(Image credits: Jeff Roberson, AP)
Brewers fans rejoice! In a surprising turn of events, the Brewers signed Gold Glove-winning second baseman Kolten Wong to a two-year, $18 million dollar deal yesterday.
Prior to Wong's deal, the Brewers' offseason moves consisted of a one-year $825,000 deal for catcher Luke Maile and another one-year deal for $900,000 for infielder Daniel Robertson. Other than that, the most exciting hot stove season move for Milwaukee has been nothing but "talks" regarding veteran third baseman Justin Turner, who at the moment, is still favored to re-sign with the Dodgers.
Indeed, the Brewers have a couple of big needs in the infield, however second base was not one of them coming into the offseason. Presumably second base belonged to Keston Hiura, who's played almost all games in his major league career at second aside from 10 spent as the DH last season. Of course, when you sign a renowned second baseman like Kolten Wong to your team, you let the man play second.
Wong was a hot commodity this winter because of his defense. In 8 seasons, he's had 55 defensive runs saved, turned 535 double plays, and posted a fielding percentage of .981. Definitely sounds like a guy worthy of a Gold Glove or two. Offensively his bat is pretty above average, but he's been known to hit particularly well at Miller Park, now known as American Family Field (boooooo).
While Keston Hiura might have the better bat, defensively watching him at second hasn't always been the prettiest thing to watch. So where does that bring Hiura? The assumption at the moment would be Hiura shifts to first base to platoon with Daniel Vogelbach. Statistically speaking, a platoon of those two is not exactly ideal for the Brewers lineup, however, it's looking like the NL will not feature a DH this year so, at the moment, it's their most likely and sensible option.
With pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training in less than two weeks now, it's nice to see Milwaukee finally make a big addition this offseason.