Addressing The Brewers Trade Deadline Needs: Where Can They Upgrade Offensively?

The Brewers offense has been scorching hot, finding ways to score using their speed on the basepaths, the reliable top of the order, and the power scattered throughout their lineup. With no shortage of weapons and plenty of young players, can they even upgrade further? Should they?

The Infield (William Contreras, Rhys Hoskins, Brice Turang, Willy Adames, Joey Ortiz)
At catcher, the Brewers have the best unit in the majors (per Baseball Reference), and William Contreras is inserting himself into the MVP conversation. He’s not just one of the best offensive catchers, but one of the best offensive players in baseball this season.

Rhys Hoskins has just returned from a hamstring strain, and after a year out following ACL surgery you would expect it to take him a little time to adjust. Think again, Hoskins leads the Brewers in home runs and has an .813 OPS through May. Not the most agile defender, he struggled with some picks early in the season, but these have calmed down in the month of May.

Brice Turang has been far beyond any expectations coming into the year, shortening his swing even further and becoming a contact machine. He has a 121 OPS+ and has 20 steals with just one failed attempt on the year, while his defense is Gold Glove-caliber. Turang is contributing in every way possible, and has really made the keystone position his own.

Willy Adames has been incredibly unlucky so far, with an expected slash line of .269/.348/.492. If he had hit only in Milwaukee this season, he would have an extra six home runs on the year. He’s hit to the wrong parts of various parks, but has been instrumental offensively, defensively and in a leadership capacity. That came through big-time in a big week for the Crew against the Cubs and the White Sox, showcasing all that he brings to the team. At this point, he's almost untradeable, barring a massive overpay at the deadline or a Brewers collapse.

Then there’s Joey Ortiz, who is showing exactly why the Brewers targeted him in the Corbin Burnes trade. With a 153 OPS+ alongside some lightning-fast hands at the hot corner, Ortiz has been a revelation for the Brewers thus far in 2024. The leading third baseman offensively in the National League, he's put himself into All-Star consideration, and the bat seems to be getting better and better as the season goes on. He's finding ways to lift the ball more often, and his plate discipline is markedly improved from his 2023 performances, suggesting there's a lot of stickability to his early season results.

The Outfield (Christian Yelich, Sal Frelick, Jackson Chourio, Blake Perkins)
The outfield has been a little more questionable and streaky than the infield thus far, with Christian Yelich (as always) the main man. Before tweaking his back, Yelich looked like the MVP version of himself, with a 1.100 OPS and barreled balls in all directions. Since returning, he has been more like the version from last year, pounding the ball and getting on base without that extra-base power showing up quite so often. Yet, he has been invaluable in the team’s offensive production over the last few weeks.

Blake Perkins has, perhaps, been the best defensive center fielder in baseball, and his bat hasn’t been half bad, either. A switch-hitter, he looks better from the left side and has been streaky, but his 1.3 WAR so far this season would almost make it an insult to reduce him to the fourth outfielder role many assume he will end up in.

Sal Frelick has had more prolific ebbs and flows, and perhaps more material inconsistencies. A dearth of power requires Frelick to be a contact hitter in the same mold as Turang, but he hasn’t been able to find the same quality or quantity of contact, and to pile on, his defense hasn’t been particularly strong, either. He is on a hot streak at the moment, but it features a lot of weak ground balls finding holes. He may need time in Triple-A to find a source of power again.

Jackson Chourio is the most enigmatic player on the Brewers. His first two months have been a learning curve for him, but you can see improvements month to month in the quality of his at-bats and the pitch recognition. You can see the natural hand speed, raw power and speed that made him such a vaunted prospect. When it clicks, it’s going to be a sudden whirlwind, but he’s not there yet and is struggling to get regular playing time with his current role as a weak side platoon player.

