10:15am: The Brewers are also acquiring left-hander Colton Gordon in the deal, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. His inclusion gives Milwaukee a controllable 27-year-old lefty who’s already made his big league debut but has yet to see his strong Triple-A production carry over to the big leagues.
10:05am: McCullers has agreed to waive his no-trade clause and has been informed he is being traded to the Brewers, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports that the Astros will indeed pay down a portion of what’s remaining on the contract.
9:52am: The Brewers and Astros are finalizing a trade that will send righty Lance McCullers Jr. from Houston to Milwaukee, reports Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. He’ll need to waive a no-trade clause to make the deal happen, but that’s likely already taken place if things are indeed in the process of being finalized.
It’s a surprising and out-of-the-blue deal. McCullers hasn’t pitched since May 13 due to a shoulder injury and hasn’t been effective when healthy. He went on a minor league rehab stint on June 25 and has made three solid appearances thus far.
This is surely a salary-motivated move for Houston. McCullers is being paid $17MM in the final season of a five-year, $85MM contract, but he hasn’t pitched well since the 2022 season. McCullers missed all of 2023-24 due to a flexor tear that required surgery, and he’s posted a 6.65 ERA in 94 2/3 innings dating back to last season. If the Brewers are willing to take on even a small portion of the approximate $6.672MM on McCullers’ contract, that’d free up some more resources for the ‘Stros as they gear up to make some additions ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
The Brewers, of course, have a reputation as one of the better pitching development organizations in the industry. Milwaukee’s “pitch lab” has helped engineer turnarounds and/or breakouts for hurlers like Quinn Priester, Kyle Harrison, Tobias Myers, Trevor Megill, Joel Payamps, Bryan Hudson and Bryse Wilson upon acquiring them in recent years. They’ll hope to add McCullers to that list of success stories, though the six years of control over Gordon they’re picking up is the more appealing end of the deal for them.
More to come.
