Milwaukee Brewers: MLB.com Predicts Crew Trades for 2 Infielders

The MLB trade deadline is now just a few days away, and the Milwaukee Brewers sit with a comfortable lead in the NL Central, up 6.5 games on the second-place Cincinnati Reds. However, just as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic told us after the Crew traded for Rowdy Tellez a few weeks ago, don’t expect them to be done making moves just yet.

While I’ve been adamant that the Milwaukee Brewers need bullpen help and Robert Murray of FanSided reported that the Crew could add a pair of bullpen arms before the deadline, over at MLB.com, Mike Petriello decided to address some different needs. Mike went through and predicted where 25 possible trade targets would end up, and he has two of them coming to Milwaukee.

Jesus Aguilar – Miami Marlins

Although Rowdy Tellez found some pop over the weekend against the Chicago White Sox, his numbers are still way down this season. On top of that, Keston Hiura is still striking out at a high rate, and Daniel Vogelbach is a limited player. So don’t be surprised whatsoever if we see the Brewers still address the first base position.

Aguilar had two stellar seasons with the Brewers, including an All-Star appearance in 2018, but after a slow start to the 2019 season, Milwaukee traded him away to Tampa Bay for Jake Faria. With Aguilar struggling, nearing 30-years-old, and out of minor league options, the Brewers did what they could to get some sort of return for him.

Since then, Aguilar has bounced back, not to his MVP form by any means, but he’s been very solid. In 2020 in particular, he is slashing .263/.327/.464 for a .791 OPS with 17 home runs,16 doubles, and an OPS+ of 115. According to Baseball Savant, many of Aguilar’s peripheral numbers are all well-above league average — a good sign that nothing flukey is going on — while his walk rate and strikeout rate are both around league average.

Rosenthal would also mention Aguilar’s name when discussing the Brewers in a recent article of his, and he made an interesting note that his career OPS in the first half of the season is .963 but just .747 over the second half. Aguilar comes with a $4.35 million contract in 2021 and is under team control in 2022.

Eduardo Escobar – Arizona Diamondbacks

In explaining this move for the Milwaukee Brewers, Petriello notes that Travis Shaw has been on the IL and unproductive offensively when in the lineup and that the switch-hitting Eduardo Escobar will provide manager Craig Counsell with a switch-hitting bat to go with Kolten Wong, Jace Peterson, and Luis Urias.

Defensively, Escobar has innings this season at both third base and second base, as well as past experience at shortstop. With the Milwaukee Brewers, he would fill that utility infielder role, similar to what Urias has been providing, except that Escobar is the much better defender. According to Baseball Savant’s Outs Above Average (OAA) metric, Escobar is +3 this season by OAA while Urias is -14–zero is considered league average.

Escobar has been in the big leagues since 2011 and has a career slash line of .256/.308/.435, totaling a .743 OPS and a slightly below league average OPS+ of 98. This season, he is batting .248 with a .783 OPS. Escobar has an OPS+ of 108, along with 22 home runs, 14 doubles, and three triples. His strikeout rate is around league average while his walk rate is slightly below, and his peripheral numbers — average exit velocity, hard-hit rate, xBA, xwOBA, and others — are nothing to write home about.

Escobar comes with a $7.5 million salary in 2021, according to Spotrac, and is a free agent after the season, making him a rental for the Milwaukee Brewers.

As I mentioned initially, my biggest concern with these predictions is that Petriello didn’t have the Milwaukee Brewers addressing the bullpen. Adding to the bullpen is something that pretty much every contending team does, and David Stearns has often done that as well during his tenure. With that said, it certainly won’t surprise me if they try to beef up their offense as well, but bringing in another reliever or two is a must.