Brewers: Three Free Agent Outfielders that Make Sense for Milwaukee

Nomar Mazara

Nomar Mazara, a former highly touted prospect, has been unable to live up to his potential in the Majors yet. The former White Sox and Rangers player enters free agency with five years of MLB service, no options remaining, and among the youngest outfielders on the market at only 25 years old (he turns 26 on April 26th).

A young player, highly touted, who has not lived to his potential? Sounds similar to Orlando Arcia. Mazara has a career wRC+ of 90, while his 2020 wRC+ was a feeble 68.

Mazara’s struggles have been consistent throughout his career. His wRC+ has never reached the league average of 100, but his offensive stats took a significant decline in 2020. Mazara has raw power, as seen in his hard hit % which was  in the 90th percentile, and his exit velocity was in the 82nd percentile.

However, his Isolated Power, calculated by subtracting batting average from slugging percentage, was a measly 0.066 far below his career ISO of .190, league average is typically around .140. 2020 was a weird season that provided small sample sizes, which hopefully means Mazara’s extreme struggles will be viewed as an aberration.

Like Schwarber, Mazara provides mediocre to poor defense in right field, but perhaps the ballpark that helped Yelich break out could help Mazara.

Mazara has only played in right field since 2018, however his tools are too good to ignore. He was projected to earn near $6MM in arbitration and is likely to generate much interest, but should David Stearns and Matt Arnold find him in their price range, he could be a target.