SEATTLE -- Baseball’s Trade Deadline arrives a week from Thursday, and if history is a guide, then GM Matt Arnold, MLB’s reigning Executive of the Year, will find a way to add to the team without mortgaging too much of the future or disrupting the delicate chemistry that has helped the Brewers contend year after year.
It sounds easy. Would Eugenio Suárez, the slugging D-backs third baseman, look good on the left side of the Brewers’ infield? He probably would. But then they play like they did on Wednesday at T-Mobile Park, where a 17-hit, 10-2 win over the Mariners sealed Milwaukee’s fifth consecutive series victory and seeded the possibility of a new winning streak, just one day after the Brewers’ 11-game spree came to an end in a 1-0 loss.
They won the way they have won so regularly this season, with a little something from so many of those capitalizing on playing in a market that Brewers manager Pat Murphy affectionately calls “the land of opportunity.” Fourteen of the Brewers’ 17 hits were singles. For the seventh time this season and the third time in their past five games, every Brewers starter recorded a hit. Ten of the hits came over the first five innings against longtime foe Luis Castillo.
“They were woodpeckers against a good pitcher,” Murphy said.
Murphy wants them to keep pecking away instead of thinking about what changes the Trade Deadline could bring.
“You can’t let it get in there,” Murphy said. “I’ll answer questions, I’ll openly talk about different things that they’re discussing, but that’s their job in the front office, and they do a great job of it. I’m just worried about this group in the clubhouse right now and what’s going on with them, and I don’t want them looking over their shoulder. …
"These guys, you can plan on them responding. That’s the ‘who.’ When you put together these clubs, we’re conscious of the ‘who.’”
Consider some of the players who pecked away in the series finale:
• Isaac Collins, who came to the Brewers as a Minor League Rule 5 Draft pick in 2022, finally cracked an MLB Pipeline Top 30 prospect list as a 27-year-old this spring before former first-round Draft pick Garrett Mitchell’s multiple injuries shifted young star Jackson Chourio to center field and opened up left for Collins. He’s capitalized to the tune of a .764 OPS with days like Wednesday, when Collins was on base three times and scored twice, including the go-ahead run in the fourth inning by a fingertip, when a close play at home plate extended a three-run rally.
• Tyler Black, whose prospect status was already sliding before a broken bone in his hand set him further back at the end of Spring Training. He was called up Sunday when first baseman Jake Bauers landed on the injured list, made his 2025 debut as a pinch-hitter on Tuesday and made his first start count on Wednesday by tallying two hits, including a run-scoring single.
• Quinn Priester, the twice-traded former first-round Draft pick acquired from Boston’s Triple-A affiliate in April at a time the Brewers were desperate for healthy starting pitching. Priester didn’t just plug a hole; he’s thrived, delivering seven more quality innings on Wednesday to win his eighth consecutive decision.
“Just get our guys back in the dugout, that’s my goal,” said Priester, who is 9-2 with a 3.28 ERA with the Brewers. “We’ve been on a hot streak, and it’s so hard to sustain that, right? That’s part of why it’s so hard to be in the big leagues and win games here.”
The Brewers also got three hits apiece and five total RBIs from mainstays Brice Turang and William Contreras while pushing back to 20 games over .500 with the rival Cubs looming on the next homestand. The day after that series ends, the Trade Deadline arrives at 5 p.m. CT on July 31.
2025 MLB Trade Deadline: July 31, 6 p.m. ET
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If the Brewers pick up any players, they’ll try to treat them as well as they did Priester.
“In other places, maybe I left the clubhouse earlier than I would leave the clubhouse here,” Priester said. “Maybe I didn’t even know that was a thing, and then I saw I was the only guy changing. So I wanted to fit in.”
From the neighboring locker, another pitcher whose career took a turn for the better in Milwaukee chimed in.
“He didn’t have a car, so he needed a ride,” reliever Jared Koenig said.
But seriously, moving in the middle of a season can be hard. First baseman Andrew Vaughn wasn’t sure what to expect when he came over from the White Sox, the only organization he’d known, in a June swap for pitcher Aaron Civale. But Vaughn was so comfortable that he delivered 12 RBIs in his first 24 Brewers plate appearances.
“You’re basically joining a new family,” Vaughn said. “You’re trying to fit in any way possible. This group, everybody is pulling from the same rope. That’s special. It’s hard to beat that.”
“It was super positive, like, ‘We want you here,’” Priester said. “It’s almost overwhelming, the amount of belief.”