The Brewers have finally landed an infielder, though it’s not a middle infielder to address the worst of their woes – it’s another third baseman:
3B Mike Moustakas has been acquired from Kansas City in exchange for OF Brett Phillips and RHP Jorge López. pic.twitter.com/whyCdXBEVb
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 28, 2018
After having to settle for a cheap one-year deal to return to the Royals this offseason, Moustakas, 29, has hit just .249/.309/.468 (107 wRC+), while playing average defense at third base. The price tag for him in trade was a post-hype pitcher in Lopez, and a decent outfield prospect who could never seem to crack their roster. Not cheap, but not painful.
So, about that “third base” thing. Adding Moustakas means the Brewers are apparently going to make good on threats to move Travis Shaw to second base – all 6’4″, 230 lbs of him – despite the fact that he’s never played there in his professional career. It’s a curious and risky way to address a need in the middle infield, but the Brewers had already missed out on so many positional targets that maybe they felt they had to go this route.
GM David Stearns said of the trade:Â “We’re focused on the upside here offensively here, adding an impact bat to the lineup. The truth is, with the way we move our infielders around, conventional positions don’t apply to us all that much. We ask a lot of all of our infielders to play all over the dirt.”
Shaw is expected to start at second base tonight, so we’ll see how that goes.