Guardians acquire Blake Perkins and Craig Yoho from Brewers for Bo Naylor and Codi Heuer

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Cleveland Guardians acquired outfielder Blake Perkins and right-handed pitcher Craig Yoho from the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday for catcher Bo Naylor and right-hander Codi Heuer.

Naylor and Heuer have been assigned to the Brewers ’40-man roster and to Triple-A Nashville. Guardians general manager Chris Antonetti said before Saturday night’s game against Arizona that Perkins would start in Triple-A Columbus, while Yoho would report to Cleveland in the next couple days.

The 26-year old Naylor has spent his entire career in Cleveland, but has struggled offensively the past three seasons. He was sent down to Triple-A Columbus after the Guardians acquired Patrick Bailey from San Francisco and batted .225 with seven home runs in 45 games for Columbus.

“I continue to believe that he is going to be a good major-league player, but we weren’t able to help him be as consistent offensively as we think he can be,” Antonetti said. “And we scratched our heads a lot trying to figure out how do we do that? How do we support Bo better? But in the end, we just couldn’t help him unlock that consistency.”

Brewers manager Pat Murphy said Naylor provides security with Triple-A catcher Jeferson Quero nursing a biceps injury after undergoing shoulder surgery in 2024.

“(Depth) is important when you have a catcher that plays as hard as (starter) William (Contreras) plays and is in there virtually every day,” Murphy said.

Heuer, 30, was in his first season with Cleveland and split time between the major league club and Triple-A. He was 0-1 with a 4.66 ERA in eight appearances out of the bullpen.

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The 26-year old Yoho has a career 1.10 minor league ERA. He was 2-0 with a 3.15 ERA in three stints with the Brewers this season.

Perkins, 29, played 121 games and was a Gold Glove finalist two years ago but has been shuttling between Milwaukee and Nashville this season. He had a .157 batting average in 55 games with the Brewers this season.

“I was really happy for him,” Murphy said. “I was happy that hopefully he gets a better shot than he got here this year. He was great for us. You think about ’24, ’25, he was a huge part of that thing. … I know there’s at least one walk-off hit and one walk-off thrown out at the plate. I just love Perk.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb