Milwaukee Brewers Designate Chris Carter for Assignment

The Milwaukee Brewers appear ready to move on from Chris Carter. The power-hitting Carter hit 41 home runs this past season.

For several years now, Chris Carter has been an excellent source of old school right-handed power. In 2016, Carter hit 41 long balls for the Milwaukee Brewers, which tied Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies for the NL lead.

In a rather surprising move, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that the Brewers have decided to non-tender Carter. The 29-year-old Carter was also non-tendered by the Houston Astros last offseason.

When considering what Nightengale reports Carter would likely make in arbitration, cutting ties with him does make sense on one hand. Furthermore, there are obvious flaws in Carter’s game.

Carter has twice struck out over 200 times in a season, and he leads MLB with a 33.2 percent K rate since 2013. He has only a .314 lifetime on-base percentage to go along with his .218 career batting average. Carter is not known for being a Gold Glove defender at first base either.

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While he can hit home runs with the best of them, Carter isn’t necessarily the most well-rounded player. He was worth only 0.9 fWAR last year.

That being said, Carter still gave the Brewers excellent production from the first base position. When Prince Fielder signed with the Detroit Tigers after the 2011 season, the Brewers struggled to fill the void at first base. Finally, Adam Lind came in and did a great job last season, and Carter put on his power display this past year.

It was later confirmed by the Brewers that Carter had been designated for assignment. It was also reported that Eric Thames had been signed to a three-year deal. Thames will be returning to MLB after a very successful stint in the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO).

According to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com, the Brewers will still look to find a trade partner for Carter prior to the non-tender deadline.

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Carter could potentially join players such as Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Mark Trumbo, Mike Napoli and Carlos Beltran in an impressive crop of free agent hitters. He could be an interesting and more affordable target for teams that are looking to add offense.