The Brewers have traded Isaac Collins and right-handed reliever Nick Mears to the Kansas City Royals for lefty reliever Angel Zerpa, according to multiple reports. Robert Murray of FanSided had the first report, on Twitter.
Despite spending a month or so as a favorite for the National League Rookie of the Year Award, Collins became just an extra piece again by the end of the season. He’s a switch-hitter with average athleticism and a good approach at the plate, but the Brewers have toolsier options at every position he can credibly play. Mears, who is out of options and didn’t fit into the top half of the Brewers’ bullpen hierarchy for 2026, was on the roster bubble even when the non-tender deadline passed last month.
Zerpa, 26, offers the chance to turn two players who were redundant on Milwaukee’s loaded roster into one who can be more of a standout. He comes with three years of team control and (unlike Mears) can be optioned to the minor leagues for one more season. When he first came up as a starter, his dead-zone fastball held him back, but a move to the bullpen and a new emphasis on his sinker instead of a four-seamer have reinvented him as a very good ground-ball lefty. He also added a tick of velocity in 2024, and nearly that much again in 2025, such that he now averages nearly 97 miles per hour with that sinker. Mechanical adjustments lent his slider more depth this season and offer some swing-and-miss upside into which he has not yet fully tapped.
Days after signing an outfielder (Akil Baddoo, who now becomes the de facto replacement for Collins at the edge of the outfield picture) and filling their 40-man roster, the Brewers freed up a spot anew, and converted a reliever without much hope of pitching in high leverage or the roster flexibility of being able to be sent to the minors into one who has both of those things.
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