On May 21, 2021, the Brewers traded the Rays for shortstop Willy Adames. It’s rare for trades of that caliber to happen in May but the Brewers went after what they wanted. They saw something special in Adames, who had been slumping with the Rays previously. With top prospect Wander Franco expected to be called up by the Rays, the Brewers made the call and agreed to a trade that sent relief pitchers J.P. Feyereisen and Drew Rasmussen to the Rays in exchange for Adames and Trevor Richards.
When the deal was made, Adames was hitting .197/.254/.371 through 142 plate appearances but the Brewers looked at his career numbers which were .262/.329/.426. Last year, he slugged eight home runs in a shortened season and knocked a career high 20 dingers in 2019. But the big question mark surrounding Adames was his strikeouts.
He’s always been a boom or bust kind of guy. If he made contact, the ball would be hard. If he didn’t make contact, he’d be walking back to the bench. But despite his hitting slumps, he’s always been a great fielder. When he came over to Milwaukee, he was an above average fielder and had 12 defensive runs saved over the last three seasons with the Rays.
The Brewers knew Adames had two-plus years of big league service time. This means the Brewers can control Adames all the way through 2024 via arbitration. For the Brewers, Adames is hitting .289 with double the runs batted in compared to his time in Tampa Bay. Adames had 15 runs batted in with 132 at-bats in Tampa and now has 30 runs batted in with 159 at-bats with Milwaukee.
He’s already knocked nine home runs for the Brewers with 14 doubles all while limiting strikeouts and walking more. Adames had 51 strikeouts in 132 at-bats in Tampa. In Milwaukee, he’s struck out less with 44 strikeouts in 159 at-bats. So he’s had less strikeouts with 27 more at-bats. On top of all that, the Brewers started winning. When the Brewers constructed the trade with the Rays, the Brewers were just 21-23 on the season.
They’re now 52-36 since acquiring Adames. On the flip side, J.P. Feyereisen and Drew Rasmussen are having a hard time in Tampa. While Feyereisen has a 2.39 ERA, he’s still allowed 22 walks in 37.2 innings along with three blown saves. Drew Rasmussen has a 5.32 ERA and has allowed 17 runs and 21 hits in 23.2 innings for the Rays. Both pitchers are walking north of five batters per nine innings and Rasmussen has really struggled holding runners on base.
Neither pitcher is getting a high number of grounders and Feyereisen, despite a low ERA, has an XFIP of 4.86. His time to collapse is coming. Through the first half of the season, it’s safe to say that the Brewers struck gold with Adames. But the reality was that the Rays had prospects they were going to call up and had to move Adames anyway.
Both teams are going to be happy with this trade at the end of the day but the Brewers found that missing piece early on in the season. That could’ve saved their season to be quite frank. Still, the Rays are 51-36 and usually overwork their bullpen. It’s expected that some of those relief pitchers have bad outings. The Rays love using their arms and sometimes it’s too much. Either way, both of those relief pitchers have potential and can be huge depth pieces in the playoffs.