Ex-Padres prospect is making the Brewers deal feel like instant regret

Spring training box scores aren’t supposed to hurt. They’re supposed to be a place where you remind yourself it’s February, pitchers are building up, and results are basically a suggestion.

And then Brandon Lockridge runs into one.

The Padres beat the Brewers 7–5 at Peoria Sports Complex on Feb. 23, ripping off a six-run eighth inning after Milwaukee carried a 5–1 lead into the frame. That comeback is the part San Diego should feel good about. But the moment that’s going to stick in the back of fans’ brains is the one that happened before the rally: Lockridge, the ex-Padres outfielder, popping his second homer of the spring — and doing it against his former organization.

That’s the kind of spring-training irony that doesn’t wait until Opening Day to get petty.

​​Brandon Lockridge’s hot spring start is putting this trade under a spotlight

According to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel beat writer Todd Rosiak, Brewers manager Pat Murphy still called it “a really good day,” emphasizing how many of his big-league guys got five-plus innings worth of reps while younger arms are being asked to soak up frames early and “take it on the chin.” That’s normal March baseball logic.

But Padres fans aren’t watching this like a Brewers development exercise. They’re watching it like a stress test on a decision.

Lockridge was never billed as a future face of the franchise in San Diego, but he was the exact type of player teams end up missing the moment their depth gets tested: real outfield athleticism, real speed, and enough sneaky thump to punish mistakes. He’s also a burner who’s been tagged with 99th-percentile sprint speed. The appeal is obvious: if he’s on base, he’s a problem. If he’s in the outfield, he can cover for mistakes. And if he runs into a few balls, suddenly you’ve got a role player who changes games in small, annoying ways.

That’s why the “instant regret” feeling lands so quickly when he’s the one sending a baseball into the desert air.

The context makes it even sharper because this wasn’t some anonymous waiver shuffle — it was a real deadline choice with real names attached. On July 31, 2025, Milwaukee acquired Lockridge from San Diego for left-hander Nestor Cortes, 18-year-old shortstop prospect Jorge Quintana, and cash considerations.

For the Padres, that’s where the discomfort lives. Cortes was coming off an elbow issue, Quintana was a long-view prospect, and cash is… cash. All perfectly defensible components.

It’s only spring. None of this is definitive. But it doesn’t have to be definitive to be loud.

Because when an ex-Padres prospect is already hitting homers against you — in February — it’s hard not to hear the subtext: this one might nag for a little while.