The Milwaukee Brewers have designated pitcher Lance McCullers Jr for assignment, just 11 days after acquiring him in a trade with the Houston Astros.
The 32-year-old, who has won the World Series twice in his career and was an All-Star in 2017, has suffered a brutal fall from grace after just two games with his new team.
The Brewers confirmed the news on Sunday, revealing that he will be DFA’d – therefore immediately removed from the team’s 40-man roster.
Until earlier this month, McCullers had played his entire career for the Astros across three different spells and 11 years in the major leagues.
With Houston struggling this season, Milwaukee pounced to acquire the RHP, with fellow pitcher Colton Gordon – and cash – going with him, while Single-A prospect Jaydn Fielder headed the other way.
McCullers pitched just four innings in two games out of the Brewers’ bullpen before the team’s front office had seen enough and brutally DFA’d him on Sunday.
Lance McCullers Jr pitches for the Milwaukee Brewers in his first of just two appearances
McCullers Jr (third left) has won two World Series titles in his career, both with the Astros
In his debut on July 20, the pitcher allowed two earned runs in three innings, striking out four batters and walking just one.
On Saturday, though, he struggled and walked four, allowing three runs in just 1.2 innings pitched.
Hours later, he was gone – with rival teams now having seven days to trade for him should they wish, or for Milwaukee to place him on outright or unconditional release waivers.
McCullers’ career has been in swift decline for the past few seasons after he missed the entirety of the 2023 and 2024 seasons with injuries in his pitching arm. In that time, he struggled with bone spurs and had flexor tendon surgery.
The 32-year-old is currently in the final year of a huge $85 million contract, with much of this year’s cash covered by Houston, who sent $4.23m to Milwaukee in the deal.
In 2021, McCullers finished seventh in the American League voting for the Cy Young Award, but since then injuries have hampered him.
Last season, he spoke out about horrific abuse and death threats he and his young family had faced during one of his difficult spells on the mound.
Last year, McCullers Jr opened up on vile abuse that had been sent to him and his young family
Until this month, McCullers had played his entire career across three spells with the Astros
In May 2025, he reached out to the Astros front office over the threats and after the news reached the ears of team owner Jim Crane, he offered the right-hander 24-hour security.
‘You have to at that point,’ McCullers said, via the Associated Press. McCullers also revealed that the abuse forced him into a tough conversation with his five-year-old daughter, Ava.
‘She asked me when I came home: “Daddy, like, what is threats? Who wants to hurt us? Who wants to hurt me?”‘ McCullers said at the time. ‘So those conversations are tough to deal with.’
The threats came after the Astros right-hander, a two-time World Series winner, allowed seven runs from a 10-run first inning against the Cincinnati Reds on May 10 – his second game in nearly three years due to injuries.
‘I understand people are very passionate and people love the Astros and love sports, but threatening to find my kids and murder them is a little bit tough to deal with,’ McCullers said at the time.
The now-32-year-old McCullers and his wife Kara have two young daughters together
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‘So just as a father, I think there have been many, many threats over the years aimed at me, mostly, and I think actually one or two people from other issues around baseball actually had to go to jail for things like that.
‘But I think bringing kids into the equation, threatening to find them or next time they see us in public they’re going to stab my kids to death, things like that, it’s tough to hear as a dad.’
Joe Espada, the Astros manager, added: ‘There are people who are threatening his life and the life of his kids because of his performance.
‘It is very unfortunate that we have to deal with this. After all he’s done for this city, for his team, the fact that we have to talk about that in my office… I got kids too, and it really drives me nuts that we have to deal with this. Very sad. Very, very sad.’
