Brewers pitching surplus attractive to teams

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Left-hander Rich Hill choked back tears Monday after the Dodgers announced his three-year contract, removing the consensus top free-agent pitcher from the market. For teams like the Brewers with a starting pitching surplus, it represented a positive start to the Winter Meetings.

While much of the focus on the Brewers since season’s end has been on the possibility of a Ryan Braun trade, Milwaukee genereal manager David Stearns is well positioned to trade a starting pitcher. The Brewers ended the season with a six-man rotation and top pitching prospect Josh Hader at Triple-A.

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It could be opportunity to capitalize on this year’s thin free-agent pitching market.

“We have to be open on our entire roster,” Stearns said, “whether that’s [trading] starting pitching, a position player, bullpen. We listen to every call that comes our way. We have some depth in our Major League starting pitching, and not a lot of teams have that right now. So, certainly we have fielded calls about that segment of our team, and I imagine we will continue to do so.”

The Brewers’ September rotation included — in alphabetical order — Chase Anderson, Zach Davies, Matt Garza, Junior Guerra, Jimmy …

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