In 2025, the Milwaukee Brewers will have a modern home base. Willy Adames set multiple franchise records last year, hitting .251/.331/.462 with 32 home runs, 112 RBI and 21 stolen bases. He also priced himself straight out of Milwaukee. Widely considered the top shortstop in the agent market, the chances of him returning to the Brewers are slim, especially after he turned down a qualifying offer worth more than $21 million for him.
Assuming Adames signs elsewhere, manager Pat Murphy has already announced that Joey Ortiz will be the team’s starting shortstop in 2025. As a rookie playing primarily third base in 2024, Ortiz hit .239/.329/.398 with 11 home runs and 60 RBI and 11 stolen bases. Ortiz is 25 years aged and his best days are ahead of him, and the Brewers hope he has a dazzling future.
The Milwaukee Brewers need to find someone to play third base
One of the things that made this Brewers team so good in 2024 was its ability to stay relatively well. Adames played 161 games, Ortiz 142, Brice Turang 155, and Rhys Hoskins 131 (though some of those starts came in the DH). Jake Bauers, their first baseman/outfielder, appeared in 116 games.
The key to the Brewers’ success in particular was the fact that Ortiz was able to stay well for much of the season because other options at third base weren’t ideal. Other players who manned the Milwaukee balmy corner in 2024 include:
- Andruw Monasterio (.208/.303/.272, one home run, 16 RBI)
- Oliver Dunn (.221/.282/.316, one home run, seven RBI)
- Owen Miller (.185/.185/.222, three RBI)
- Vinny Capra (.111/.111/.222).
Milwaukee’s junior varsity team has Brock Wilken, who plays third base and is their eighth prospect. He hit 17 home runs and 51 RBI last year in his first full season in professional baseball. However, in 109 games he hit only .200/.314/.365 and struck out 133 times. Wilken also didn’t play a single game above Double-A.
Tyler Black is Milwaukee’s fifth prospect and was named to the Majors for the first time last season. However, he is first and foremost a first baseman. He played nine games and finished third for the Nashville Sounds last season and has some experience on the pitch.
However, his future likely lies at first base, and he struggled to stay in the plate in 18 games played in Milwaukee.
Without good internal options, the Brewers will have to turn to free agency and/or the trade market to find someone to fill the hole at third that will be created when Ortiz moves to shortstop.
Exploring the possibility of a Nolan Arenado trade between the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals
It’s not every day that division rivals trade with each other, but there is a history of trades between the Brewers and Cardinals of St. Ludwik this should not discredit the possibility of such an event occurring. Even after Milwaukee moved from the American League to the National League, the two teams did not hesitate to do business.
Admittedly, the last of these trades occurred almost a decade ago, when the Brewers sent Jonathan Broxton to the Cardinals for Malik Collymore. Two years earlier, Milwaukee sent Jonathan Axford to St. Louis for a player whose name would be announced later (who turned out to be Michael Blazek).
However, from 1999 to 2003, the Brewers sent three significant players to the Cardinals. The first was the 1999 trade that sent Fernando Vina to the Cardinals for Juan Acevedo. In 2002, Milwaukee sent St. Louis of his former ace, Jamey Wright. Finally, in 2003, they sent their former closer Mike DeJean to their division rivals.
As fans (at least those who were still fans during those obscure times) remember, the Brewers were one of the worst teams in baseball at the time. The Cardinals aren’t that bad right now, but they are entering a rebuilding phase and making 10-time Gold Glove winning third baseman Nolan Arenado available for a trade.
Last season, Arenado hit .272/.325/.394 with 16 home runs and 71 RBI. And it was a bad year for him. From 2015-2023, the six-time Platinum Glove winner averaged .288/.348/.542 with 33 home runs and 105 RBIs on the season. The only seasons in which he failed to hit 30 or more home runs were 2020 (a season shortened by Covid-19) and 2023, when he hit 26.
Arenado will be 34 years aged in 2025, and there are signs that his bat is degenerating. The truth, however, is that he is a much better option than other third basemen in the Brewers system and better than the free agent class.
Taking this into account, he will be owed $17 million per year over the next three years. That salary, along with the additional prospects Milwaukee would have to part with because the Cardinals are a division rival, would likely kill the deal.
But St. Louis yes he desperately wants to move it and desperately wants to play for a contender. He would make sure the defense didn’t suffer (the Brewers won the NL Team Gold Glove Award in 2024) and he truly loves hitting at American Family Field. In 45 career games visiting Milwaukeethe eight-time All-Star has a .331 batting average, 14 home runs and 37 RBI.
The salary is high. That’s the same amount the Brewers are paying Hoskins in 2025. However, Arenado’s defense alone makes him worth it, and being an average hitter would be icing on the cake.
A trade between the Brewers and Cardinals involving Arenado may be long-term, but it may be Milwaukee’s best chance to adequately fill that need.
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