Milwaukee Brewers: 3 Third Base Prospects To Know For 2019 MLB Draft

The 2019 MLB Draft is coming upon us quickly. With the Milwaukee Brewers holding the 28th overall selection, there’s a wide variety of players they could pick.

After profiling some potential outfielders and shortstops for the Milwaukee Brewers to select, our attention now turns to the hot corner with some top available third base prospects.

Third base has been a tough position for the Brewers to develop over the past several years, having to go to free agent and trade fill-ins to get some production. Now with Travis Shaw/Mike Moustakas over at third, top third base prospect Lucas Erceg is close to knocking on the door of the big leagues, playing in Triple-A San Antonio this season.

Although Erceg’s prospect star power has lost some of its luster, he’s a great defensive player with above-average power. However, after Erceg, the farm system is a little thin on third base prospects, with Erceg being the only one in the MLB Pipeline Top 30.

Should the Brewers want to add to that depth with a player that has a higher hit tool than Erceg (45), they could look to one of these three players with their first round selection.

Kody Hoese, 3B, Tulane

Hoese is MLB Pipeline’s 27th ranked prospect, putting him right in range to be the Milwaukee Brewers first selection. The 6’4″, 200 pound third baseman also was among the many names listed in our first MLB Mock Draft Roundup.

The Tulane product seems like your prototypical third baseman: Tall, strong, big power from the right side, great throwing arm, below average speed, and a decent ability to hit for average. There’s nothing wrong with that profile, and it’s one you see littered across the big leagues at that position. Aside from being right handed, it sounds a lot like Travis Shaw.

Hoese had 23 homers in the regular season this spring for Tulane and that’s good for fourth-best in the NCAA. The power is definitely there for Hoese, and his disciplined plate approach and gap-to-gap ability has teams thinking about him as better than just a three true outcome player.

Tyler Callihan, 3B, Providence (FL) HS

Callihan was also on that list of players included in our Mock Draft Roundup, and I can definitely see why he was mocked to the Milwaukee Brewers.

If the Brewers select Callihan, they’ll be taking the “Keston Hiura approach” where you draft the bat and figure out the rest later. This is what MLB Pipeline had to say about their 32nd ranked draft prospect:

Callihan has shown an innate ability to barrel up the baseball, both at a number of elite-level events over the summer, as well as this spring, with an advanced approach from the left side of the plate

Callihan had a .528 batting average with the Team USA 18U National team. Not slugging or on-base percentage, that’s batting average.

To again refer back to the Keston Hiura approach, this Callihan dude can hit.

Callihan’s power has also been on the rise lately, and as a left-handed hitter, he should have a ton of fun hitting fly balls in Miller Park.

He has a college commitment to South Carolina that he would need to be signed away from, but being a first round pick is tough to pass up.

The main question about Callihan is his ability to stick at third base. He’s not very fast, unsurprisingly, and has a limited range defensively. Even though he’s a bit shorter at 5’11”, perhaps a move to first base is in his future should he be selected by the Milwaukee Brewers.

If Callihan is there at No. 28, I would not be surprised to see Scouting Director Tod Johnson select him. The Brewers love big hit tools and they can take that Keston Hiura approach (which seems to have worked out so far), and draft Callihan’s bat while they figure out the rest later.