Breaking Down the Brewers' First-Base Breakdown

“You don’t have to squint to see the fit here."

That’s what I wrote when the Brewers signed Rhys Hoskins back in January. The move made too much sense to deny: Hoskins needed a soft landing spot after missing the entire 2023 season with a torn ACL, but he was a remarkably consistent slugger with a career 124 wRC+ coming into the season. Meanwhile, according to FanGraphs, Milwaukee had received just 0.4 WAR from the first base position over the past three seasons combined, which ranked 28th in baseball. Hand, meet glove. By taking a chance on Hoskins, it seemed like maybe, just maybe, the Brewers had finally solidified their squishy first base situation.

Unfortunately, things haven’t quite worked out that way. Hoskins and trade acquisition Jake Bauers have been platooning from the beginning of the season, with Hoskins sliding over to DH against right-handed pitchers. Four other players have seen time at first, and while stationed at the cold corner, the whole sextet have combined to contributed -0.3 WAR. Even if you’re not particularly familiar with what makes for a high or low total when it comes to WAR, the minus sign up front is never a good indicator. Let’s break things down player by player, looking specifically at the WAR they’ve accrued while playing first base.

We’ll also break things down way too granularly, going all the way out to the third decimal place, or the ten-thousandth of a win. WAR is absolutely not meant to be interpreted with anything approaching that level of precision, but this is a pretty depressing subject, so we’ll take our fun where we can find it. All of the numbers to follow are current as of Saturday morning. 

Gary Sánchez
0.2349 WAR as a First Baseman

One thing’s for sure: None of this is Gary Sánchez’s fault. Sánchez has spent a measly 12 2/3 innings at first base this season, but he’s made the most of his brief time there; he leads the Brewers in WAR while playing first. Extrapolated out over a full 162-game season, his 0.2349 WAR are good for 19 WAR, making Sánchez the greatest player in baseball history. He just chose the wrong position. So that’s fun.

Sánchez has made five plate appearances as a first baseman, walking once and hitting a single and a homer. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s good for a .500 average and a 379 wRC+. Amazingly, though Sánchez is famously not a first baseman and he’s only had two balls hit to him there, he’s also added the most defensive value of the bunch. Statcast credited him with one out above average at first base, thanks to this legitimately great diving play on a groundball off the bat of Kyle Isbel.

Luckily for Sánchez, OAA doesn’t care about style points, so he didn’t get docked for doing his best to throw the ball away on the only other chance he faced, two innings earlier, also on a groundball off the bat of Kyle Isbel.

Tyler Black
0.1221 WAR as a First Baseman

Black has spent way more time than Sánchez at first base, though he’s currently down in Nashville. Over six games, he’s played a whopping 42 innings at first, and five of his eight base hits this season have come when he’s been at first base. Black has a 77 overall wRC+, but a 109 mark while playing first. The answer is clear: We must put both Sánchez and Black at first base. Is there a rule that says you’re not allowed to have two first basemen at once? I’m not sure, but it’s time to find out. Black has also been credited with 1 OAA, presumably thanks to the way he handled the hop on this bullet off the bat of Luis Arráez.

Oliver Dunn
0.0000 WAR as a First Baseman

Oliver Dunn has played one inning at first base this season, and it was all the way back in April. He didn’t bat and he only touched the ball once. According to the gods of WAR, managing to avoid dropping one garbage-time popup saved the Brewers 0.0086 runs.

And, well, that’s it for the good stuff. Sánchez, with 0.2 WAR, Black, with 0.1, and Dunn, with 0.0 are the only Brewers who have put up positive WAR as first basemen this season. From here on out, everyone’s in the red.