Brewers Keep Adding Bats, Acquire Granderson

Image credit: Curtis Granderson (Photo by Cliff Welch)

In an era when only the top free agents are going to garner any draft compensation, the trade deadline often resembles the day after Christmas at a department store, with great bargains available for veteran players as teams eliminated from playoff contention look to move them.

Arguably no team has taken more advantage of this than the Brewers, who have added Mike Moustakas, Jonathan Schoop, Joakim Soria, Gio Gonzalez and Curtis Granderson—all at a quite modest cost in prospects. 

BREWERS ACQUIRE:

Curtis Granderson, OF
Age: 37

He’s not the player he once was, but Granderson still has the ability to hit righthanders (.250/.345/.443 this season) that makes him a useful bench bat for the Brewers. Milwaukee doesn’t need him to play regularly, as it has a solid outfield of Ryan Braun, Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich. But adding Granderson to a bench that includes Eric Thames and whichever of Travis Shaw, Mike Moustakas and Jonathan Schoop is not starting that night gives the Brewers one of the deepest arsenals of bench bats in baseball.

BLUE JAYS ACQUIRE:

Demi Orimoloye, OF
Age: 21

The Blue Jays are bringing Orimoloye home to Canada. He was one of the top draft prospects to come out Canada in the 2015 draft. If he makes it to the majors, he will also become the first Nigerian-born player to reach the big leagues—his family moved to Canada when he was 10 months old. Orimoloye has a long ways to go to reach that goal. He has excellent tools with plus speed, plus power and an above-average arm. But that power doesn’t play in games as he is often overmatched at the plate. Orimoloye is on a slow track, but his tools and his ability to play all three outfield positions gives him an outside shot to put it all together. Orimoloye was hitting .247/.322/.391 between low Class A Wisconsin and high Class A Carolina this season.