Milwaukee Brewers Trade Orlando Arcia—it was Just a Matter of Time

Once the Milwaukee Brewers traded for Luis Urias, it really seemed like it was just a matter of time before Orlando Arcia was dealt. Well, that time has come as Arcia is on his way to Atlanta, as reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

Initially, we didn’t exactly know who the Brewers were getting in return, other than that they were two pitchers, but Jon Heyman would report that Milwaukee is receiving Patrick Weigel and Chad Sobotka in return.

Weigel pitched in two-thirds of an inning in 2020, while Sobotka has pitched in 47.0 big league innings since 2018.

Arcia has been a staple of this Milwaukee Brewers team the last few years as the team’s starting shortstop for most of it. Touted for his defensive ability, he was never able to consistently get going at the plate.

During his first full season with the Crew in 2017, Arcia slashed .277/.324/.407 over 153 games. However, over the next two seasons, those numbers dipped drastically, with his average plummeting to .228 and his OPS to .610. His career OPS+ is just 72—the league average is 100.

Sure we saw some clutch hits, a very good playoff performance in 2018, and he did knock in the game-winning run on Opening Day this year, but those moments were few and far between.

Even his defense by advanced metrics has declined. By Baseball Savant’s Outs Above Average (OAA) metric, Arcia was +8 in OAA in 2017 and +12 in 2018. However, those numbers dipped to -3 in 2019 and +1 in 2020.

And while the Milwaukee Brewers trading Arcia four games into the season comes as a bit of a surprise, as Kyle Lesniewski of Brew Crew Ball pointed out, the Crew has tried to replace — or at least reduce Arcia’a playing time — on numerous occasions over the years. In addition to Urias, some names include Tyler Saladino, Brad Miller, Nate Orf, Jonathan Schoop, Hernan Perez, and Corey Spangenberg.

As President of Baseball Operations David Stearns told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, this was a move that has been discussed for a while now:

"“We’ve had conversations, off and on, with a number of teams about Orlando for a couple of months.”"

With all of that said, Arcia will certainly be missed. He brought an energy and an excitement to the ballpark every day that was nearly impossible not to gravitate towards—even through the ups and downs.

With Arcia no longer in the picture, the Brewers’ infield defense gets a little thinner, and now Daniel Robertson will be tasked with a larger role, filling in around the diamond when needed.