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Milwaukee Brewers: 4 major question marks for 2020

By Kenny Jilek

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 01: Ryan Braun #8 of the Milwaukee Brewers reacts after closing out the second inning against the Washington Nationals in the National League Wild Card game at Nationals Park on October 01, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 01: Ryan Braun #8 of the Milwaukee Brewers reacts after closing out the second inning against the Washington Nationals in the National League Wild Card game at Nationals Park on October 01, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /
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Jedd Gyorko
Jedd Gyorko Los Angeles Dodgers (Photo by John McCoy/Getty Images) /

Left Side of the Infield

Both the shortstop and third base positions have been under scrutiny all offseason. With Urias potentially out for the start of the season, that leaves the shortstop position up to Orlando Arcia and Eric Sogard.

Orlando Arcia has shown some hitting potential in spurts. He hit three home runs in the 2018 playoff run and he was about an average hitting shortstop in 2017 with an OPS of .731 and an OPS+ of 89(League average is always 100). His redeeming quality had always been his defense. In 2017 and 2018 he was a well above average defender. However, in 2019 he dipped to about league average. Without his defensive prowess, his hitting becomes much less forgivable.

Eric Sogard is a candidate for the third base and shortstop jobs, but will likely play a utility role for the majority of the season. Last season, he had phenomenal traditional hitting numbers, slashing .290/.353/.457 for an OPS of .810 and an OPS+ of 116. If he did that again in 2020 for the Milwaukee Brewers, he’d be an easy every day starter.

Unfortunately, some numbers point to the conclusion that a lot of his hits were more luck than skill. His average exit velocity was in the bottom eight percent of the league, his expected slugging percentage, or XSLG, was in the bottom six percent, and his hard hit percentage was in the bottom four percent. This all points to the possibility of a large regression in 2020.

The two main options at third base are Jedd Gyorko and Ryon Healy. After three straight above-average seasons in terms of OPS+, Gyorko never got it going in 2019 and batted .174 as he battled injuries. In many ways, this regression was similar to what Brewer fans saw from Travis Shaw last season. On the defensive side, he hovers around average, but had one great season at third base in 2017, when he had 16 runs saved above average.

Ryon Healy has no great defensive seasons to speak of, and has been below average for each of his four seasons there. However, everyone knows bad fielding can be made up for with the bat. For Healy’s career he has an OPS+ of 104, making him a slightly above average hitter. He also had two seasons of over 20 home runs in 2017 and 2018. The battle between him and Gyorko is going to be a close one, and hopefully one of them can emerge and have a big season.

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