Milwaukee Brewers Trade for All-Star Eduardo Escobar, Adding Big Bat to Lineup

With the MLB trade deadline approaching, it was just a matter of time before David Stearns, and the Milwaukee Brewers made a move. Bullpen depth and adding a big bat to the lineup were two of the more pressing needs for Milwaukee, and they’ve decided to address the latter by acquiring Eduardo Escobar from the Arizona Diamondbacks, as reported by Jeff Passan of ESPN.

From a defensive standpoint, this is a very Stearns-eque type of acquisition, with Escobar bringing tremendous versatility–he can pretty much play any infield position. Since joining the Diamondbacks in 2018, Escobar’s primary position has been third base, but he also spent time at second and shortstop as well, which will allow him to fill in for Willy Adames and Kolten Wong when needed.

"“We’ve added a player who gives us a very high level of redundancy around the diamond,” Stearns said via The Athletic ($$). “I’m not sure there’s another player available who can really give us that level of support at every position.”"

Escobar also has some experience in the outfield, and although he has never actually played an inning at first base, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com reports that the Brewers plan to use him at first base against lefties. This season by Baseball Savant’s Outs Above Average (OAA) metric, Escobar is +4 as a defender–the league average is zero.

On offense, the switch-hitting Escobar will allow manager Craig Counsell to really play matchups, something that we know he loves to do. Over his 11 year career, Escobar has a .256/.308/.435 slash line, totaling a .743 OPS along with an average of 20 home runs per season, and an OPS+ of 98–just below league average. He also has a career OPS of .772 against lefties and .730 against righties.

This season specifically, Escobar has a .246 average at the plate with a .778 OPS and an OPS+ of 107. He’s also mashed 22 home runs, hit 12 doubles, four triples, knocked in 65 runners, and was a first-time All-Star for the National League this season.

For a player with some pop at the plate, Escobar doesn’t strike out at a high rate–only 19.6 percent of the time over his career. But on the flip side, he doesn’t draw a ton of walks either at just 6.7 percent of the time, as evidenced by .300 OBP this season.

And like many of the additions before him, Escobar will be another positive clubhouse presence here in Milwaukee as well:

"“That’s part of this,” Stearns said via The Athletic ($$). “You talk to a lot of people about Eduardo and they all rave about him. He cares about his teammates and that rubs off on people. We’ve got a clubhouse that cares about each other in a real way and adding another quality person to that mix is an important aspect of this.”"

As part of the trade, the Milwaukee Brewers will be sending catcher Cooper Hummel and infielder Alberto Ciprian to Arizona. The Brewers will also be picking up the remaining $2.8 million left on Escobar’s 2021 salary, which is the final year of his deal, making him a rental.

The trade deadline is Friday afternoon, and as they have often done in recent years, I would expect the Milwaukee Brewers to make at least one more move adding to their bullpen. But with David Stearns at the helm, we never truly know.