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

The Brewers have a serious need at the corner infield. Who are some under the radar players they could acquire.

Expect the unexpected. That’s what it seems like fans have to do to figure out who the Milwaukee Brewers might acquire in their next trade. President of Baseball Ops David Stearns keeps things close to the vest and rumors rarely leak out of who they’re targeting.

This has been the way Stearns operates and it’s made almost all of his moves a surprise when they first come down. After a longer look, the player(s) they acquired seems like an obvious fit that no one really thought about.

Players such as Travis Shaw, Christian Yelich, and Luis Urias seemed like such perfect additions after they were acquired, but did anyone really think the Brewers would be after those players before the deal came down?

Stearns’ quiet nature makes predicting his next move extremely difficult. So instead of going after some of the expected names on the market, we’re going to look at a few unexpected potential targets that aren’t drawing much attention in the public sphere.

1. Pavin Smith, 1B, Arizona

The Arizona Diamondbacks have quite the first base situation on their hands. They have Christian Walker as their incumbent first baseman who has played well the past few seasons.

Unless they want to move on from Walker, they’re also going to need find a home for Pavin Smith.

Smith was a 7th overall pick in 2017, selected just a few spots ahead of Keston Hiura. His calling card is his hit tool and on-base ability, just like Hiura as well. Smith has above-average raw power that he’s yet to tap into consistently, but perhaps taking his left-handed swing to Miller Park can help him out in that regard.

The Brewers were able to get Christian Yelich to tap into his power while keeping his hit tool strong, perhaps they could do the same with Smith.

Smith is big league ready and played in 12 games for the D-Backs in 2020 with a .270 average and .746 OPS with one home run. It’s not a large sample size, but his potential to hit is clear.

He can also play some corner outfield but Arizona has Kole Calhoun and David Peralta in the corners, so they don’t really need him out there and with Walker at first base, Smith doesn’t really have a job.

If he comes to Milwaukee in a trade, Smith will immediately be given the chance to play everyday at first base. He would provide an upgrade to the Crew’s offense and supply some more power potential to the lineup.

Smith has been a bit of a slow starter in the minor leagues, but he gets in a groove in the middle of the year and the end of the year and finishes strong.

Smith is only ranked 27th on Arizona’s Top 30 list, so his prospect stock has dropped a bit, presumably because his big raw power hasn’t shown up quite yet, but that could mean the acquisition price is a little more palatable and should the Brewers be able to tap into the huge power that he has, Smith would be an absolute steal.

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.