Milwaukee Brewers need to weigh options at first base

The Milwaukee Brewers have a number of difficult decisions to make this offseason and one of them is whether or not they should bring back Eric Thames.

The 2018 season was a rough one for Eric Thames, to say the least. After being sidelined early in the year with a thumb injury, the red-hot Jesus Aguilar burst onto the scene and as a result, Thames was relegated to occasional starts and pinch-hitting duties.

With a full outfield and the emergence of Aguilar, it was unclear whether or not Thames would be back for the 2019 season with the Milwaukee Brewers. But as he usually does, GM David Stearns made the right decision and held on to Thames.

As Aguilar would struggle in the early months of the season, Thames saw his playing time at first base increase and became a key player on this Brewers team. He would also deliver some big home runs this season as well.

In total, Thames would finish with a .247 batting average, an OPS of .851, with 25 home runs, 61 RBIs and a wRC+ of 116. Thames was near his career highs in many major offensive categories and also saw his strikeout percentage drop over four percent from 2018.

However, even though 2019 could be summed up as a successful season for Thames, the Milwaukee Brewers and Stearns have to once again decide whether or not they will bring him back.

Thames’ three-year contract is up but the Brewers do have a team option to bring him back for the 2020 season at $7.5 million, which is a bit steep for a power-hitting platoon player at first base. A big reason for Thames’ success this season was that manager Craig Counsell only allowed him to face right-handed pitching for the most part, and for good reasons. Thames has a career batting average and OPS of .197 and .648, respectively against left-handed pitching.

So the way I see it is the Milwaukee Brewers have a few options on how they want to handle the situation at first base. They can bring Thames back at that $7.5 million price tag and will have to rely on Tyler Austin being the right-handed bat or they could get wild and move Ryan Braun to first base since they already have four solid outfielders on the roster, but they’d be sacrificing defense once again.

Another option is they could decline Thames’ team option and hope to re-sign him at a lesser amount, but then they run the risk of losing him to another team. Lastly, they could venture into free agency and hope to find a player with similar production but at a lower cost, however, that is a bit of a crap-shoot as well.

My guess is that Thames will be a Milwaukee Brewer in 2020 but for a team that could use Mike Moustakas and Yasmani Grandal back, as well as some help at starting pitching, David Stearns has to weigh his options and see what else is out there before making the decision.