12:20pm: The Dodgers have announced the deal, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, with the Brewers sending lefty Justin Chambers and a player to be named later in return. Chambers is just 18 years old, having been selected in the 20th round of the 2023 draft. He didn’t make an appearance in affiliated ball after that draft selection.
12:05pm: The Brewers are acquiring left-hander Bryan Hudson from the Dodgers, according to Robert Murray of FanSided. The lefty was designated for assignment two weeks ago. DFA limbo is normally capped at one week but that clock is paused for the week between Christmas and New Year’s. It’s unclear what the Dodgers are receiving in exchange. Milwaukee’s 40-man roster count is up to 39.
Hudson, 27 in May, made his major league debut last year with 8 2/3 innings for the Dodgers. He allowed seven earned runs in that time, leading to an unsightly 7.27 ERA, though that’s obviously a miniscule sample size. He spent most of the season in Triple-A, tossing 55 2/3 innings with 2.43 ERA. He struck out 35.7% of batters faced while giving out walks at a 10.8% clip and keeping 46.7% of balls in play on the ground.
Grounders have consistently been a part of his game, going all the way back to his Rookie ball days. Those strikeouts are a fairly new development, however, having shot up in the past two years. He also struck out 29.7% of batters faced in 2022, splitting his time between Double-A and Triple-A while in the Cubs organization.
The ability to both strike hitters out and keep the ball on the ground when they do make contact is enticing and appears to have caught the attention of the Brewers. Hudson still has a couple of option years remaining, so he can serve as a depth piece for the bullpen in Milwaukee. Their southpaw relief corps is currently headlined by Hoby Milner, with Ethan Small and Clayton Andrews also on the roster, though Hudson will now jump into that group as well.
Good move
He’s a big boy 6’ 8” tall who can strike out a lot of batters but he’s a bit on the wild side. Not a bad chance to take by the Brewers.
Nice velocity!
Sounded like it….
Jesus!
How much?
96.
We better teach this kid some control before he kills somebody.
It’s incredibly difficult for really tall pitchers (6’8″) to repeat their mechanics consistently.
That being said, he’ll likely always be a bit wild, but there is such a thing as being effectively wild.
Sometimes a pitcher’s stuff is so good, it’ll regularly dive in and out of the strike zone causing batters to swing and miss.
I think a big key for Hudson moving forward will be getting ahead in the count and throwing first pitch strikes.
Obviously, that’s the case for most pitchers, but it is going to be especially crucial for a pitcher with Hudson’s profile.
It’ll force hitters to swing at closer pitches if they’re behind in the count, and they won’t be able to afford to just spit on balls that are rising or diving out of the zone.
Quality depth piece with some tantalizing stuff. If they can get Hudson to focus on repeating his mechanics and especially his landing spot consistently then they’ll likely get a solid contributor for years to come. If not, he’ll just be a middle relief option that can at times look absolutely dominant, but will have other appearances where he regularly struggles with walks.
Something is Brewing….
Seems pretty clear the unknowns with TV broadcasts are raising the pucker factor for front offices across the league. A lot of teams just standing pat and playing along the margins the way it looks. Yikes
Nice to get something from Los Karens
OK Richard rider
I wonder if the San francisKarens tried to get him.
When there’s a trade for a waiver-claim guy, it’s usually because there was already a claim in place.
I’d bet good money that a certain NL West opponent had a claim on Hudson and the Dodgers wanted to keep him away from them.
Yes I am sure the Dodgers would hate to face him and his 7. ERA
Storm
“Yes I am sure the Dodgers would hate to face him and his 7. ERA”
Imagine knowing so little about contemporary baseball that you think teams think like this
Ok how about his terrible WHIP?
vtadave
“Ok how about his terrible WHIP?”
Maybe the Rockies
No one else
Try again. It was my observation. You skipped reading comprehension class?
Re Storm
Muted
Brewers are 25th in order last I knew. Every other NL West team could of had him over them. Heck, my Cardinals could of had him it seems, and he’s basically from The Lou. twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1696648993944805464
Ummmmm, absolutely not.
