3 Former Brewers Who Are Struggling Elsewhere

Over the All-Star break, I thought it would be fun to check in on a couple of former Brewers to see how they were fitting in with their new teams. There were three players that stood out who are struggling with their ball clubs in 2022, and the third one might surprise you!

Here is a list of three former Brewers who are struggling so far in the 2022 season.

Struggling Former Brewer #1: Eduardo Escobar

Up first is Eduardo Escobar. Escobar was a valuable addition to the Brewers 2021 roster. Coming over at the deadline, Escobar slashed .268/.342/.458 with an OPS+ of 114 in 48 games with the Crew last season. Combining his switch-hitting with his positional versatility, Escobar had a strong market heading into the offseason.

The New York Mets signed Escobar to a 2-year, $20MM contract in December of 2021. Overall, his numbers have disappointed in the first half of 2022. He has a slash line of .224/.279/.397 with an OPS+ of 91 and a WRC+ of 94. Escobar historically has been a solid bat-to-ball player, rarely posting substantial strikeout numbers. But in 2022, he is struggling with plate discipline and generating an abnormal number of swings and misses.

Escobar has a career high strikeout rate of 25.5% and a chase rate of 32.9%- both up 4% from last season. His walk rate is also below average at 7.2% which is almost one percent lower than the year prior. He has not really excelled defensively either. He is in the 5th percentile in Outs Above Average and has a Win Probability Added (WPA) of -1.29.

While Escobar has shown flashes of power at points in his career, this appears to be a down season for his power numbers as his ISO has dipped from .219 last season to .173 this year. His quality of contact numbers are also down from last season, ranking in the 35th percentile in average exit velocity (88.4) and 24th percentile in hard hit rate (35.8%). He has been struggling to generate barrels too, as his barrel rate of 7.7% is down 1.2% from last season.

While he started to heat up in the month of July, there is still room for improvement for Escobar. For a New York Mets team that is considered to be one of the best teams in the National League, Escobar has fallen short of expectations thus far in his tenure with the Mets.