to game action in a couple of weeks.
“You can never have enough pitching,” Arnold said. “The guys we got are battle-tested, experienced guys. Dustin May, JoJo Romero and Antonio Senzatela, these guys have pitched in some big games and they’re tough. They’re experienced and I think they’re going to fit in really well.”
May is the prize of the group, an arm whose pure stuff, under-the-radar numbers and fit with the Brewers defense suggest he may have actually been one of the top impact arms dealt.
May this past off-season made a grip adjustment with his two-seam fastball and now throws a seam-shifted sinker. After the pitch pummeled to the tune of a .567 slugging percentage a year ago, it’s down to .352 this year. It’s generating the same vertical movement despite May raising his arm angle significantly, which makes the ball appear that it’s sinking more than at his previous slot.
May, who’s also seen a velocity spike and is averaging 96.7 mph with the fastball, has a FIP a whole run lower than his ERA. Since getting roughed up in his first two starts of the season, May is seventh in FIP among MLB starters, trailing six all-stars (including league-leader Jacob Misiorowski).
“Stuff is really, really electric,” Arnold said. “You saw what he did against us a couple weeks ago. He’s really really good. A guy we’re happy to have on our side.”
May didn’t come cheap, either, costing the Brewers two of the prospects with the most helium in the system in Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale. Both breakout prospects with eye-popping contact quality numbers this year, Arnold said the willingness to include players of that potential indicated a more aggressive approach than years past.
“I think certainly we were open to it,” Arnold said. “We wanted to do what we could do to help the team and that means probably less guys off limits. We talked about so many combinations to help the group.”
How crazy, exactly?
“We certainly talked about doing some irresponsible stuff,” Arnold said.
Whether the Brewers tried hard enough or not, the reality isn’t changed: They still missed out on the top rental pitcher available in some time at the deadline.
Missing out on Skubal, Murphy admitted, impacted the clubhouse, even if the team was able to pivot before the bell rang.
“This has affected us already,” he said. “It’s already affected the team. That’s a reality. I don’t think it’s helping. We can’t try to pretend it’s not there. We can’t lie to the players. That being said, we got to respond to it.”
The implication from Murphy was that effect was not a positive one. But could that change along a motivational line toward the Dodgers as the year goes on?
“Does it force you to sharpen your sword a little bit?” Murphy said. “Yeah. If that creates a better edge, so be it. It’s still not going to make it easy if we play a series against the Dodgers. I’m sure they think they got a little better this week. They probably did. I think by the end of today we’ll have gotten better.
“But if anything else, maybe this whole time of year helps us start to refocus. OK, who are we and how do we get here? We created this. Where do we go?”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: After making it clear they made hard Skubal push, Brewers pivot for deadline pitching
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
