Heading into the off-season after a disappointing 80-82 finish to the 2010 season, Brewers general manager Doug Melvin focused almost solely on upgrading his team's lackluster starting pitching, which finished near the bottom of the National League for two straight years.

His sights set on adding at least one and hopefully two starting pitchers, Melvin created a buzz when he completed a deal that landed Shaun Marcum, the Blue Jays' 2010 Opening Day starter. He was kicking the tires on veteran free agent Carl Pavano and made an offer to lefty Chris Capuano.

Meanwhile, in Kansas City, the bids kept coming in for Zack Greinke, who had grown weary of the Royals' losing ways.

The Brewers weren't a likely destination for the young right-hander, who originally included Milwaukee on his no-trade list.

Once Marcum was added to the fold and it looked more and more likely that Prince Fielder would remain with the team for the 2011 season, Greinke -- who went public with his desire to be traded last week -- began reconsidering.

On Saturday, Melvin pulled the trigger and sent four players to Kansas City for the 2009 American League Cy Young Award winner.

"It came on pretty quick last week," Melvin said Monday morning at Miller Park. "He was a guy you'd always love to have if the opportunity was there and it wasn't there earlier on. We didn't give up, I called (Royals GM) Dayton (Moore) last week and asked if there was any way we could start talking again."

Getting Greinke to Milwaukee required the 27-year-old to waive his no-trade clause, something that became much easier after Marcum joined the fold and Fielder's status became more certain. Fielder, Greinke said, actually played a pretty significant role in his desire to come to Milwaukee.

"We put that list together pretty fast and the way I was kind of thinking about it at the time, is Prince, who is a very good player, knew he just had one year left and didn't know if they were planning on trading him or what the plan of Milwaukee was this off-season," Greinke said.

In the span of two weeks, Melvin transformed the Brewers' pitching staff from one of the worst into one that could be considered at or near the level of San Francisco, St. Louis and Philadelphia. Marcum and Greinke both were the opening day starters for their respective teams, while Yovani Gallardo did the same for Milwaukee.

All three of those pitchers are under 30 years old and are under team control through the 2012 season. The trio joins veteran left-hander Randy Wolf who struggled early but turned his season around and is signed through 2012, as well. Another lefty, Chris Narveson, got his first chance at the Brewers rotation last year, won 10 games and is also under team control for at least the next two seasons.

"If we're healthy, we're going to have a much, much better staff since I've been here," Melvin said, comparing the Greinke trade to the deal which brought CC Sabathia to Milwaukee in 2008 and resulted in the franchise's first playoff appearance in 26 years.

Just like the Sabathia deal, adding Marcum and Greinke came at a high cost. Top prospect Brett Lawrie is now in Toronto's system while the starting shortstop last year, Alcides Escobar, along with a front-runner for the center field job, Lorenzo Cain, head to Kansas City along with pitching prospects Jeremy Jeffress and Jake Odorizzi.

"I knew it was going to be a costly trade," Melvin said. "We gave up some very talented young players. If I was in Dayton's seat, I would have selected the players he did, too."

Melvin won't have to look far for replacements.

Escobar will be replaced by Yucines Betancourt, who came to Milwaukee in the Greinke deal, too. Having Carlos Gomez available to step in and play center next year takes some of the pressure off Melvin, who doesn't anticipate scouring the free agent or trade markets. 

"Realistically, we're done making major moves," Melvin said.

New manager Ron Roenicke finds himself in an enviable situation. How the rotation shapes up, though, has yet to be determined. Greinke, Marcum and Gallardo were all No. 1 starters a year ago.

Roenicke wants to get to know all of his pitchers before settling on a rotation, noting that he may break up his righties with Wolf, depending on the similarities of the pitchers' stuff.

"A lot of that has to do with a guy's schedule during spring training," Roenicke said. "We'll just line up the best three guys and go from there."