The Milwaukee Brewers made a huge trade on Friday, sending two-time All-Star Devin Williams to New York Yankees. While many speculated that Williams would be traded in the offseason due to the upcoming free agency in 2025, it is engaging that the main player they received in return, left-handed starting pitcher Nestor Cortes, will also be a free agent in 2025.
Additionally, both players will earn roughly the same amount until arbitration.
This tells fans that Milwaukee certainly wants to win now and didn’t simply cut Williams’ salary for 2025. Instead, they showed faith in their deep bullpen, led by Trevor Megill, who had 21 saves and an ERA of 2 in 2024. 72. By moving Williams, they gained starting rotation depth in Cortes, who made 30 starts last year.
Only Freddy Peralta scored more than 30 points for Milwaukee last season.
The Milwaukee Brewers also signed reliever Caleb Durbin
In addition to Cortes (and $4.5 million in cash), Milwaukee also received intriguing minor league prospect Caleb Durbin. More recently, Durbin set the single-season Arizona Fall League stolen base record, taking home 29 sacks in just 24 games while hitting .312/.427/.548 with five home runs and 21 RBI. He also walked 17 times compared to just six strikeouts.
In fact, walking more than striking out was somewhat of a hallmark of Durbin’s in the minors. The infielder, who plays second and third base, has never had more strikeouts than walks in any season of his professional career. The closest he came to reaching 50 was in 2022, his first season in the New York Yankees organization.
In 2023, he played in 69 games and walked 26 times compared to 18 strikeouts. He played 90 games across three levels of minor leagues last season, but the extensive majority of them came in the Triple-A league (82 games). He drew 53 walks and 40 hits while hitting .275/.388/.451 with 10 home runs, 60 RBI and 31 stolen bases.
Caleb Durbin, the modern Milwaukee Brewers shortstop, is no stranger to Wisconsin
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As many fans know, several Wisconsin cities have baseball teams Northwoods Leaguean independent baseball league where college students and semi-professional players can spend their summers competing in a professional atmosphere.
There are several Northwoods League teams in the state, including the Lakeshore Chinooks, Madison Mallards (the team on which New York Mets star Pete Alonso played), and the Fon du Lac Dock Spiders.
During the summers of 2020 and 2021, Durbin was a member of the Doc Spiders. He doesn’t play a lot of games in the league, but in 14 games played in 2020, he had a home run slash of .316/.391/.368 and 12 RBI (and eight walks compared to four strikeouts).
In 2021, playing in 20 games, Durbin hit .302/.361/.359 with 10 RBI and seven stolen bases (four walks compared to three strikeouts).
Before his summer in Wisconsin, he played for the Rockford (Illinois) Rivets in the Northwoods League in 2019.
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