Brewers sign former top Red Sox rookie to a minor league deal

According to Curt Hogg, the Milwaukee Brewers beat reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Brewers have agreed to a minor league deal with infielder Bobby Dalbec. While Dalbec was most recently a part of the Chicago White Sox organization, he has spent most of his professional career as a part of the Boston Red Sox organization.

It's been quite a while since Dalbec was a productive big leaguer, but his ceiling should excite Brewers fans. After an impressive 23 games for the Red Sox as a rookie during the shortened 2020 season, Dalbec turned around and posted the best season of his career in the following season. Across 155 games between 2020 and 2021, Dalbec slashed .243/.308/.511 while slugging 33 home runs and driving in 94. His production fell off significantly in 2022, and he's been shuffled back-and-forth between the Triple-A and the majors ever since.

However, despite spending most of the 2023 and 2024 seasons with the Worcester Red Sox, Dalbec continued to hit. He slugged 33 HR in 114 games with the WooSox in 2023 and 20 HR in 97 games a season ago. During this past offseason, Dalbec signed a minor league contract with the White Sox, but after posting a .611 OPS in his first seven games with Chicago, he was designated for assignment.

Dalbec could potentially fill in at third base for the Brewers

While a majority of his major league innings have come at first base, Dalbec does have some experience manning the hot corner. He has appeared in 56 MLB games at third base, logging 303 total innings in the process. Dalbec has even played a little shortstop and second base in his career.

Though not known for his defense, the Brewers might be willing to sacrifice a little defense for some more offense should Dalbec find his swing again with the Nashville Sounds. With Rhys Hoskins having a resurgent year at first base for the Brewers in 2025, if Dalbec does crack the big league roster, it will most likely be as a third baseman.

While Dalbec certainly won't impact the big league club in the immediate future, he adds a high-upside bat to the Brewers Triple-A squad, who lost some infield depth this week after the promotion of Andruw Monasterio.