Brewers add starting-pitching depth in trade for right-hander Garrett Stallings

BOSTON – To see the Milwaukee Brewers make a low-risk move to improve their starting pitching depth on Saturday was not surprising in the least.

They did so by acquiring right-hander Garrett Stallings from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for right-hander Thyago Vieira, who had been designated for assignment earlier in the week, and right-hander Aneuris Rodriguez, a 19-year-old who had been pitching in the Arizona Complex League.

Stallings, a 2019 fifth-round draft choice out of the University of Tennessee who turns 27 on Aug. 8, has yet to make his major-league debut. In 11 appearances (four starts) at Class AAA Norfolk, he was 0-1 with a 5.67 ERA and WHIP of 1.63. He also struck out 25 in 27 innings.

"He's starting depth for us," said assistant general manager Matt Kleine. "He was actually a guy that we had identified this past offseason who was Rule 5-eligible. He's a guy who can really just provide innings and spread length if a need arises."

Stallings also didn't need to be added to the 40-man roster, which is full at this point. He'll join the rotation at Class AAA Nashville once he reports.

In 88 career minor-league appearances (64 starts), Stallings was 27-23 with a 5.41 ERA and WHIP of 1.37. He also averaged just about a strikeout per inning (378 in 379 ⅓).

"A lot of sinker-slider-cutter-curveball," is how Kleine described Stallings's arsenal. "He's a five-pitch guy right now. Kitchen sink. Really, will just throw whatever he can to get the guy out. We still need some time to figure out how we want to use that and deploy it.

"But there's a lot to work with."

Vieira had flashed a 100-mph fastball with the Brewers but posted a 5.64 ERA and WHIP of 1.70 in 16 appearances (22 ⅓ innings) this season out of the bullpen.

As for the little-known Rodriguez, he has potential to be a quality pitcher down the line. But at his age and experience level, it was worth surrendering him to the Orioles for the chance to acquire a pitcher like Stallings who could conceivably help the Brewers at some point this season.

"It's a good arm," said Kleine. "It's another guy who our international group deserves a lot of credit for for finding. Our player development group has done a great job working with him, getting him to this point. But in order to get something, you always have to give up something, right?

"And in this case, that was a player that Baltimore identified and as we worked through our options, that just ended up being the best option for us at this time."

DL Hall's rehab assignment cut short

Left-hander DL Hall had his minor-league rehab assignment cut short when he caught one of his cleats on his left shoe on the mound at the end of his one-inning outing at Nashville earlier in the week.

He remains on the 15-day injured list as the Brewers determine next steps.

"He's going to be evaluated tomorrow in Milwaukee, and we'll go from there," said Kleine. "We have no indication that it's worse than (a tweak) right now. But we just want to be conservative, right? There's no sense in rushing through it or pushing through it at this point.

"Let's just take a breath, make sure we've got the medical information and whatever the medical information advises us to do (we'll do)."

The good news up to the tweak was Hall's fastball velocity had begun to return, with Hall hitting 95-96 mph with his fastball. The plan at this point is for Hall to pitch out of the bullpen once he's healthy enough to return to the Brewers.

"That's big," said Kleine. "Velo is the most important part of anybody's repertoire. That's credit to our coaches who have been working and credit to DL himself for putting in the work. So, we'll get the knee checked out, make sure everything's all right and then once we get to the point of being comfortable and getting him back out on rehab assignment, he'll be working himself right back into the mix (with the Brewers)."

Joey Wiemer, Brewers seeking production

Prior to Sunday's game, the Brewers recalled infielder Oliver Dunn from Nashville and optioned outfielder Joey Wiemer out in the corresponding move.

Wiemer, who had been serving as bench depth, is hitting just .154 with an OPS of .339 in 19 games with Milwaukee. He made a series of dramatic changes to his setup at the plate in the offseason that haven't taken hold to this point.

"It's really just an opportunity to go out and play," Kleine said. "I mean, not dissimilar from what we just did with (Dunn) before bringing him back. It's hard to make adjustments at this level when you're playing one or two days a week. So, this is an opportunity for Joey to go down, reset and just get a string of at-bats.

"Hopefully he gets a foundation to get back here."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers add pitching depth in trade for right-hander Garrett Stallings