The Brewers have outrighted Sean Halton off their 40-man roster and assigned him to Triple-A Nashville, tweets Brewers senior director of media relations Mike Vassallo. In other words, the 26-year-old went unclaimed when placed on outright waivers.
Halton, a former 13th-round pick of the Brew Crew, made his Major League debut in 2013, picking up 111 plate appearances and turning in a .238/.291/.396 slash line with four homers but an unsightly 31-to-5 K:BB ratio. A right-handed swinger, Halton showed more pop against lefties but also struck out at a higher rate in his small sample of plate appearances. Between the Majors and Minors as a whole, Halton's split was nearly even; he posted a .781 OPS against right-handed pitching and a .783 mark against lefties. He's an accomplished hitter in the minors, having produced a .273/.351/.479 batting line with 28 homers in 811 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.
Halton's departure drops the Brewers' 40-man roster to 38. It's not a surprising move, given that Mark Reynolds was essentially assured that he would make the club when he signed a minor league deal with the Brewers and should, at the very least, form the left-handed side of a first base platoon. A platoon isn't the ideal outcome for the Brewers, who hope that Reynolds can handle the everyday job. However, he'll likely share some time with one of Juan Francisco or Lyle Overbay, each of whom swings from the left side and is competing for a job. Francisco is out of options and could be traded as a result, or he could win the competition with Overbay, who is in camp on a minor league deal.
Cover your eyes, Brewers fans. Help at first base is definitely not on the way this season. Lets hope Hunter Morris puts together a solid season in Triple-A.
Reynolds/Francisco are both capable of hitting 30+ HRs and 70+ RBIs…especially at MP…if they can hit .220-.230 and combine for some nice power numbers deep in the lineup I’m completely fine with that…
That’s the plan but they could combine to do what Adam Dunn did in 2011. When guys like that are cold they are complete holes in the lineup.
Halton should have gotten a longer look. His 24% line drive percentage was above league average last year and while his walk totals were low, so far this spring he had more walks (7) than strikeouts (6). Plus he can also play acceptable defense in both corner OF spots, something none of the other 1B candidates can. Fortunately most teams are in roster trim mode and they got him through waivers. Before it’s all over this season the Brewers are going to need this guy.
His slash line when he got regular playing time was much better. I’ve never really had the sense that Melvin believes in players competing for positions.
Reynolds would be the right-handed half of a platoon. Francisco bats lefty.
I’m totally fine with Reynolds/Francisco forming a hard platoon. Even if they end up equaling the league average, that’ll still be a +4 WAR at that position compared to last year, when we won 74 games without Braun/Ramirez/a decent 2B for half the year.
I could also see them going with Reynolds and Overbay and it being a disaster. There’d be plenty of positive remarks about veteran leadership though.
Keep Francisco and use the catchers as backups at first. Francisco has much higher upside than Reynolds or Overbay and is expendable if he bombs.
Mark Reynolds is a right handed hitter.