The Dodgers had a week to….
1. trade
2. release
or 3. run Hudson through waivers.
They cannot and did not “Run him through waivers, then pull him off of waivers because reasons”.. They asked around, and took the best offer.
Just when I thought the brewers front office was asleep at the wheel Arnold pulls a blockbuster
I was sad to see Hudson go until I found out this one was named Bryan, not Daniel lol
Bonus pool money for Sasaki baby, woo hoo!!!
I feel as though all of these recent deals where the financials are unknown or the return of a trade is unclear are resulting from a highly inactive offseason, and an attempt for reporters to get news out before they have all the details.
To me, it’s the equivalent of writing “first” in a comment section and quite annoying. I don’t see this trend of news reporting ending.
It happens every year, and around this time of year. too, but usually because January is when signings and trades slow down.
With a lot to still happen this offseason, media is getting desperate for viewership, hence the headlines without substance for a few hours (or days in the case of Zach Plesac).
I see what you mean, but I’d rather know a deal is happening, without some details, than wait hours for the whole scoop.
That’s fair. I enjoy that with high profile Free Agents or Trades. I don’t mind if it was Blake Snell signing or a trade for someone like Corbin Burnes, but I find it more annoying for lower profile moves, although usually it doesn’t take that long for the details to come out, as was the case for Hudson here.
But there are still some signings left unresolved, like Zach Plesac to the Angels, although I’m sure there’s stuff they all need to go through before making it official.
I come from an age where the scoop came from TV news sports segments and next days’ newspaper sports sections. All t’s crossed and i’s dotted and physicals passed. Lol. Slow-drip is not my cup of coffee.
I don’t mind this so much. It’s the Arson Judge to the Giants / Shohei Otani to sign with the Blue Jays business that I find appalling. Dodgers Nation didn’t even acknowledge that their reporting was wrong, which was even more reprehensible in my opinion.
I agree. I don’t mind anticipation from a player narrowing down potential teams, but it’s annoying when the reports are straight up wrong.
For Burnes right?
And Brewers throw in 5 mil to offset his salary- LOL.
+ Adames, PTBNL, and cash. jury is still out on who won this trade
Wow!! Another big offseason move nobody cares about. Geeeeeezzz .. What’s with all the holdouts this year? Ohtani apologized for taking a couple months to sign, for what?
Crazy how fast they’ve moved on from Braun.
Who?
He was an outfielder.
Tall lefty w/ options left and very good K rates and GB rates…seems like a lot of teams could use him. Interesting the Dodgers had to move him…
No room for minor leaguers in the Dodgers rotation or pen for guys who haven’t proven they get batters out in the majors. By August and September when they have 10 to 15 players on the DL they might find they wish they’d kept him. After he works well in the Brewers pen of course.
Now just please get rid of Andrews!
second this. he gets one inning from me before he is a career minor leaguer
The situation with Chambers seems kind of odd. Why was he drafted and not assigned to a team, even at the instructional level?
He is coming off TJ. 20th round pick but got $550K to sign. Brewers’ 6th highest paid pick.
He is an interesting prospect and I don’t like seeing him go (I’m a Brewer fan)..
Good info, thanks!
Now that the Brewers have HUDSON,
Can a signing of LANDRY be not too far behind?
The beer counters at the stadium
Can then be renamed,
AJAX LIQUOR STORE !!
Kudos for that reference – I’ll admit I had to look that one up but it was worth it.
Watch Chambers become an All-Star in a few years. Darn Doyers!
The context is two teams very good at developing pitching. Hudson was roster crunch issue. But some intriguing peripherals. Chambers is obviously an intriguing arm himself – 20th rounder paid as 4th rounder – which says he was not expected to sign or he would have been drafted much higher. But he’s so young and odds are always against these guys making the majors. Seems like the trade came down to timelines and Hudson being more of a sure major leaguer.
Really dig those GB rates…