Milwaukee Brewers Post Lockout Free Agent Target: Tommy Pham

At some point, the MLB lockout will end — right? — and the Milwaukee Brewers will still have some roster tinkering to complete before the season begins.

How much roster tinkering will take place is the big question, but odds are the Milwaukee Brewers will make another free-agent addition, and one name who should be on their radar is Tommy Pham.

Pham’s career began in 2014 with St. Louis, and for his career, he has a slash line of .265/.364/.447. His best big league seasons came during the 2017 to 2019 seasons which were spent with St. Louis and Tampa Bay. During that span, Pham had a .284 average, with an .856 OPS, 65 home runs, and an OPS+ of 130–for added context, the league average is 100.

However, he has struggled a bit during his last two seasons with San Deigo. Pham’s batting average and OPS plummeted to .211 and .624, respectively, in 2020–although many struggled during the shortened season. But he was unable to rebound significantly in 2021 with a .229 average and an OPS of just .724 with only 18 total home runs over those two seasons.

With that said, it’s worth noting that Pham was still drawing walks despite his struggles, his BABIP over those two years was well below .300 — which means there just may have been some bad luck involved — and his strikeout rates, while not great, weren’t overly excessive either–although his hard-hit rate did dip somewhat significantly from 2020 to 2021.

Defensively, Pham can play all three outfield positions; however, he has spent a majority of his time in left field and center field. By Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), over his career, Pham is a well above average defender in left field, a below-average defender in center, and an around league average defender in right field, but he has only 43 career innings at that position.

With Avisail Garcia now with the Miami Marlins, the Milwaukee Brewers could use some added outfield depth, with Christian Yelich as the primary left fielder and Lorenzon Cain in center when he’s available along with Hunter Renfroe and Tyrone Taylor to play wherever they are needed.

It was also reported recently by MLB Trade Rumors that Pham is open to playing first base, which would give him another path to playing time with the Milwaukee Brewers–not to mention that he could fill in as the DH as well, which is supposedly coming to the NL.

Pham’s last contract with the Padres was a one-year deal worth $8.9 million, but with him coming off a pair of down seasons at the plate, his next deal could come at a reduced amount, which would obviously be good news for the Brewers if they are in fact interested.