NEWSLETTER
On the whole, Orlando Arcia is not a clear starting-caliber shortstop, even as that’s been his role with the Brewers for most of his career. A .244/.293/.364 (71 wRC+) hitter with slightly-above-average defense at shortstop. That’s Arcia. Kinda meh, at least as a starter.
Yet you don’t think that, because the guy ALWAYS KILLS THE CUBS. Or at least it feels like it. His 86 wRC+ against the Cubs is 15 percentage points better than his career mark, though I suppose it’s still pretty darn meh. Still, it just seems like he comes through again and again against the Cubs. I know I’m not alone in this.
Anyway, all of that is to say, if the Brewers want to pull off a trade involving Arcia before tonight’s game, that’d be fine:
Brewers are in talks to trade SS Orlando Arcia
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) April 6, 2021
Given the extremely weird time of year for a trade, you can safely assume this involves the Padres, who may have just lost shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. for a long time. The Brewers and Padres have made many trades together, so it should be easy enough to pull something off. If Arcia does get dealt, the best guess is that Luis Urias will get a full shot to win that shortstop job. Although he’s been an even worse big league hitter than Arcia, Urias has considerable offensive upside at age 23. The defense probably takes a hit, though.
With Arcia, the Padres have a little more shortstop depth in addition to Ha-Seong Kim.
UPDATE: Welp, scratch all my assumptions, because Arcia is actually headed to the Braves:
Braves acquiring Orlando Arcia from Brewers, source tells @TheAthletic. First on talks: @JonHeyman and @ByRobertMurray.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) April 6, 2021
In addition to starting shortstop Dansby Swanson, the Braves have a variety of solid guys around the infield, so I’m not sure I see the obvious depth fit here. Is there some mystery injury on the Braves? Or are they just really down on Jesus Camargo and Ehire Adrianza?
Anyway, just glad Arcia is off the Brewers roster, so let me just check the schedule to see when the Cubs play the Braves (seven times before the end of the month) … d’oh.
UPDATE 2: The return is a couple back-of-the-40-man arms, which I don’t mean as an insult, because these guys can be very useful and the Brewers have made considerable hay with this type in the last five years:
It's official: #Braves acquire infielder Orlando Arcia from #Brewers for right-handers Chad Sobotka and Patrick Weigel. @MLB @MLBNetwork
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) April 6, 2021
