DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - The Texas Rangers traded right-handed reliever Matt Bush to the Milwaukee Brewers for infielder Mark Mathias and left-handed pitcher Antoine Kelly.
Bush has spent his entire career with the Rangers, going 12-7 with a 3.34 ERA in 180 appearances for Texas from 2016-18 and 2021-22. He was originally signed by the Rangers as a minor league free agent in 2015.
Kelly, 22, is the Brewers' No. 16 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. The Brewers selected him in the second round of the 2019 MLB Draft out of Wabash Valley (Ill.) Community College.
He is 2-4 with a 3.86 ERA (39 ER/91.0 IP) over 19 games/starts for High-A Wisconsin in the Midwest League this season, posting 119 strikeouts against 52 walks.
Rangers president of baseball operations, Jon Daniels, says Kelly will head to Double-A Frisco.
“He's got a three-pitch mix, which will allow him to start,” Daniels said, via Kennedi Landry of MLB.com. “He's very well-regarded by our scouts, and by our R&D group. Everybody heard tremendous things about him as a person; very intelligent, very driven and [we're] excited to see what he can do.
“We want to be able to sit down and talk with him and our development folks and be able to see where his head is, but we liked him as an amateur," added Daniels. "He came back kind of middle-to-later last year, just given it was a later surgery in the fall of '20; threw pretty well and then has been outstanding there in A-ball this year. We’re going to send him to Double-A and see what he can do.”
Mathias, who turns 28 on Tuesday, has seen Major League action with the Brewers in both 2020 and 2022, batting a combined .231 (12-52) with one home run and 8 RBI in 22 games. He has appeared in six Major League games this season and spent the balance of the campaign with Triple-A Nashville, batting .318/.421/.518/.938 (54-170) with 8 home runs and 30 RBI over 50 contests. He'll head to Triple-A Round Rock.
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