Milwaukee Brewers: Could Didi Gregorius be the Answer at 3B?

It’s been reported that the Milwaukee Brewers have interest in shortstop Didi Gregorius, but a move to third base could make the most sense if acquired.

In what is not a very deep free agent market at the shortstop position this offseason, the best available option is former New York Yankee, Didi Gregorius. Unfortunately, Gregorius’ 2019 season was cut short with eventual Tommy John surgery, but prior to that, he had really struggled. In just 344 plate appearances, he would slash .238/.276/.441 with an OPS+ of 87. Certainly a far cry from his previous four seasons where he posted a slash line of .274/.319/.765 with an OPS+ of 104 during that span.

However, now a free agent with a number of teams vying for his services, a recent report from Robert Murray stated that the Milwaukee Brewers were one of the teams interested in Gregorius. And that makes quite a bit of sense given that Jon Heyman also reported that in an attempt to reset his value after a down 2019 season, Gregorius could sign just a one year deal, which is right up GM David Stearns’ alley.

So let’s imagine for a minute that the deal does get done and Gregorius is a Brewer in 2020, where will he play defensively?

Just about all of Gregorius’ big league career – particularly in recent seasons – has been spent at the shortstop position. But with the addition of Luis Urias to compete with Orlando Arcia, this creates a log jam at the position. Clearly if the Milwaukee Brewers sign Gregorius, he will be the primary starter at short, which means that one option could be trading away Arcia.

While that has been a rumor this offseason, unless Stearns and Milwaukee get an offer that they can’t refuse, my gut says that at just 25-years-old, Arcia will still be here for the 2020 season. But as we’ve seen over the past few seasons, when it comes to defensive solutions, the Brewers aren’t afraid to get creative which could lead to a position change for Gregorius.

With the departures of Mike Moustakas and Travis Shaw, the Brewers are in desperate need of a third baseman. Although it’s fun to imagine an Anthony Rendon signing, it isn’t happening. And it’s been reported that Josh Donaldson could command a four-year deal, which Milwaukee could very well stay away from. Meanwhile other free agent options at third base include Todd Frazier and Asdrubal Cabrera, yet neither of them have had the impact that Gregorius has had in recent seasons.

As I mentioned above, Gregorius has primarily been a shortstop and has only played 10 innings at third base in his career and that was back in 2014 with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

With that said, as we saw with Moustakas and Shaw over the last year and a half, the Milwaukee Brewers are willing to sacrifice some defense if it means more offense. And if Gregorius can return to his 2017-2018 form where he was an above 4 WAR player in each of those seasons, it’ll give this offense a much-needed boost that they desperately need after losing Moustakas and Yasmani Grandal to free agency.

All stats via Baseball Reference and Fangraphs