The Brewers have optioned second baseman Keston Hiura, the club announced today. He’ll leave the active roster to make way for the activation of Travis Shaw, who had been rehabbing a wrist injury.
Hiura, 22, certainly hasn’t shown himself in capable of keeping up at the game’s highest level. To the contrary, he’s slashing a hefty .281/.333/.531 with five home runs in 69 plate appearances. While there’s much to be desired in his combination of 23 strikeouts and three walks, Hiura has largely confirmed that the Brewers and prospect watchers were right to expect big things right out of the gates.
It’s tough to see that batting line leave the active roster, particularly given Shaw’s struggles to open the year. He’ll presumably return to his customary duties at the hot corner, with Mike Moustakas going back to second base. The defensive alignment is suboptimal, but passable; it’s the hitting department where this decision will likely be judged.
Before he hit the shelf, the 29-year-old Shaw managed only a .163/.266/.281 slash in 154 plate appearances. That’s far shy of the output he delivered in his first two seasons in Milwaukee, during which he launched 63 home runs and batted a cumulative .258/.347/.497.
GM David Stearns explained to reporters that the club made this move to “preserv[e] organizational depth.” (Via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; links to Twitter.) Of course, Shaw could have been optioned down instead of Hiura, but Stearns says the veteran has earned the right to step back into the MLB lineup. That doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to stay there. The pressure will be on Shaw and struggling first baseman Jesus Aguilar, who is out of options.
Stearns rejected the notion that service time played a role in the decision. Whether or not that was a motivating factor, there are implications for both players. Hiura’s initial promotion occurred on May 14th, meaning he could have run up 139 days of service by remaining in the majors all year long. That would have set him up for potential future Super Two qualification. Unless he comes back rather quickly, that’ll no longer be the case. On Shaw’s side, he’ll get the opportunity to reestablish his stock and boost his arbitration earning power by returning to the MLB roster. He has a strong starting point with this year’s $4.675MM salary, though that also means he’ll need to improve in order to be tendered by the Brewers (or command good money in free agency if he isn’t).
Rather have shaw in minors, kestons earned his spot on the roster thus far.
Let’s see he’s been mediocre w the bat, and terrible on D.
They can get that out of Shaw, w/o wasting Hiuras future.
Mediocre with the bat? So a .281 average and .531 SLG% with 5 HR in his first 64 at bats in the bigs is mediocre?
hes been a directly average defender and well above average bat
shaw is a one of the worst hitters in all of baseball this year and a belove average fielder
What a joke!
I get it, cause I don’t want Keston to just pinch hit, but Shaw can be optioned, so option him. Option Burnes. Sign kimbrel.
should get rid of either Shaw or Aguilar and keep Hiura up.
Strange to discuss Hiura’s service time but not Shaw’s. Would have been nice if article pointed out how many years Shaw started season with (3.088) and the fact that they would not gain any extra control over him by optioning him unless they sent him down now and did not bring him back basically.
He’s older and less valuable, so it’s less relevant.
Awful. Yeah the K% is 33.3%, but seems like he’s been figuring things out lately given his 22.2% mark in his last seven.
I’m not a Brewers fan but watching Woodruff’s start against Pittsburgh where he botched the double play ball which would have ended a scoreless inning instead of a 4 run inning … the announcers were saying that Hiura was having quite a few issues defensively … if true could that be the real reason for the demotion?
he had one in Minnesota that led to five runs too
I highly doubt it we literally play a 265 pound third baseman at second base I really don’t think we care that much about defense
A Brewers you can have Skaggs for Moustakas
That may be true but that is what defensive replacements are for in 8 and 9th innings. Also they would have been better off trying to send Aguilar down and if he got claimed then trade him or pull him back. He earned the right to stay
Talk about a kick in the balls! I was pretty sure to be paying attention, but I literally just made moves to adjust this kid as my everyday 2B!!!
I personally did not see this coming at all what with Shaw’s performance prior to injury, Hiura’s hype and current batting line.
Only silver lining for me, is that Cano (I guess) is coming off the DL… Looking forward to that hit production from 38 year old Cano… the spring chicken with his .200 avg and OPS of .600…
Nobody, I repeat nobody, cares about your fantasy team.
I actually agree with you on something…
let me emphasize the NOBODY.
My bad boys. I forgot that the only function of this website is to just sit around and rag on everybody else’s comments.
Pick up tommy la stella or David fletcher they’re goonies bro
@Twentyforty, Nobody, I repeat nobody, cares about your BS comment and acting like a class A Schmuck!!
I care about his team
I care more about his fantasy team than the garbage you type on here. But go ahead and tell us more about all the orthopedic surgeries you’ve conducted.
Service time manipulation for sure. He’ll be back in a month to get past the super 2.
Not only are you using a double negative but you also misspell incapable.
“…hasn’t shown himself in capable [sic]…”
^^^ true hero here.
Thanks. The English language needs a defender. If you don’t demand excellence you can’t then expect it. I think people that consider themselves either writers or journalists should have at least a minimal grasp of the English language.
Preach it, Ed!
The professor has spoken!
Now please return to your Mom’s basement…..
It’s very sad but I think Jose Aguilar is on his way to playing himself off the team. He has actually been crappy since July 15 of last season. He looked awesome hit awhile and unfortunatekyvlist his swing and for a long, long time. He is do bad now he is a liability. Had he and Dhaw played well the Brewers would have bent unstoppable.
Ed “The Mythical One”, do you want to take shot at this one?
.232 BABIP. If he hits limbo he doesnt hit waivers.
His name is Jesus.
Sorry on that one. He is close to done IMO as a Brewer.
Service time is for sure the reason. Guaranteed in a month he’ll be back up. They can claim otherwise until their blue in the face. Such B.S.
His face in the photo says it all.
Sure….option him AFTER he destroys my Buccos.
Maybe they should option Stearns to SETA where he may find his star ??
Do you mean SETI? Either way it’s a garbage fire comment.
Stearns to Hiura ” Hey kid listen, Your doing well, but we have this bum coming off the Dl, we need to up his trade value” See ya in a month.