Milwaukee Brewers: The top 5 shortstops in franchise history

The Milwaukee Brewers have had many good shortstops don their uniform since they were awarded the franchise in 1970. However, many of them only had a short stay, making a list much harder than one would imagine.

It is pretty obvious that the majority of Brewers fans already know who the best shortstop is. He is the same guy that is the best center fielder in their history. That is a pretty unique place in history to be the best at two positions. Robin Yount actually won MVP’s at both positions, on his way to a Hall of Fame career.

Missing the cut

We will get back to Robin’s credentials later. When researching for this post, it became apparent pretty quickly the Brewers have had talent manning short. Gary Sheffield is a Hall of Fame talent, but he wore out his welcome very quickly. He did have over 1,000 at bats in Milwaukee, but he actually played third base for the majority of those. His glove work also left a lot to be desired.

Current Brewers skipper Craig Counsell also played a lot of shortstop on some very good teams in Milwaukee. He was also at the end of a great career and did not put up numbers good enough for this list. In his six seasons in Milwaukee, he hit .250 or under in five of those campaigns.

The shortstop of the future is supposed to be Orlando Arcia. His fielding has been just short of sublime. Arcia makes extremely difficult plays look routine. He also has not found himself at the plate yet. The young shortstop seemed to turn the corner in 2017 with a slash line of .277/.324/.407, but he has struggled to stay over the Mendoza Line in 2018. He has not done enough yet to be included.

Alcides Escobar was very similar to Arcia in his career with the Brewers. He flashed in the field, but never put it together early in his career. Escobar was later included in the Zack Greinke trade and he flourished in Kansas City. He just did not play well enough when he was here.

Let’s start the list.