Brewers trade top prospect Yophery Rodriguez for former first-round pick Quinn Priester

On Sunday night, the Brewers optioned pitcher Grant Wolfram back to Triple-A Nashville, who had been brought up that morning to serve as an extra arm in the wake of the Nestor Cortes injury, without adding a 26th man to the roster.

We now know why.

Yophery Rodriguez, Milwaukee’s No. 7 prospect, might be really good. He’s a 19-year-old outfielder who has all the tools and is currently hitting .417 at Single-A. He’s also a long way from the big leagues. The Brewers desperately need starting pitching help and already have a glut of young, talented outfield prospects.

Losing Rodriguez isn’t ideal, but right-handed pitcher Quinn Priester gives Brewers fans something to be excited about this season. Priester ranked No. 60 on MLB Pipeline’s list of baseball’s top prospects as recently as 2023. He was the No. 18 overall pick back in 2018 by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who traded him to the Red Sox last July in exchange for Nick Yorke. Priester, who debuted a sinker at the start of last year, pitched very well as a member of the Red Sox. He now finds himself a member of an organization known for successful pitching reclamation projects.

And Priester does indeed scream successful reclamation project. He’s still only 24 and has two pitches that regularly impress — the sinker and a slider. Priester also throws a changeup, curveball, and four-seam at almost an equal rate — 15%. He has good stuff but has gotten mostly bad results the last few seasons, especially in the big leagues (career 6.23 ERA). The Brewers are desperate for starting pitching right now, so the organization must think they can fix him — and quickly. We should see him start a game in a Brewers uniform within the next week. He’s started just one game at Boston’s Triple-A affiliate after losing a spring training battle with veteran Sean Newcomb.

The rest of the deal includes a competitive balance pick in this year’s draft and a player to be named later. Wolfram was also designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster.

Speaking of, I want to pour one out for Wolfram. Brought up to the majors Sunday morning, he was sent back down without getting the opportunity to make his major league debut and now finds himself off the 40-man roster. After looking at potentially making his big-league debut 24 hours ago, he now has to face the indignity of being cut by a team who could field two different starting rotations using just their IL. He’s pitched well the last couple of seasons, so hopefully he’ll catch on somewhere.