Milwaukee Brewers: Trade for third base upgrade in the works?

The Milwaukee Brewers lost All-Star third baseman Mike Moustakas in free agency this offseason and have brought in a few uninspiring names to replace him, so could a trade for a higher profile player be in the works?

To know what would be an upgrade at third base, we have to assess what the current options are at the position. The Milwaukee Brewers do have MLB-caliber third basemen in their organization, but with it historically being one of the best offensive positions in the league, an upgrade would be preferred.

The Brewers currently have four players capable of playing third base that have done it at the major league level. They are all new acquisitions this offseason with one familiar face. They are Luis Urias, Jedd Gyorko, Eric Sogard, and Ryon Healy.

Luis Urias is the easiest one to rule out as the Opening Day starting third baseman because of the surgery he just had on his wrist that will sideline him for six to eight weeks. Even when he comes back, he is more likely to play shortstop than third base, especially if Orlando Arcia hasn’t improved his hitting at all by that time.

Jedd Gyorko had some nice years from 2016-2018, but struggled to a .498 OPS in 2019, causing the Dodgers to take the one million dollar buyout option on his contract for 2020. The hope is that he could spring back to form for a year or two. At 31 years old, he still has some prime years left, but aging is not usually kind to hitters and he could continue to regress.

Eric Sogard was brought in mostly as a utility option following the best season of his career in 2019. After being a second round pick in 2007, he has had somewhat of a disappointing career, slashing .248/.318/.343 for his career and never hitting more than three home runs in a season before last year when he hit 13. Still, he has caught lightning in a bottle a couple of times, most noticeably last year and 2017 with the Brewers, especially before the All-Star break when he hit .331 with an OPS of .924

Finally, Ryon Healy is a solid option at third base. With the injury to Urias, he will probably at least make the 26-man roster on Opening Day. He has been around a league-average hitter for his four years in the majors with an OPS+ of 104 (100 being league average). Unfortunately, he is consistently negative on defense and has had some strikeout issues, but he does come with some pop in his bat as he hit 25 and 2 home runs in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

None of these guys are even close to the talent level of Mike Moustakas. I’ll be realistic here, if they wanted a player of that caliber they’d have to give up a lot. Any package would include Hader or Hiura or both. There’s basically two ways the Milwaukee Brewers’ front office could go: Sell the farm for an established star, or trade slightly less to poach a guy with years of control and potential from a struggling team.

We’ll start with the slightly younger guys on bad teams.