Brewers: 3 Under The Radar Corner Infielders The Crew Might Trade For

2. Sheldon Neuse, 3B, Oakland

Neuse, 26, is one of Oakland’s top prospects but lacks a true home. He has a very strong throwing arm and should make for a very strong defensive third baseman. The problem is that Oakland already has a Gold Glove third baseman in Matt Chapman on their roster for the next several years.

Neuse is versatile enough that he can play second base, some shortstop, and a little corner outfield, but that’s almost out of necessity at this point because of the organization he’s in.

Here’s a little from what MLB Pipeline had to say about Neuse.

Neuse could be a big league regular in another organization, but for now looks like a very solid super-utility type whose bat will force its way into the lineup more often than not.

Hmm, could be a big league regular somewhere else, but is stuck in a super-utility role and has a great bat that will keep him in the lineup. Where have we heard that before? Sounds kind of like Luis Urias’ situation with the Padres when the Brewers jumped in to acquire him last year.

The difference between Neuse and Urias though, is that Neuse has power. In Triple-A in 2019, Neuse hit 27 bombs while hitting .317 at the plate. He only has 25 games of experience at the big league level, all in 2019, and it wasn’t stellar, but what he needs is a full opportunity to play everyday.

Adding Neuse to the roster would help solve a couple of problems for the Brewers. He would give the Crew a possible long-term solution at third base instead of a one-year stopgap fix, and he would upgrade the power potential of this offense.

Since he’s a blocked prospect and only holds super-utility value to the A’s, his acquisition cost might be lower than it otherwise normally would for a player of his caliber. As for how much lower, that’s tough to tell.

Although a move like this won’t save them much money, Oakland is going to be in a tight spot financially. But I doubt their budget would be tight enough where they would consider trading Chapman instead of Neuse. Chapman would cost a lot more in terms of prospects, but he’s unlikely to go anywhere which makes Neuse a better target.

3. Seth Beer, 1B, Arizona

This man was born to be on the Milwaukee Brewers. With a last name like ‘Beer’, he belongs in Milwaukee.

Beer is another hard hitting first baseman the Diamondbacks have in their system but have no place to put him with Christian Walker ahead of him on the depth chart.

Defensively, Beer isn’t great at either first base or corner outfield. But he has made some progress and he can improve to be at least passable at either position. The big thing with Beer is his bat.

In his two years in the minor leagues, Beer has a .294/.388/.508 slash line with 38 doubles and 38 home runs. Across High-A and Double-A in 2019, Beer slugged 26 homers in 122 games with 103 RBIs. Beer has struck out about 22% of the time in the minor leagues, which, for a big power hitter like Beer, actually isn’t that bad.

There were questions about Beer’s hit tool going into the 2018 Draft, which is why he fell a bit, but he’s made some tweaks to his swing in the minor leagues and they appear to have worked.

One potential issue for the Brewers is that Beer may not be ready to take over the big league first base job starting on Opening Day 2021. He hasn’t played in Triple-A yet, although he likely would’ve in 2020 and there’s a chance he’s ready for a big league role. But he’s not on Arizona’s 40 man roster and the Brewers may want to give him a little more seasoning before they entrust the role to him if they were to acquire him.

Should that be the case, the Brewers may need to grab another insurance policy at first base in the form of another veteran looking for a place to play on a cheap one year deal. Beer could provide a long term solution to the Crew’s first base woes, but he may not be able to step in immediately.

Perhaps the Brewers feel that he could step in right away, perhaps not. Pavin Smith, as mentioned earlier, likely could step in right away, as could Sheldon Neuse at third base.

Perhaps the Brewers don’t like any of these guys and if David Stearns is reading this, he’s laughing to himself because these three guys aren’t even close to who they’re targeting. Perhaps these are exactly the guys they’re looking at.

Expect the unexpected with David Stearns. He’s got some moves to make this winter and when he makes them, the only surprise would be if we aren’t surprised by it.

The Milwaukee Brewers need to address the corner infield spots. Adding any one of these three players would help bring a long-term solution to one of those positions.