Brewers To Acquire Drew Pomeranz, Ray Black

1:27pm: ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets that hard-throwing righty Ray Black will also go to Milwaukee.

1:25pm: Lefty Drew Pomeranz is one player headed to the Brewers in the swap, tweets Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. If the Brewers are parting with a prospect of Dubon’s caliber, there’ll surely be other names in play.

1:23pm: The Brewers ad Giants are in agreement on a “significant” trade, reports Robert Murray of The Athletic (via Twitter). The big league players involved in the swap remain unknown, but well-regarded second base prospect Mauricio Dubon is headed from Milwaukee to San Francisco as part of the exchange. Madison Bumgarner is *not* going to Milwaukee, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman.

In Dubon, the Giants will acquire a Major League-ready 25-year-old who can step directly onto the roster. Dubon’s 2018 season was cut short by a torn ACL, but he’s returned to bat .297/.333/.475 with 16 home runs, 22 doubles, a triple and nine steals in the hitter-friendly Triple-A Pacific Coast League. He’ll face a much more daunting offensive environment in the big leagues when he plays his home games at the cavernous Oracle Park in San Francisco.

Scouting reports on Dubon peg him as a hit-over-power prospect, and the move to Oracle Park doesn’t figure to do his power numbers any favor. But he’s never batted lower than .274 in a full minor league season, and he’s maintained strikeout rates south of 15 percent on a year-over-year basis. Dubon doesn’t walk much, but his knack for putting the ball in play should help his on-base skills in the big leagues. He’s considered capable of playing an average or better second base even after last year’s knee injury.

The veteran Pomeranz is the more well-known of the two arms being acquired by the Brewers, but he seems like a secondary piece in this swap. Pomeranz had an awful year in the Giants’ rotation but has garnered some attention following a (very) recent shift to the bullpen. In four relief outings, he’s tossed 5 1/3 shutout frames with just one hit and one walk allowed against eight strikeouts. The lefty has ample experience in the rotation and could return to that role if the Brewers feel he’s a mechanical adjustment or pitch-selection alteration away from returning to hi 2017 form, but his recent success in a return to the bullpen is more intriguing.

Black is already 29 years old but is the more appealing piece for Milwaukee. Durability has been an issue for the right-hander, but if he’s healthy he’ll be among the hardest-throwing pitchers in Major League Baseball. Black has averaged 99.1 mph on his heater in a tiny sample this season and regularly hits triple digits with a fastball that draws 80 grades on some scouting reports. Black has averaged nearly 17 strikeouts per nine innings pitched in his minor league career and might not even finish the season with a full year of MLB service, meaning he can be controlled through 2025.