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Milwaukee Brewers Top Offseason Priorities

By Benjamin Chase

Apr 21, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; The Miller Park logo outside of Miller Park prior to the game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers. Cincinnati won 16-10. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 21, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; The Miller Park logo outside of Miller Park prior to the game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers. Cincinnati won 16-10. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports /
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Kenny Karst-USA TODAY Sports
Kenny Karst-USA TODAY Sports /

Catcher

The Brewers held one of the premier trade chips at the trade deadline, and they did a tremendous job of leveraging it, trading Jonathan Lucroy (and Jeremy Jeffress) for a tremendous return in prospects that could be impacting the big league roster soon. That left the catching position open, however).

Martin Maldonado has been in the system for some time and is very solid behind the plate. He’s really a perfect backup profile with an okay bat and a very good glove skill set. He’s a career .217/.299/.342 hitter in over 1000 plate appearances.

The Brewers were able to trade Will Smith for what I believe was an incredible package from the San Francisco Giants over the trade deadline, acquiring impressive pitching prospect Phil Bickford and catcher Andrew Susac, who was blocked in San Francisco by some Buster Posey guy. Due to being blocked, Susac hasn’t really played a lot in the majors thus far, hitting .219/.309/.412.

However, Susac in the minors has been a better hitter, putting up a .256/.354/.424 with a solid 12.2% walk rate and 22.1 percent strikeout rate. Susac is not a guy with an arm that will blow people away behind the plate, but he is tremendous in his lateral movement and blocking skills. He gets good marks for his work with pitchers as well. He could be the guy that they entrust with the starting job.

In the system, they have Josmil Pinto, who is a bat first catcher with a big arm behind the plate but not great movement. The next “big” prospect is Josh Nottingham, who they acquired last offseason, who may end up being too big to be a catcher long-term, but he has solid skills behind the plate and a very impressive set of tools at the plate.

The catching crop in free agency is fairly weak, but the Brewers certainly have the prospect depth to grab a guy at catcher if they don’t believe Susac is the guy. I do believe they’ll give him every opportunity, but it’d be wise to poke around to see what they can have for some depth as a “just in case” situation beyond just Maldonado.

Next: Make Room

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