Brewers: 3 Free Agents from MLBTR’s Top 50 List Predicted to the Crew

Though we have plenty of baseball-less months ahead of us, one fun exercise Brewers fans can go through to pass the time will be guessing which free agents the team might sign in the offseason. For some, that means reading many of the top free agent lists across the internet.

MLB Trade Rumors recently released their annual list of their Top 50 Free Agents in baseball. The list comes complete with contract projections as well as the teams with which they expect the players to land. This year, they have three different writers predicting the landing spot for each player.

The Brewers have some needs of their own to fill ahead of the 2022 season, and as such, there are a few players that the MLBTR piece feels would be good fits for Milwaukee. A couple would address their outfield depth, while another would require a new rule to be implemented for next season.

Here are three free agents that MLBTR has predicted to the Brewers for the 2022 season.

1. OF Jorge Soler

There’s an old saying that goes, “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” Perhaps in this case, you have ’em join you.

Jorge Soler was a thorn in the Brewers’ side when he played them in 2021. In six regular season games, he went 7 for 21 with three home runs, four RBIs, and four runs scored. And he did it as a member of two different teams.

Soler began the season slowly while playing in his fifth season for the Kansas City Royals, slashing .192/.288/.370 in 94 games. He found some new life, though, after being traded to the Atlanta Braves at the deadline, slashing .269/.358/.524 with 14 homers in 55 games the rest of the way.

The 29-year-old outfielder first broke through to the majors with the Cubs in 2014 and has compiled an overall slash line of .246/.331/.465 over eight seasons as well as a 3.6 bWAR. Now he finds himself in free agency for the first time in his career.

If there was one thing Soler does, it’s hit the ball hard as his average exit velocity, hard hit rate, and barrel rate have all ranked in the 79th percentile or better in each of the last three seasons per Statcast. He also strikes out a lot, however, having never had less than a 23.6% strikeout rate.

Tim Dierkes of MLBTR has Soler predicted to the Brewers at $36MM over three years. Milwaukee could use some outfield depth after Avisail Garcia decided to exercise the opt out in his contract, but it would be surprising to see David Stearns pony up that amount for a player who had a negative bWAR (-0.3) last season.