Milwaukee Brewers Sign Utility INF Daniel Robertson to Big League Deal

The Milwaukee Brewers make their first big league addition in quite some time by signing utility infielder Daniel Robertson.

The Milwaukee Brewers have made a few minor league additions this offseason, but on Tuesday, GM David Stearns made the first big league addition since November when the Crew signed catcher Luke Maile.

First reported by FanSided’s Robert Murray, the Brewers signed utility infielder Daniel Robertson to a one year deal. We would later learn from Mark Feinsand that Robertson was signed for $900,000 with the potential to earn another $400,000 in incentives.

The 26-year-old Robertson is a former first-round pick of the Oakland Athletics in 2012. He was eventually traded to Tampa Bay in 2015, where he would make his MLB debut with the Rays in 2017.

Over the last four years, Robertson has split time between the big leagues and the minors, appearing in a career-high 87 games in 2018. This was also the best year at the plate for Robertson in his young career. He would go on to slash .262/.382/.415 for a .797 OPS with nine home runs and an OPS+ of 122.

Most recently, in 2020, Robertson’s contract was bought out by San Francisco, where he would appear in 13 games during the shortened season before being non-tendered.

In 21 at-bats, he would record a slash line of .333/.417/.333 with a .750 OPS. However, it’s worth noting that Robertson’s hard-hit rate was only 26.7 percent, according to Fangraphs, and his BAbip of .467 was well above his career average.

So given the underlying numbers, it’s fair to wonder just how sustainable that production is, and truthfully, it likely isn’t.

Over his big league career, which spans 249 games and 855 plate appearances, Robertson holds a slash line of .234/.342/.352 with 16 home runs and an OPS+ of 91. He boasts a decent walk rate of 11.6 percent but has also struck out at a high rate as well, at over 25 percent of the time.

Defensively, Robertson brings versatility, something that we know Stearns and manager Craig Counsell covet. In the big leagues, he’s primarily played second base, third base, and shortstop but he also has some playing time in the outfield. Given the Brewers’ need at the hot corner, I imagine that we can expect to see Robertson spending a majority of his time there this season.

However, while Robertson brings versatility, what he doesn’t bring is any minor league options. This, along with positional flexibility, are usually two boxes that many new additions to the Brewers check—although he is potentially under team control for a few more years.

Robertson gives the Milwaukee Brewers added versatility off the bench and a young player who has found some success — albeit a small sample size — at the big league level. With that said, he hasn’t been an every day starter at any point in his career, and I wouldn’t expect him to now with the Crew. Other moves to help fill the void at third base are sure to follow.