Milwaukee Brewers Must Trade Gerardo Parra to Giants

The opportunity is there for the taking again. The Milwaukee Brewers had a chance to trade Gerardo Parra to the Toronto Blue Jays on day one of spring training, when Michael Saunders went down. Now after losing Hunter Pence to a broken arm the San Francisco Giants need outfield help bad and the Brewers need to jump in and make a move to deal Parra.

The San Francisco outfield situation went from good to bad quickly. With Pence out, their best options to replace him this spring are Juan Perez, Gregor Blanco and Justin Maxwell. While Blanco is a strong outfielder, none of these names would be exciting to pencil into the lineup as a full-time Pence replacement. In trading for Parra, the Giants would not only get a great defender, but a hitter with a .274 career average who can hit atop their order.

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Yes Parra is an excellent outfielder, but keeping a Gold Glove talent with a $6.2 million dollar contract on the bench makes no sense. Parra is said to possibly platoon, but any regular at-bats he would get would take the bat out of the hands of Khris Davis who is primed for a breakout 2015 and simply a better offensive threat than Parra.

Parra’s stellar defensive skills would be a great plus as a defensive replacement, but there are much cheaper alternatives. Players like Shane Peterson, Logan Schafer, Elian Herrera and Matt Long could provide strong defense if needed off the bench.

When they traded for him last July they parted with outfield prospect, Mitch Haniger. By trading him again they could possibly net a minor leaguer with similar talent who could make the organization stronger. In making a move they could possibly land a talent like Ryder Jones, a third base talent who finished the year at high A in 2014. Getting a player like Jones they could have another player who can play third in the minors (which is something they greatly lack).

The Brewers missed out weeks ago on an opportunity to make a move and they cannot do it again. The Giants cannot go into the season with what they have and with tremendous outfield depth the Brewers need to get a deal done.

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