Brewers: 3 Things To Watch As Spring Training Gets Underway

For the Milwaukee Brewers, pitchers and catchers officially report today! Spring training has now officially started and the 2020 season will follow soon after.

Finally, the long offseason is now over. It began earlier than we had hoped for the Brewers after their Wild Card loss to the Nationals, and the last few months were quite stressful for Brewers fans.

Gone are the trusted veterans Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas. Gone are Jimmy Nelson, Chase Anderson, Zach Davies, Trent Grisham, Travis Shaw, Eric Thames, Jordan Lyles, and Drew Pomeranz. Now a whole new cast of contributors have been brought in to replace them.

The Brewers enter spring training with an uneasy fanbase that has a lot of questions about the roster they’re going to see this season.

With so many things going on in spring training, here are the three most important things to watch for as Brewers spring training unfolds.

1. How Much Time Does Ryan Braun Spend At First Base?

This was the same question heading into 2018 after the Brewers got Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain during that offseason. Ryan Braun was projected to spend a lot more time at first base, but the emergence of Jesus Aguilar that spring limited Braun to 12 starts at first in the regular season, basically ending that experiment.

But now both Jesus Aguilar and Eric Thames are gone. In to replace them are Justin Smoak and Ryon Healy. There’s room for at-bats for Ryan Braun at first base in there, and there could be a platoon between Smoak and Braun.

The thing is, the Brewers have to find at-bats for Braun somewhere. They’re simply paying him too much money not to. Braun will earn $17MM this year, the highest salary on the team.

The Brewers brought in Avisail Garcia on a multi-year contract this winter, and are paying him a $10MM AAV, which is not a sum you pay to a guy to sit on the bench. They also can’t pay Braun $17MM to sit on the bench either.

There are only three outfield spots and the Brewers four highest paid players are all outfielders. One of them has to move and Braun is the most likely candidate. The Brewers have been quiet about how much time they expect Braun to play at first base, but once games start, we’ll get a better idea.

3. How Does Orlando Arcia Perform?

This offseason, the Brewers acquired an even younger shortstop prodigy in Luis Urias. A solid defender, Urias is known as a great hitter as well and was set to challenge incumbent Orlando Arcia for the starting shortstop job on Opening Day. Unfortunately, Urias needed surgery on his hand/wrist a few weeks ago and will miss most of spring training and the start of the season.

That lets Arcia off the hook, for now. But the battle drums are still beating in the distance. Once Urias comes back, there will be a battle between the two for the starting job, but it’ll have to play out over the regular season now instead.

But that doesn’t mean Arcia can slack off until his competition returns, however. With him getting the bulk of the opportunities in spring training then, Arcia’s performance will be even more scrutinized.

If Arcia struggles to hit during spring training, then Urias could be handed the job as soon as he returns to the club. If Arcia starts swinging a hot bat during camp and to start the season, Urias would face an uphill climb to unseat Arcia. It would be a true battle for the job then, but with Urias being the newcomer, he starts at a disadvantage. The Brewers want Arcia to be successful. He’s a homegrown player that they signed when he was just 16 years old. He was the most hyped position prospect to come through the system since Ryan Braun. They would finally have a stud, homegrown shortstop.

But Arcia’s offense has struggled to gain traction over the past three years and the Crew’s patience is running out. If he can’t get it going this year, and Urias starts to hit like his track record shows he will, it could be the end of the line for Arcia in Milwaukee.

The Brewers are looking to make 2020 their third-straight postseason appearance, and that journey starts today. There’s a lot of questions about this team, but if the right answers show up, they’re in a good position.