Milwaukee Brewers Named Potential Trade Fit for 1B CJ Cron

At 54-39, the Milwaukee Brewers sit atop the NL Central, holding a five-game lead over the second-place Cincinnati Reds at the moment. Really since mid-May, the Brewers have been one of the hottest teams in baseball, but that doesn’t mean that President of Baseball Operations David Stearns won’t look to upgrade this roster prior to the July 30th trade deadline–as we’ve seen him do on a few occasions already.

One position that still remains in flux is first base. Daniel Vogelbach is still on the IL, but even upon his return, he comes with his limitations. Although prior to his injury, he was finding more success at the plate, overall, he was still batting .216 with a .709 OPS and a below-average OPS+ of 92.

Meanwhile, Keston Hiura is still striking out a very high rate with a .570 OPS and an abysmal OPS+ of 54–the league average is 100, by the way. Even with the recent addition of Rowdy Tellez, I don’t believe that fully takes Milwaukee out of the first baseman market because I’m not sure that he solves the issue. In his limited sample size with the Brewers, Tellez has just one hit and two walks in 10 plate appearances. For the season, he has a .600 OPS over 55 games.

Not to mention that it’s not like any of the aforementioned players are strong defenders at first base either.

So as you can see, this is still very much an upgradeable position for the Milwaukee Brewers, and one first baseman in particular that Mark Feinsand of MLB.com believes would be a good fit for the Crew is CJ Cron of the Colorado Rockies.

"“Cron has had a solid season with the Rockies, who signed him to a one-year, $1 million deal this year. Cron has 12 homers and an .834 OPS in 74 games this season, but his .960 OPS in nine games in July — which includes a stellar .459 on-base percentage — could make him a trade target for contenders.”"

This is Cron’s first season with Colorado after spending 2020 in the AL with Detroit, and he is putting together what is becoming very close to a career year for him. Over his 255 plate appearances, Cron is slashing .255/.366/.481 totaling a .846 OPS with an OPS+ of 120. He’s also added 13 home runs, 12 doubles, and a triple.

Cron is drawing walks at an above-average clip of 11.8 percent, and he’s striking out 21.9 percent of the time, which is around league average. As you can imagine, his peripheral numbers look quite good as well, with his max exit velocity ranking in the 94th percentile, according to Baseball Savant, along with his xwOBA, xSLG, and Barrel rate all well above league average.

It’s also worth noting that Cron is likely benefiting from playing in the uber-hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field, as his OPS at home is .992 while on the road; it is just .682. So wherever he is traded to, there is likely to be some regression. For his career, which has spanned eight seasons, Cron is a .257 hitter with a .783 OPS.

Defensively, Cron would also be an upgrade by Baseball Savant’s Outs Above Average (OAA) metric. In 2019 by OAA, he was +5 at first base, while in 2020, he was considered an average defender (0), and this season he is +1 up to this point.

Of course, when discussing any trade scenarios, the million-dollar question is, what will it cost to acquire that particular player. And for the Milwaukee Brewers, that likely means once again dealing from their farm system since, as a competing team, they won’t want to trade anyone of value away from their big league roster.

Without a doubt, this is a move that’s at least worth looking into. Cron would be a rental for the 2021 season, but he comes with a very inexpensive contract as he was signed for just $1 million by Colorado. He fills the biggest position of need for this team defensively — outside of the bullpen — and adds another big bat to this lineup to pair with one of the better starting rotations in the game. Consistent hitting plus this Brewers pitching staff equals a World Series contender.

The Milwaukee Brewers have already made a few trades this season, and as Stearns has said in the past, he wants to be in on every conversation. So I anticipate that Milwaukee isn’t done making deals yet, and CJ Cron is a name worth keeping our eyes on.