Crew deals Houser, Taylor to Mets for pitching prospect

MILWAUKEE – The Brewers trimmed their list of arbitration-eligible players by two in a trade with the Mets on Wednesday, sending two of Milwaukee’s longest-tenured players – right-hander Adrian Houser and outfielder Tyrone Taylor – to New York in exchange for pitching prospect Coleman Crow.

Crow, a six-foot right-hander who turns 23 next week and is regarded more for pitchability than power, is in the middle of a comeback from Tommy John surgery in July, which was performed shortly after the Angels traded him and another prospect to the Mets for Eduardo Escobar.

Crow ranked 29th on MLB Pipeline’s list of the Mets’ Top 30 prospects. He joined the Brewers’ Top 30 at No. 25.

“He can really spin a breaking ball,” said Brewers GM Matt Arnold, who praised Crow’s athleticism and “bulldog” mentality. “He has a lot of ingredients to have a chance to be a really productive Major League starter, and those are very hard to find.”

Born and raised in Georgia, Crow was a 28th-round Draft pick of the Angels out of high school in 2019 who received fifth-round money to sign. Crow parlayed a terrific Arizona Fall League in ‘21 into an aggressive assignment to Double-A in 2022 in his age-21 season, when he led the Southern League in innings and ranked second in strikeouts. He was back at that level and off to a solid start in ‘23 – 2-0 with a 1.88 ERA and 31 strikeouts in his first 24 innings – before going down with an elbow injury.

Given the typical timeline for Tommy John surgery, Crow could be expected to pitch again as soon as the second half of 2024. His injury made him an intriguing player going into this month’s Rule 5 Draft; any team could have selected him for $100,000 and stashed him on the 60-day injured list all season. He was on the Brewers’ short list, Arnold said.

The downside, however, is that Crow would have occupied a 40-man roster spot all winter, then drawn a Major League salary throughout 2024. With Wednesday’s trade, the Brewers were able to clear two 40-man roster spots and their accompanying salaries for future adds, while acquiring Crow without any of the restrictions of the Rule 5 Draft.

"We’re just looking at this more from the perspective of we have a number of exciting outfielders that we feel good about and we have a number of exciting young arms,” Arnold said. “And we're looking at Crow as somebody that could potentially help us later in the season at the upper levels [of the Minors] to the Major League level. … Being able to convert both those guys [Taylor and Houser] into that type of a piece for us was pretty exciting."

Taylor and Houser had been Milwaukee mainstays for years, Taylor a second-round Draft pick in 2012 and Houser acquired in a July 2015 blockbuster trade with the Astros that landed a quartet of prospects, including Josh Hader. In recent years, both bounced between a variety of roles. Houser mostly pitched as a starter and Taylor provided right-handed power as a versatile outfield defender.

With that performance, their salaries had been rising. Houser is in his final year of arbitration eligibility after earning $3.6 million last season and posting a 4.12 ERA in 111 1/3 innings despite missing time with groin and elbow injuries. Taylor, who fought his way to the Majors beginning in 2019 after parts of eight years in the Minors, is arbitration-eligible for the first time after delivering a .713 OPS and managing a nagging right elbow injury.

Put together, Cot’s Contracts projected they would earn just shy of $7 million next season. Houser’s innings would have been helpful as the Brewers build a rotation without longtime co-ace Brandon Woodruff, but Taylor’s role was cloudy considering the Brewers’ stable of Major League-ready outfield prospects, led by top prospect Jackson Chourio, whose path to Opening Day became a lot clearer when he signed a record-setting, eight-year, $82 million contract earlier this month.

The departures leave the Brewers with seven arbitration-eligible players, starting with right-handed ace Corbin Burnes and shortstop Willy Adames, whose names have appeared in trade chatter already this winter. Other arbitration-eligible are relievers Devin Williams, Hoby Milner, Joel Payamps and Bryse Wilson and first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers, acquired in a trade with the Yankees at the non-tender deadline.

The next date to know in that process is Jan. 11, when teams and their arbitration-eligible players would formally file salary proposals with MLB if they haven’t yet reached an agreement.