Trading a quality relief pitcher isn’t the most attractive move on paper, but the Kansas City Royals did it in a way that makes sense. They dealt southpaw Angel Zerpa to the Milwaukee Brewers for fellow reliever Nick Mears and outfielder Isaac Collins in December, and they’re enjoying Mears in camp so far.
Royals pitching coach Brian Sweeney spoke about the trade on Tuesday, via MLB.com’s Anne Rogers.
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“That was a fun one,” he said. “It really was. You lose a pitcher that you really like in Zerpa. But you can get back a pretty darn good reliever, too. I had heard of him before, but I never really looked into it. And as a team, we began looking into it. What’s missing? What can he do to get better?”
Mears had a shaky start to his career, as he logged a 5.01 ERA across 30 appearances for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2021. The 6-foot-3, 217-pounder then missed most of 2022 with an elbow injury before notching a 3.72 ERA over 16 outings for the Colorado Rockies in 2023 and a 5.93 mark over 54 combined outings for the Rockies and Brewers in 2024.
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Mears finally rebounded last season, recording a 3.49 ERA over 63 games with Milwaukee. The 29-year-old also tossed 1.2 scoreless innings in the postseason.
On the other hand, Zerpa had a 4.18 ERA in 69 appearances for Kansas City last season, after logging a 3.86 ERA in 60 outings in 2024. The 26-year-old was a homegrown player, as the organization signed him as an international free agent in 2016 and first called him up to the big leagues in 2021.
Zerpa is younger and has more years of team control left, as he won’t hit the open market until after the 2028 season, while Mears is scheduled to be a free agent after 2027. But the Royals also got Collins, who notched a .779 OPS over 130 games as a rookie last year.
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Former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Nick Mears (25). © Matt Marton-Imagn Images
Mears proved that he can be reliable over a full big-league campaign in 2025, but the trade won’t look as good on paper if he doesn’t replicate that in Kansas City. Luckily for him, Sweeney has a track record of helping his pitchers, as the team was sixth in MLB with a 3.73 ERA in 2025 after being eighth with a 3.76 mark in 2024.
If both Mears and Collins ascend, then the Royals will look smart. Each of them has struggled this spring training, as Mears has allowed four runs in 6.1 innings while Collins is 2-for-18 with two runs scored. However, they both have plenty of time to bounce back over the coming months.