Brewers Winter Meetings Trade Target #3: Rays 3B Yandy Diaz
We thought the Rays might look to trade Yandy Diaz a few weeks ago at the 40 man roster deadline because they had so many prospects to protect and an already full roster. They made some moves, but nothing major like a move of Diaz.
But there still is a roster crunch and Diaz is one of the highest paid Rays players. Don't let that scare you, Brewers, he's only projected to earn $5.4MM in arbitration this year. For the production that he puts up, that's an incredible value as well.
The 31 year old Diaz slashed .296/.401/.423 this season with nine homers, a 14% BB rate, and just a 10.8% K rate. He is everything this Brewers offense needs. He makes great contact, hits for a very high average, draws walks, doesn't strike out, and gets on base more than 40% of the time.
Everything the Brewers have struggled at offensively, Yandy Diaz excels at. If the Brewers aren't on the phone every day with Tampa Bay trying to get a deal done, they're doing something wrong.
Diaz has two seasons of team control left and would immediately solidify the third base position for Milwaukee. The Rays are always in deal-making mode and he'll be available at the Winter Meetings for the right price. They have plenty of depth to make up for moving him, just like they did with Willy Adames. The Brewers would be well served to get another infielder in a trade from Tampa.