The Brewers made a significant series of roster moves on Friday, acquiring veteran backstop Erik Kratz from the Yankees in exchange for cash and designating Jett Bandy for assignment to clear a spot on the roster. Both teams have announced the trade. Additionally, Milwaukee announced that shortstop Orlando Arcia and righty Jorge Lopez have been optioned to Triple-A Colorado Springs in favor of veteran infielder Eric Sogard and right-hander Adrian Houser.
Set to turn 38 in June, Kratz is off to a .269/.356/.538 start with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate. While he doesn’t have a lengthy track record at the big league level, he’s shown throughout parts of eight big league seasons that he possess some pop, homering 24 times in 649 plate appearances and notching a .163 ISO. Of course, Kratz’s overall .203/.250/.366 slash line in that time has been sub-par and serves to illustrate why his time in the Majors has been sporadic. To his credit, he’s halted 34 percent of stolen-base attempts against him in the Majors and has been similarly effective throughout his minor league career (32 percent).
As for Bandy, the Brewers will have a week to trade him, Ttry to pass him through outright waivers or release him. The 28-year-old showed a bit of promise early in his career with the Angels but has struggled in two seasons with Milwaukee, hitting just .202/.282/.326. While Milwaukee GM David Stearns has made his share of shrewd moves since taking over the team’s baseball operations department, the decision to flip Martin Maldonado to the Angels in exchange for Bandy likely ranks among his most regrettable swaps, as Maldonado has provided more with the bat and also took home an AL Gold Glove last season in his first year with the Halos.
Arcia, meanwhile, looked to have gone a long way toward establishing himself as a regular in the Milwaukee infield last season. After struggling as a 21-year-old in his debut back in 2016, the longtime top prospect hit .277/.324/.407 with 15 home runs and 14 stolen bases last season. The 2018 season, however, has proven to be a full course reversal at the dish.
Through 146 trips to the dish this season, Arcia has mustered a feeble .194/.233/.273 slash with two homers and five doubles. His walk rate is down two percent, his strikeout rate is up five percent, and his 28.6 percent hard-contact rate is considerably south of the league average. Arcia has contributed quality glovework, to be sure, but that apparently wasn’t deemed enough to salvage his spot on the roster for the time being.
Tyler Saladino figures to be the primary beneficiary of the Brewers’ decision to offer Arcia a mental reset of sorts, as he’s hit well in his brief time since being acquired from the White Sox and offers a solid glove in his own right. While the 28-year-old certainly doesn’t possess the same upside as Arcia, who once ranked as one of the game’s 10 to 15 top overall prospects, he’ll serve as a stopgap while Arcia seeks to remedy his swing and improve upon his plate discipline in a lower-pressure setting.
Bandy was horrible, 1 RBI for him over a years worth of play dating back to last season. It amazes me he was on this team for this long
Look what the guy they traded him for has been doing in comparison…Stearns stretched this out as long as he could.
Maldy is an amazing defensive catcher, but was one of the worst hitting catchers in the league last year. I don’t think Stearns lost a ton of sleep over it, especially with Piña last year.
What does having low OBP guys in front of him have to do with how good he is? Arcia, Braun, Sogard, Perez have been miserable this year at OBP, that’s how RBI’s happen.
The last time he drove in someone other than himself was May 27th, 2017 lol
He’s definitely not a good hitter.. but for him to drive in someone other than himself, he needs hitters on base in front of him in the first place.
He would have been gone earlier if Vogt didn’t get hurt.
The past two seasons, he started off hot. And then slowly cooled down until his stats reflected a below average hitter. Sad to see, good luck to Jett
19 RBI with 7 HR’s for Bandy in his career with the brewers
Keats this year I’m the minors has 4 HR’s with 6 rbis
Kratz
Hopefully Arcia will get his swing back in AAA. He’s really gone downhill this year.
Good for Erik. He’s a good guy, a decent catcher, and can hit for power. I’m happy for him.
Would it not be interesting if the Yanks claim Bandy. Or sign him after he clears waivers.
Why would signing Bandy be interesting?
What is: because the brewers just traded for 1 of the Yankees catchers, and DFA’d Bandy to make room for him on the roster?
I agree with the moves but would rather had Betancourt than Kratz but if he gets us to a WS then it’s worth it.
You think Erik Kratz will get the Brewers to the World Series?
In terms of actual value, not media hype, Swihart for Bandy is actually a fairly even trade. Won’t happen because Swihart’s reputation that he never once did one thing to earn, but they’re both about even in terms of value. Both have a career 0.3 WAR in 400-500 PA lol
Boston has no need for a catcher tho.
Interesting comparison tho, would have thought Swihart was better but he’s literally done nothing.
Boston has no need for a catcher? Huh? Boston needs a good starting catcher really bad!
Eric Kratz :
One of the most productive hitters ever for the NYY.
(not alot of opportunities – but provided great results while given the chances in a Yankees uniform)
Great, Sogard is back…
Just want to bring this up. Can we see all the post before spring and in the beginning of the season about how bad this pitching staff would be? If I’m correct I think it was the worst in baseball. I love reading dumb baseball fans post so please continue to post and look stupid. Thank you.
These were by far my favorite posts: “fangraphs projects them at 70-92” or “fangraphs projects major regressions for everyone on the team”.
Maybe its time to talk manny machado..hope orioles would take arcia and some prospects.
You’d be OK giving up multiple, long term controllable young talent to rent a ss for 2/3 of a season..for a shot thus year and this year only? Sorry to say, but adding 1 position player won’t put us over the hump. And then it’s 10 years of trying to rebuild with very little in the farm system and a mediocre collection of talent at the big league level.
Arcia will be fine. Just needs to get his head right and his swing back..a little slice of humble pie is all this is.