Milwaukee Brewers: What to do with Keston Hiura?

With Travis Shaw’s return right around the corner, the Milwaukee Brewers must decide what they will do with Keston Hiura.

It was on May 14th that the Milwaukee Brewers top prospect Keston Hiura made his long-awaited debut and as expected he did not disappoint.

In that game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Hiura would go 2-3 with a walk. Since then he has continued to play quite well and over his 58 plate appearances, Hiura has posted a slash line of .296/.345/.537 with four home runs and seven RBIs.

On the downside, Hiura has struck out in more than a third of his plate appearances and in his 15 games, he has already totaled four errors defensively.

With that said, amongst the strikeouts and defensive struggles, overall Hiura has been a solid addition to the Milwaukee Brewers lineup.

So given his performances and contributions, it begs the question, what will the Milwaukee Brewers do with Hiura once Travis Shaw returns?

You’ll recall that Shaw was placed on the IL with a wrist injury to make room on the 25-man roster for Hiura. It was a move that would allow Shaw’s wrist to heal, as well as give him a break, both of which will hopefully alleviate his struggles at the plate.

To put it simply, the start of the season offensively for Shaw has been brutal. However, during his rehab assignment in Triple-A San Antonio, he has begun to swing the bat a bit better. In 35 plate appearances, Shaw has a slash line of .276/.400/.379.

Now with Shaw’s expected return, the Milwaukee Brewers once again have to make room on the 25-man roster, so who will be the odd man out?

Whether you want to see Shaw back in the lineup or not, manager Craig Counsell and the Milwaukee Brewers are going to give him plenty of opportunities to figure it out at the plate.

Over the previous two seasons, Shaw has combined for 187 RBIs and 63 home runs. In order for the Brewers to maximize their potential this season, they will need Shaw to get going offensively.

Even with all the early season success that Hiura has had in Milwaukee, as of now, it would appear that sending him back to San Antonio is the likely option.

However, some other potential candidates that could be moved to make room on the roster include Jesus Aguilar, Eric Thames, and Hernan Perez, although it seems unlikely that any of them will be going anywhere at this point.

Like Shaw, Aguilar has gotten off to a rough start this season posting a .193 batting average along with an OPS of .615. But the Milwaukee Brewers are hoping that the home run he hit Friday night in Pittsburgh will get him back on track.

With Aguilar’s struggles, Thames has been in a platoon role with him at first base and even with his ups and downs this season, overall he is playing decently with a .794 OPS and six home runs. Not to mention he is making $6 million this season.

Then we have Perez who is the Milwaukee Brewers swiss army knife defensively and has been swinging the bat fairly well with a .252 average. Even if Perez were to struggle offensively, his versatility alone is something that I don’t see Counsell wanting to part with.

As I said above, it’s just hard for me to imagine the Brewers moving on from any of these players.

Now, if we get to July and Shaw or Aguilar are still failing to put it together, then bringing up Hiura full-time is very much in play.

But as of now, I expect the Milwaukee Brewers to give Shaw and Aguilar every opportunity to figure it out as it is still fairly early on in the season. And I’d much rather see Hiura getting consistent at-bats in Triple-A than sporadic playing time in Milwaukee.