Milwaukee Brewers: 3 Free Agent Targets at First Base
By Kenny Jilek
The Milwaukee Brewers need a first baseman, and these three guys could do the job at varying price points.
The 2019 Justin Smoak experiment was an epic failure for the Milwaukee Brewers, as he hit just .186 and had a WAR of -0.7 before being released midseason. After some great seasons at first base in recent years from Eric Thames and Jesus Aguilar, 2019 was a major letdown from Smoak. It wasn’t completely surprising, however, as Smoak has a high amount of variability between his best and worst seasons. Players like this on short contracts are where David Stearns makes his money, and they won’t all pan out like we hope every year. We saw that with Smoak, Sogard, and Narvaez.
Stearns very well may go back to that well for the 2020 season and hope that this season he catches that lightning in the bottle he was hoping for with Smoak. To an extent, he’s already done that by re-signing David Vogelbach, who started the season extremely cold but got hot late with the Brewers and was their best hitter down the stretch.
If the ownership of the Milwaukee Brewers organization, a.k.a. Mark Attanasio, is willing to open up his wallet and they’re looking for some more consistent production, there are certainly options that fit that bill floating around the free-agent pool. Unfortunately, Carlos Santana is off the table after signing with the Kansas City Royals, but there are still some great players on the board.
With Vogelbach under contract with Milwaukee and the Designated Hitter looking unlikely in the National League for 2021, I’ll be looking at three guys that can hit from the right side of the plate. Any of them could be the everyday guy, but this also gives them the possibility of platooning the position with Vogelbach if he continues his success.