While the Brewers are in first place, they have had their problems offensively this season. As a team, Milwaukee is only hitting .224 as a team, which is 29th in all of baseball. Only the Seattle Mariners have a lower average. It also doesn’t help that Christian Yelich still hasn’t found his bat yet since coming off the injured list in May. Making matters worse is Kolten Wong and Lorenzo Cain can’t seem to stay healthy and Travis Shaw is on the 60-day injured list. While Willy Adames has been amazing since the trade, Omar Narvaez made the all-star team and Avisail Garcia is having a great season; this offense could use more “pop” in the lineup. I believe the Brewers should trade for a first baseman this upcoming trade deadline.
While they did trade for Rowdy Tellez in early July; I can’t see him being a long-term solution at the position. While it’s too early to say whether or not it was a good trade; there are still plenty of better options at the position. For much of this year, the Brewers have struggled to get production from their first basemen. It seems as though there is a never-ending list of players who have appeared at the position for the crew.
The struggle to find a consistent first baseman goes back to the time when Prince Fielder left. The Brewers have played many players at the position, but none have panned out. While Keston Hiura showed promise at one point, that seems so long ago now.
So far, the Brewers have played a few different people at the position with mixed results at best. While Daniel Vogelbach has at least been better, he hasn’t been productive enough to warrant the Brewers to not trade for anyone. And he’s not going to return from his hamstring injury until early August.
Despite two demotions to Nashville, Keston Hiura still looks lost and seems to be the automatic out in the line-up. While Jace Peterson has filled in admirably for Kolten Wong, it remains to be seen if he can keep that consistency. When Travis Shaw returns from the 60-day injured list; he could play first base since Luis Urias seems to have locked down third base. But he wasn’t hitting well prior to being injured and figures to be a platoon player or have a veteran bench role. The Brewers did acquire Rowdy Tellez, but I don’t envision him playing every day.
Despite having many internal options, none of them appear to be great answers. The Brewers have given opportunities for those players to lock down the job and none have. The Brewers need a quick solution at the position if they want to make a deep playoff run. There isn’t enough time to keep trying players at a very important offensive position.
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