The Bench (Gary Sánchez, Oliver Dunn, Jake Bauers and an Outfielder)
This is the weakest part of the Brewers corps so far: Gary Sánchez is perhaps the only one living up to his billing. You could easily argue that both Dunn and Bauers have the ability to turn a corner and become consistently lethal later in the year. Sánchez has shown extreme power and some big-game feel, with late-inning heroics against the Cubs and Pirates, among others. He’s had somewhat limited playing time, but there are few more imposing bench bats in a big moment late in the game. Deputizing admirably at catcher on days when Contreras deigns to take a half-rest and DH, the Brewers may be looking for ways to increase Sánchez’s workload given his recent performances.

Jake Bauers switched to a toe tap in early May and absolutely shoved for a few weeks, but those results didn’t last long, and he’s returned to a below-average offensive player with power that’s just waiting to be unlocked. He’s shown glimpses, but needs to find a way to put it all together.

Oliver Dunn has been an early season favorite of Pat Murphy, and I can see why. Prodigious (if occasional) power, massive bat speed, outstanding range, and a great eye at the plate... are all completely negated by his massive swing-and-miss problems inside the strike zone. He’s almost jumped straight from Double-A to the majors, and with more game time, he could become a valuable asset with his left-handed bat. For now, however, he isn’t someone the Brewers can rely on.

The Brewers Are Craving an Impactful Left-Handed Power Bat
Thanks to injuries and that thinnish bench, the Crew have not yet gotten much value from pinch-hitters this year. Murphy’s approach has been very platoon-heavy, with Chourio a prime target for removal based on matchups, and it’s granted the likes of Sal Frelick and Oliver Dunn a significant number of opportunities to hit in important, late-game situations; that hasn’t gone well.

Frelick has an expected slash line of .233 (expected batting average)/.294 (expected SLG). Yes, you read that correctly: an expected slugging under .300. That’s quite a shocking mark, and despite above-average plate discipline marks, it’s not someone a pitcher would fear as a pinch hitter. Dunn has the opposite problem, but because of a lack of contact, he has an expected line of .209/.329 and a strikeout rate of 77% in pinch-hitting situations this season. Jake Bauers has a .290 OBP in pinch hitting situations. The bench just hasn’t been formidable for the Brewers so far this season.

One area that may bear closer scrutiny is the role of Bauers. His walk rate doubled in May from where it was in April, and his OPS of .734 was serviceable, despite some bad luck on batted balls that suggest he deserved a mark closer to .800. He provides very strong defense at first base, which the Brewers need, but he’s just off a long hitless streak, and his excellent fortnight a fortnight ago feels increasingly like a mirage.

As you can see, since going to the toe tap, he's been better able to square up pitches on the outer half of the plate and do greater damage within the zone as a whole. Combining this with improved plate discipline has helped him increase his floor, but there is still considerable swing-and-miss inside the strike zone, which will result in him being a streaky hitter for the most part.

Is There An Internal Option Sneaking Up?
Pat Murphy is craving a left handed pinch hitting option who can have some form of success, and I tentatively suggest that one may be returning from the IL. Garrett Mitchell is blessed with raw talent, perhaps rivaling Perkins as a center fielder due to his incredible speed--but far more important will be the bat. Mitchell has a .795 OPS in the majors, but in a very small sample size of just 126 at-bats. Undermining that is a strikeout rate in the realms of Keston Hiura; it doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence that these results are sustainable in the long run.

Mitchell brings electricity and excitement, with a sense for the big moments, and may be exactly what the Brewers need, or maybe just more of the same: another promising young outfielder still finding his feet.

The tentative target for Mitchell (providing all goes well) is the 17th of June, which should give the Brewers enough time to assess his capability in this role and whether further reinforcements are needed off the bench. There aren't many other options tearing up trees in the minor leagues so far, and in fact, a lot of the position players have really struggled so far in 2024--meaning the help may need to come in the form of a trade if Mitchell doesn't quite pan out, likely as either a left-handed first baseman (unless Tyler Black or Dunn can sorts things out) or in the outfield. This lineup has a lot fewer holes than in other recent seasons, but that final piece could be enough to push them over the edge in a playoff scenario--where one big at-bat can make all the difference.