The Milwaukee Brewers left-handed setup man Will Smith is on his way to the Bay Area after the San Francisco Giants acquired him Monday afternoon. In exchange, the Brewers will receive the Giants No. 1 prospect, right-handed pitcher Phil Bickford and recent MLB Top-100 prospect catcher Andrew Susac.
Smith has a 3.68 earned run average and 22 strikeouts in 22 innings thus far this season after being sidelined in Spring Training with a lateral collateral ligament tear in his right knee. He is under team control through 2019 with arbitration eligibility.
Bickford was the Giants’ first round pick in the 2015 MLB June Amateur Draft out of the College of Southern Nevada. Before the trade was San Francisco’s number one overall prospect, 50th overall per Baseball America and 65th per MLB’s Prospect Pipeline. He has put together a solid season this year at the A-Plus level with a 2.73 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 33 innings.
Bickford has already been extremely promising throughout his two years of development in the minors, posting a 2.58 average, 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings, and an outstanding 1.006 walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP).
Susac has already poked his head into the majors in both 2014 and 2015, playing a total of 87 games with San Francisco and averaging .240/.309/.407 with six home runs and 33 runs batted in. At the Triple-A level this year with the Giants, he has put together a highly-productive season so far batting .273/.343/.455 with eight home runs and 36 RBI. Should Jonathan Lucroy get moved before the deadline hits, the Brewers will be in excellent standing at the position.
Smith isn’t the first closer or even setup man to go for this kind of price, as the Cleveland Indians unloaded a few top prospects of their own to acquire New York Yankees setup man Andrew Miller.
Jonathan Powell is the Brewers Staff Writer for Outside Pitch MLB. Follow me on Twitter @JP_OPSN.
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