Brewers-Royals Complete Trade Involving 3.95 ERA Hurler

The Milwaukee Brewers completed a trade with the Kansas City Royals on Monday.

Milwaukee traded outfielder/first baseman Mark Canha on March 21st for a player to be named later. The deal was completed on Monday as the Brewers acquired 19-year-old hurler Cesar Espinal from the Royals, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Curt Hogg.

"The Brewers have acquired right-hander Cesar Espinal as the player to be named in the Mark Canha trade with the Royals," Hogg said. "Espinal, 19, has a 3.95 career minor-league ERA in three seasons pitching in the Dominican Summer League."

He made his professional debut in 2022 at just 16 years old for the Orioles Black Dominican Summer League team. He had a 5.49 ERA across 11 outings. In 2023, he had a 3.18 ERA across nine outings with the Orioles Orange Domincan Summer League Team. Last year, he had a 3.72 ERA in 11 outings with the Royals Ventura and Royals Fortuna Dominican Summer League teams.

Espinal isn't a big-name prospect, but he's just 19 years old and has 3.95 ERA in 31 total professional appearances so far, including 13 games started. Milwaukee has done a phenomenal job in recent years developing prospects. He's now another young guy for the Brewers to try to bring through the farm system.

Canha is having a great start to the season so far for the Royals, but Milwaukee has plenty of outfield depth so it's not shocking it moved on.