Milwaukee Brewers: Who’s Left on the Third Base Market?

Spring Training is fast approaching, and the Milwaukee Brewers still have a pretty glaring hole in the lineup at third base. They made a run at Justin Turner, who was widely considered the top third baseman in free agency, but he ultimately chose to stick with his hometown Dodgers. Turner was the only real chance to add a star bat to the lineup at this position, but there are a few guys left who could still be starting in the hot corner for Milwaukee on Opening Day.

The remaining field is mostly filled with guys who are on the wrong side of 30 and on the decline of their career. However, that means that they’ll come cheap looking for a place to play.  There’s still some talent on the board late in the offseason, and that’s always good for David Stearns, so let’s look at where he could find value in this third base free-agent class.

They just brought back Travis Shaw on a minor league deal, but that doesn’t mean that they’re done addressing this position. There’s no guarantee that Shaw will be on the Opening Day roster this season and they could very well make some more signings to get “as many bites of the apple” as possible.

Maikel Franco

At 28-years-old, Franco is the youngest legitimate major league player still left in free agency. Franco is a reliable player at third and played every game in 2020 and has played over 150 games twice in his career as well.

The biggest upside for Franco is that he makes contact and doesn’t strikeout. Since he became a starter in 2016, his strikeout percentage has been 70th percentile or higher and has been at least 84th percentile in all of the past three seasons. He doesn’t always hit the ball hard, and his exit velocity has been volatile over his career. His high contact rate, though, means that he’s bound to get lucky and he has in three seasons hit .270 or better.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t translate to getting on base often because he doesn’t walk often, and his career on-base percentage is just .304. He does have some pop in his bat and has hit over 20 homers three times in his career and had eight in 2020.

Defensively, he is below average and has -37 Runs Saved Above Average for his career. That isn’t enough to be extremely concerned, but he isn’t going to be one of the best defenders in the infield. Overall, he could be a solid one or two-year stopgap while the Milwaukee Brewers work in Luis Urias and see if he can develop into their starting third baseman. That’s what many of these guys will be, but Franco has the added benefit of the possibility of being a long-term solution if Urias doesn’t work out.