What Are The Brewers To Do With Keston Hiura?

Option #1: Bite the bullet, give him everyday ABs and hope he finds a groove

This option is perhaps the least likely. The way Hiura is playing right now is not going to be enough for Craig Counsell to justify putting him in the lineup every single day. Hiura needs regular ABs to get into a hot stretch at the plate and find his way again.

It’s very difficult to get into a groove at the plate when your opportunities to hit are so irregular. Let’s be honest, Hiura hasn’t had a chance for regular ABs at the big league level since April of last season. Ever since his slump to start last year the Brewers have only given him part-time duties. They are certainly justified in doing so by his performance. But it’s hard to get him to that 2019 level again if he doesn’t get the chance to play everyday.

Tyrone Taylor was struggling in a part time role, but now that he’s getting everyday ABs, he’s improved markedly at the plate. It stands to reason that if increased playing time works for Taylor, it would likely work for Hiura.

However, every day that goes by with him in the lineup and not performing makes it that much more difficult to put him in again the next day. How long would Counsell bite that bullet? A week? Two weeks? A whole month?

This team is trying to win. They can’t afford to put Hiura in there everyday for a couple weeks hoping he’ll figure it out. Plus, can you really even judge a player just on a two week stretch? That answer is no.

Option #2: Keep him in a part-time role/back and forth with Nashville

The second option the Brewers have with Hiura is to continue doing what they have been doing. That would be keeping him in more of a part-time role in the big leagues with perhaps the occasional option to Triple-A Nashville to get him some more ABs.

But what does this really do for Hiura? It’s what’s best for the Brewers to win on a day-by-day basis, but Hiura’s potential growth out of this slump is stunted. He’s relegated to trying to get hot again and find his swing at the big league level with only a small handful of ABs a week. How can he get back to that “future All Star” level that was expected of him only playing two or three days a week?

The Brewers had bigger hopes for Hiura, especially based on his draft position. A top 10 player in the draft should be more than a part-timer at the big league level. Plus, with his poor defense and lack of versatility, what does he bring the team as a part-timer if his bat doesn’t perform?

Whenever he goes down to Triple-A he dominates. He continues to prove he’s better than Triple-A but he isn’t performing in MLB. So where does he belong? He belongs above Triple-A, but doesn’t seem to belong in MLB.

This is Hiura’s last option year. Next season, if he struggles or needs ABs, they cannot send him down to Triple-A. Then, their hands will really be tied.

Milwaukee knows Hiura CAN be better than this and be an everyday player, but he’s just not showing it for whatever reasons.

Option #3: Give Hiura a change of scenery

This is the option the Brewers likely do not want to take, but it may be the best one for both them and Hiura in the long run. I think Keston Hiura needs a change of scenery.

We’re going on three seasons since Hiura has been a productive bat at the big league level. He provides almost nothing defensively and his profile is driven entirely by his bat. The Brewers don’t have the ability to give him the leash necessary anymore to find it again. But some other team probably does.

There are a couple of reasons that making this move would be a tough pill to swallow. If they sell Hiura now, they’re selling low, at the absolute basement of his value. The return he would’ve garnered had they moved him in 2018 or 2019 or 2020, or even in 2021 is miles ahead what he’s worth now. Hiura would be little more than a throw in to a trade at this point.

The Brewers also invested a ton in Hiura, drafting him early, pushing him to the bigs quickly, making plans around him being a .300 hitter with 30 home runs in the middle of their lineup. The belief was so high. Giving up on him so quickly after getting just a taste of that potential in 2019 is so tough to do.

Plus, if he figures it out elsewhere, it’ll feel like the Brewers did all that work for nothing. They saw the talent, they knew it was there, but he just couldn’t figure it out. And then to see him figure it out for someone else? That hurts.

So for the Brewers to give Hiura a change of scenery would mean getting only pennies on the dollar on their investment, and then potentially seeing that investment pay off in a big way for someone else, who then look like geniuses and the Brewers look like fools.

I think the Brewers want to ensure that if Keston Hiura does figure it out at the big league level, it’s with the Milwaukee Brewers. They are going to want to be absolutely sure that he cannot get it done against MLB pitching before they move on from him. They will not look the fool here.

These are the options the organization has with Keston Hiura, and none of them are great. If Hiura was a 10th round pick or a 5th round pick or even a 2nd round pick, they’d just cut their losses and move on. But a Top 10 overall selection? Not so fast.

Obviously the best thing that could happen is Hiura finding his 2019 form and hitting the snot out of the ball again and proving he’s worthy of being an everyday player. That would be nice. We just haven’t seen it in three years and we may not see it again.