Brewers Shockingly Trade Orlando Arcia To The Atlanta Braves

The Milwaukee Brewers just four games into the season have made a shocking trade, sending shortstop Orlando Arcia to the Atlanta Braves.

Your calendar is not wrong, it’s still April. It’s not July. It’s not normally trading season, yet here we are with Orlando Arcia on the move.

Fansided’s Robert Murray was first to report that Arcia was being shipped out.

Ken Rosenthal later added that the destination was Atlanta.

Mark Bowman of MLB had the names of the players coming back to the Brewers in return.

Patrick Weigel was the Braves’ No. 12 prospect on MLB Pipeline, and was a higher rated prospect prior to his Tommy John surgery. Weigel has the stuff to start, but his long-term outlook depends on his command. There’s a strong chance he becomes a reliever, but with his size and stuff, he should be a very strong option for Craig Counsell.

Chad Sobotka has spent parts of the last three seasons in the Braves bullpen. He had a strong debut season in 2018, not as strong of a season in 2019, and struggled in just a small handful of appearances in 2020.

Both were on the Braves’ 40 man roster, and with Arcia heading out, the Brewers will still need to clear another spot on the 40 man roster somewhere.

The Brewers trade of Orlando Arcia cements Luis Urias as the Crew’s starting shortstop going forward.

After the Brewers traded for Luis Urias last year, it was only a matter of time before Orlando Arcia was gone. This year, they decided that Urias is going to be the everyday guy and they needed to see him in that role. The easiest way to do that, is to clear Arcia from the roster.

From a baseball perspective, it makes sense to trade Arcia. He has just under two years left under contract, and he’s been a possible non-tender candidate each of the past two years. Urias is taking over his job, and his value isn’t going to be getting any higher the longer the Brewers hold on to him.

Emotionally, seeing Arcia in another uniform will hurt, as he was the key name in the rebuild, one of the best prospects to come through the farm system in a long time, and he’s just a fun player to watch and have on the team. He was easy to root for, if not frustrating to watch hit sometimes.

The Brewers have their only win of the season so far because of an Orlando Arcia walk off single. He came up in the clutch a lot and was a fan-favorite.

Urias doesn’t have the fan following that Arcia does, but he’s a very capable shortstop in his own right and is a far better hitter. This is Urias’ year to prove himself as the starting shortstop. Brice Turang is another top prospect coming up through the minor league system and should be ready starting in 2022.

The Brewers have placed an emphasis on infield depth and now they have dealt from that depth. Stearns maintains that flexibility and even though Arcia isn’t on the team, they’re still well covered in the infield.