REPORT: Brewers expected to "eye additions" as trade deadline approaches – WAOW

MILWAUKEE (WAOW) -

Could the Brewers be "buyers" at the trade deadline? According to MLB.com, that possibility is looking more and more likely.

With the Crew eight games above .500 and holding a 4.5 game lead over the Cubs in the National League Central, Brewers general manager David Stearns is currently "monitoring the market" to make a possible addition to the club's pitching staff, according to national columnist Jon Paul Morosi.

Morosi indicates the Brewers are interested in trading for either Sonny Gray of the Oakland A's or Jose Quintana, a lefty from the Chicago White Sox. Both players are having down years in 2017 after achieving successthrough the early part of the decade.

But why would the Brewers, a team in the midst of one of the biggest rebuilds in baseball, mortgage their future to make a run in 2017? Stearns' experience as an assistant GM in Houston could play a big role.

The Astros' 2015 season is strikingly similar to that of the Brewers in 2017: Going through a rebuilding process, Houston overachieved in 2015 and put itself in position to make a big moveat the trade deadline before striking a deal that Brewers fans should remember well: GM Jeff Luhnow, along with his second-in-command Stearns, sentprospects Domingo Santana, Josh Hader and Brett Phillips to Milwaukee in exchange for Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers.

The Astros wound up making the playoffs as a Wild Card before losing to the eventual champion Royals in the Divisional Round.

Gomez flamed out before eventually being released while Fiers has established himself as a key member of Houston's pitching rotation. Meanwhile, Santana and Hader have panned out to become key players on this year's resurgent Brewers team, and Phillips is considered one of the organization's top prospects.

Despite giving all of that up, the Astros rebuild has worked out wonderfully: they're currently the best team in baseball, nine games better than any other team in the American League and on pace for a franchise-record 109 wins. Their goals have gone from Wild Card to World Series in just two years.

The lesson here is this: Even if a rebuilding team gambles and makes a trade, the rebuild can still continue. Stearns no doubt will keep this experience at the front of his mind as the July trade deadline fast approaches.

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REPORT: Brewers expected to "eye additions" as trade deadline approaches - WAOW