We are in the home stretch of the Major League Baseball offseason and the Milwaukee Brewers still have not hammered down the team's No. 1 need it had entering the offseason, first base.
General Manager Doug Melvin tried with Corey Hart, which seemed like a slam dunk at the start of the winter, and failed with Hart signing with the Mariners. Then it was James Loney at the top of the list and he resigned with the Rays. So, now the Brewers are left looking at the scrap heap for a trade or staying in-house with the guys that spent most of the season struggling with it last season. Even worse, fans are clamoring for Rickie Weeks to slide over to first base.
Let's work in reverse there and scratch off one of those options. Weeks is not the answer at first base. As Adam McCalvy wrote on his Brewers mailbag late last week, Weeks isn't a fit at first base, despite fans' outcry to move him there. Yes his $11 million salary is something you would want to find him a spot for, but it's looking like Weeks will land on the bench or be moved in spring training. Maybe for someone that can play first base.
Weeks is just 5-foot-10 and with his defense being an issue at second base, it would not make sense to make him a bigger part of the defense. As, McCalvy says, if you're going to put someone a first who is average defensively, he had better hit. Well, the way the last few years have gone for Weeks, it doesn't seem he could do that well, either.
Jaun Francisco seems to be the front-runner for the position more out of default than anything else. "Fat Juan" as he is referred to by Braves fans, showed why he was DFA'd by the Braves early last year, hitting just .221 last season with the Brewers which was lower than his average with the Braves.
Can Francisco be servicable at first base? Maybe. He is reffered to over and over on Twitter as a lottery ticket that could hit .275 with 30 homers. The odds of that jackpot coming through is a long shot and I'm not sure the Brewers are willing to wait around for him to come though. He is a cheap option at the position which does bode well for him. If that's the best thing he's got going for him, though, it doesn't say much for the Brewers options.
A long shot at first base would be bringing Hunter Morris up from Triple-A Nashville. After hitting .300 and crushing Double-A pitching two seasons ago, Morris slipped in acclimating to AAA with his average sliding down to .247 with 24 homers and 73 RBI. The Brewers think he needs one more year with the Sounds before he could be ready to move up to the big league club.
The other options for the Brewers involve signing free agents or making trades. Melvin has been link to trade talks with the Mets for Ike Davis. He was awful last season and the Mets want too much (read: Tyler Thornburg), which Melvin turned down. Logan Morrison was another player the Brewers had links to, but he was already traded by the Marlins to the Mariners. Taking him out of consideration.
A comb through the available free agents with first base experience yield familiar names from Yuniesky Betancourt to Alex Gonzalez. With no talk about bringing either of them back, they seem out.
There is one big name out there in Kendrys Morales, but signing him would result in the Brewers losing the No. 12 pick in June's draft. Something they wouldn't want to give up after losing their pick last season after signing Kyle Lohse.
Yeah, it's a mess. The miss on Hart has put the team in a rough spot. Still having questions on pitching, it may be something the team waits until spring training to address when teams decide who they want to cut loose or becomes roster casualties. Stay tuned.
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