Milwaukee Brewers Need Competition at Shortstop

As we look ahead to the offseason, the Milwaukee Brewers have some needs to address and on the to-do list should be adding competition at shortstop.

Well, the offseason is upon us and it is going to be a crucial one for the Milwaukee Brewers as they have a number of difficult decisions to be made. They have a handful of free agents, a number of key arbitration-eligible players, and adding a starting pitcher is almost a must. However, something else that should be added to the to-do list is bringing in another shortstop.

As we all know, currently that position is held by Orlando Arcia who is only 25 years old and is loaded with potential. With that said, 2019 was Arcia’s fourth season with the Milwaukee Brewers and his third as a full-time starter, which begs the question, will he ever become more reliable at the plate?

The 2018 season was an up and down one for Arcia as he was bounced back and forth between the big leagues and Triple-A due to his issues at the plate. However, a strong postseason performance coupled with some very good at-bats in the Venezuelan Winter League gave fans hope that he could carry that momentum over to the 2019 season in Milwaukee.

While this season would start off slowly over the first few weeks, Arcia eventually found some power and in the month of May recorded a .290 batting average with a .786 OPS. Unfortunately, shortly after Arcia’s production would fall off a cliff. Arcia’s month-to-month OPS from June through September was .617, .555, .545, .547, respectively. Yikes.

In total, Arcia finished the 2019 season with a slash line of .223/.283/.350, totaling a .633 OPS and a wRC+ of 61. Double yikes.

Without a doubt, this leaves a hole at the bottom of the Milwaukee Brewers’ batting order and for someone who plays as often as Arcia does, you need better results.

Be that as it may, GM David Stearns and manager Craig Counsell know that they are sacrificing some offense to have Arcia on the field as a defender. But even that part of his game took a dip this season.

At one point over the summer, Arcia was benched for Tyler Saladino due to his play in the field slipping. Although it would appear that Arcia’s defense would get back on track as he tallied three defensive runs saved this season compared to four in 2018 and also had just 14 errors in 2019 while having 15 in 2018, the underlying defensive numbers tell a different story.

According to Inside the Edge on Fangraphs, Arcia converted just 65.8 percent of his “Likely” outs (plays that have a 60-90 percent chance of being an out)  which is down from the 76.5 percent he recorded in 2018. When it came to “Unlikely” outs (plays with a 10-40 percent chance of being an out), that percentage took a huge dive from 50 percent down to 31.3 this season.

With this kind of offensive production – or lack thereof – coupled with slipping defensive play, the Milwaukee Brewers really need to consider adding some competition at shortstop this offseason.

Now, by no means do I think they should move on from Arcia, but within the organization, they don’t have anyone to really push him for that starting spot or someone they can rely on if he is slumping.

As I mentioned above, the Brewers have other priorities that include starting pitching and hopefully re-signing Yasmani Grandal, but with Arcia making just $565,700 this past season prior to arbitration, adding another shortstop to the roster should be in play.

Unfortunately for Milwaukee, it is a fairly thin free-agent market when it comes to the shortstop position but some of the names include Freddy Galvis, Didi Gregorius, Jose Iglesias, Adeiny Hechavarria, and Jordy Mercer. Regardless of whether the Milwaukee Brewers bring in one of these players or make a trade, adding another shortstop to the mix is not a bad idea at all.