Carlos Santana traded to Brewers
The Pittsburgh Pirates have traded first baseman Carlos Santana to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for shortstop prospect Jhonny Severino, Pirates beat reporter Jason Mackey of Post-Gazette Sports first reported Thursday.
Santana, 37, is slashing .235/.321/.412 (732 OPS; 98 OPS+) with 12 home runs, 25 doubles, 53 RBIs and a half-dozen stolen bases. His walk rate is down to 11.5 percent, though it’s still above league average, with a 17.6 strikeout rate in 393 plate appearances.
Santana is a rental and should be on the books for a prorated amount of roughly $2.42 million for the remainder of the season.
The Brewers are in need of bats ahead of the 2023 MLB Trade Deadline, especially after first baseman Rowdy Tellez broke his fingertip shagging fly balls in mid-July.
As a team, the Brewers walk at the third-highest clip (9.5 BB%), but own the fifth-worst batting average (.232), sixth-worst on-base percentage (.312) and wRC+ (88).
Milwaukee’s first basemen have also been among the least productive offensively at their position across MLB. They feature the worst wRC+ (74) and on-base percentage (.290) while ranking in the bottom-third in slugging, isolated power and hard-hit rate.
Even at this stage of his career, Santana should provide a boost offensively while supplying quality defense. He leads all qualified first basemen in defensive runs saved (6) and is tied for 10th (among 147 candidates) in recorded outs above average (2).
Mackey notes that Severino was the No. 21-ranked international prospect in the 2022 class. In 12 rookie ball contests this season, he’s slashed .250/.288/.583 (.871 OPS) with two doubles, four home runs and 10 RBIs.
The Brewers are 1.5 games ahead of the Cincinnati Reds for the NL Central lead. I don’t think Milwaukee should stop here, as they need help all around the diamond. But acquiring Santana is a decent start to what could be a busy next few days ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline for the Brew Crew.
This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.
***
Subscribe to our YouTube!!
Check out our merch!!
