Brewers Draft: 3 Team Needs To Address In 2021 MLB Draft

Brewers Draft Need #3: Corner Infield Depth

I know this is a position group the Brewers have neglected a lot in recent years, and their strategy to focus on up the middle players (C, SS, 2B, CF, P) has been successful with the picks they’ve made. But they haven’t been able to develop a first baseman since Prince Fielder left a decade ago.

The last time the Brewers drafted and developed a third baseman who posted even a single 2.0 WAR season or better at the hot corner was Ryan Braun, who played one season at third and then moved to the outfield. Prior to that, you have to go back to the 1990s and Jeff Cirillo as the last homegrown third baseman the Brewers developed that had some decent success.

They’ve had varying levels of success in short stints with players like Casey McGehee, Aramis Ramirez, Travis Shaw, and Mike Moustakas. But it’d be nice to draft and develop something at the corner infield spots.

Because of the neglect in the early rounds of the draft at these positions in recent years, the farm system is quite bare at both spots. The Brewers had to claim Daniel Vogelbach last year and trade for Rowdy Tellez recently to help stock up on the position.

They’ve paid some prices to get both corner positions covered in recent years, but the most cost-effective way to fill those spots is to draft and develop your own players.

There should be some decent options to help fill out the corners in the middle rounds on Day 2 of the Draft. These spots likely won’t be addressed on Day 1 with the 15th and 33rd overall picks, but any pick in the first five rounds at either spot should be considered a win and a potential answer at a corner infield spot in the near future.

The Milwaukee Brewers have several needs to address in their system. Pitching will likely be the first one they tackle, but they also need some more bats, especially power bats. The Brewers can kill two birds with one stone as well since most corner infielders fit the power bat description.

Primarily, the need should be to take the best player available, but sometimes when you have a few players graded similarly, organizational needs like this can be tiebreakers.