Rangers Trade Reliever to Brewers

Texas completes its first deal close before the MLB trade deadline, as other American League West rivals made trades as well.

The Texas Rangers have finally made a trade, reportedly sending relief pitcher Matt Bush to the Milwaukee Brewers for infielder Mark Mathias.

Fansided was the first to report the deal. The Rangers made an official announcement shortly after the deal was reported. 

Also included in the deal was the Brewers' No. 18 prospect, left-handed pitcher Antoine Kelly. Rangers president Jon Daniels said that Kelly would be assigned to Double-A Frisco and that Mathias would be assigned to Triple-A Round Rock. 

"Milwaukee has been looking for bullpen help,” Rangers president Jon Daniels said. “We feel it’s an area of some depth for us. Our bullpen has struggled a bit the past couple of weeks. I felt we had some depth at Triple-A and some guys we would like to see. We wanted to make good deals and replace them with quality from within. This made the most sense.”

Bush did not pitch in Monday’s 7-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

Bush, 36, was the No. 1 overall pick of the San Diego Padres in 2004. But due to off-the-field issues, he never made it to the Majors until he broke in with the Rangers in 2016.

He ended up carving out a role as a reliever with the Rangers, pitching for them from 2016-18 and again in 2021-22. For his career, he has a 12-7 record with a 3.36 ERA and 186 strikeouts. Lately, he was used as an opener for starter Taylor Hearn, who is now at Triple-A Round Rock.

Bush threw in 40 games this season, going 2-1 with a 2.95 ERA.

Mathias is a 28-year-old infielder who was drafted in the third round in 2015 by Cleveland. He later ended up in Milwaukee, where he finally broke in during the 2020 season. He has 52 career at-bats, with a slash of .231/.226/.346/.572 with one home run and eight RBI.

The trade deadline is Tuesday.

There were several notable deals on Monday, one of which impacted Monday’s game in Arlington.

The Orioles traded slugger Trey Mancini to the Houston Astros, part of a three-team traded that ultimately saw the Tampa Bay Rays get Houston’s Jose Siri.

Mancini is batting .268/.347/.404/.751 with 10 home runs and 41 RBI this season. He had a mutual option with the Orioles after this season for $10 million. Mancini missed all of the 2020 season as he was fighting colon cancer.

The New York Yankees sent four prospects to the Oakland Athletics for starting pitcher Frankie Montas and reliever Lou Trivino.

The Athletics received left-handed pitcher Ken Waldichuk (No. 5 Yankees prospect per MLB.com), right-handed pitcher Luis Medina (No. 10), left-handed pitcher J.P. Sears (No. 20) and second baseman Cooper Bowman (No. 21).

Montas is just 4-9 this season, but he has a 3.18 ERA and 109 strikeouts in 104 innings pitched. He also has a 3.89 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Trivino is 1-6 with a 6.47 ERA this season. But he has a great strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.21) and has a career-high 12.7 strikeouts per nine innings pitched.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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