Although the Brewers declined first baseman/outfielder Eric Thames’ 2020 option on Monday, that doesn’t necessarily mean his time with the franchise is up. General manager David Stearns stated after the decision that the team’s open to re-signing Thames for less than the $7.5MM salary he’d have made had it exercised his option, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com.
“We’re certainly not closing the door on bringing Eric back. We’ll see if there’s a fit sometime later in the offseason,” said Stearns. “But at this point with the dollar value associated with the club option and the market we see developing out there at that position, we thought it was in the [team’s] best interests to decline the option.”
The Brewers ended up saving $6.5MM by cutting Thames, whose option came with a $1MM buyout. The former Korea Baseball Organization superstar spent three years in Milwaukee, where his tenure began with a flourish early in 2017 before his production settled in at solid but unspectacular levels. Thames, who will turn 33 next week, slashed .247/.346/.505 with 25 home runs in 459 plate appearances this season. His overall offensive output checked in at a respectable 16 percent above the league-average mark, per FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric, though the left-handed hitter was a platoon player who did just about all of his damage versus righty pitchers.
Considering Thames’ limitations and what the Brewers deemed too high a price tag, the small-market club now at least wants to sees if it can find similar or better production for less money. In Stearns’ estimation, it’s shaping up to be a “robust” offseason market for first basemen in terms of free agency and trades. Jose Abreu, Edwin Encarnacion, Howie Kendrick, Justin Smoak and Mitch Moreland look like the game’s best free-agent first basemen, though at least the first two names on that list could prove to be out of the price range of a Milwaukee team that may want to save money at the spot, re-sign one or both of Yasmani Grandal and/or Mike Moustakas and perhaps upgrade other areas of need.
Should the Brewers opt against adding any somewhat pricey first basemen in the coming months, they could turn to outfielder Ryan Braun at the position. Braun is indeed “on the table” as an in-house option, Stearns revealed. While Braun only has 18 games at first on his resume (all of which came in 2018), moving him there may help preserve the oft-injured soon-to-be 36-year-old and his keep his still-capable bat in the lineup on a more consistent basis. The Brewers would perhaps be in position to deploy Trent Grisham as their primary left fielder in that scenario.
I’m sure we’ll just claim a bum off waivers or platoon the two best hitters from brewers summer fantasy camp
Shaw at 1B.
How bad would Huira be at SS?
He’s the worst 2nd baseman in baseball, so he’d probably be the worst SS in baseball. He’s ticketed for left field if he can’t drastically improve.
Trade for Brandon Belt
lol
Please
The Brewers should be interested in Wilmer Flores 28yrs old and he can play 1B and 2B, had a good season (.319/ 9HR/ 37 RBI in just 265 AB’s) in Arizona even though he was out due to injury.
Assuming Thames can be had for significantly less than $7.5M I wouldn’t mind seeing the Red Sox take a flier on him and platoon him with Chavis. If nothing else Thames would provide them with really good pop and assuming Betts is on his way out in Boston – it could serve as a relatively cheap way to help fill some of the offensive power that will clearly be missing with Betts gone. Additionally Chavis could play at 2B when Thames is in the lineup (assuming Pedrioa doesn’t really comeback from his knee injuries) I think it would be a solid fit.
Great idea
If I’m the Brewers and San Diego is willing to eat 2/3 of Myers contract I’m trading Ray Black and Nate Griep for Myers and Hedges
That or see if you can pry Dominic Smith away from New York for Ben Gamel.
To get Dominic Smith, I suspect the team will also have to take on Yoenis Cespedis too.
If the Mets took Grichuk I’d do Smith and take Cespedes’ contract.
I would love to see Dominic Smith with the Crew.
Dom Smith for Corey Ray or Nottingham the Mets need a CF and C
That could be a possibility. The Brewers would have to get Grandal back on a 3-4yr deal first and then make that trade.
I would rather give Nottingham a shot with Pina and sign Didi for short then Grandal who thinks he is as good as Bench when in reality more like a Rick Cerone. Take away Grandal away from Milwaukee and he will bat .235 with 20 home runs
What has nothingham done to suggest he’ll be any good as even a platoon MLB catcher?
And let’s pump the brakes just a bit on replacing arcia (not that it’s a terrible idea) until we fill the actual holes we have at 3b, 1b and c.
And I’m really hoping the plan isn’t to move Braun to 1b on a regular basis. I think there’s a reason he didn’t play there at all (that I recall) in ’19, despite how godawful Aguilar and thames were early in the season…hes not good, and I suspect he doesn’t want to play there either.
Braun come up as a third baseman. His problem wasn’t picking it, it was throwing where about 90 percent of his errors were. It just makes to much sense to move him to first at this point in his career. They are already committed to him financially so might as well get the most for their dollar they can. Save the money and bring back at least Moose and Drew.
It may make sense to us, but again, I think there’s at least 1 reason he didn’t play 1b in ’19. He either hates it and said he wouldn’t do it, or something about it (stretching on low/bad throws..?) was physically uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, Grandal saw time there as a way to keep his bat in the lineup and rest his knees. Even Shaw played some 1b, and he couldn’t hit.
“Explore the free agent market” really? Kendrick and Encarnacion are the only two listed that were better than Thames last year and Encarnacion hasn’t needed to wear a glove in 5 years..
Kinda doubt that Encarnacion will be cheaper either. Or be willing to put that glove back on.
Dom Smith for Corey Ray straight up.
Travis Shaw needs to get an eye exam. Preferably a cycloplegic refraction. This year, he was an automatic out. An aging Braun, Shaw, Arcia, weak starting pitching, I might stop being a Brewers fan. Baseball needs a salary cap.
You might want to stop being a baseball fan then. If you are upset that a team is carrying dead weight players coming off bad years, show me a team that isnt…..