Milwaukee Brewers showing interest in Eddie Rosario, per report

In one day the Milwaukee Brewers have been rumored to be in on Marcus Semien (reports are that he is signing with Toronto), Justin Turner, and now Eddie Rosario.

David Stearns has never shied from the aspect of having a lot of talent and not enough spots. The signing of Rosario would be very similar to what was in place in the outfield for 2020 prior to the announcement of the universal DH for the season. The only difference would be that Rosario’s name would replace Ryan Braun’s.

The left-handed hitting Eddie Rosario was a significant presence in the Minnesota Twins lineup since 2017. From 2017-2019, Rosario hit between 24 and 33 home runs, and he put up a wRC+ between 103 and 117 in each season from 2017-2020. His OBP is generally not wonderful, but his power is. Entering his age 29 season, it would be easy to see him hit 25-30 home runs and slug over .500 in Milwaukee. He also does something well that the Brewers as a team have struggled with in recent seasons — put the ball in play. Rosario has struck out in fewer than 15% of his plate appearances in each of the last two seasons, including ranking in the 89th percentile in terms of K-rate in 2020.

As of now, Milwaukee’s outfield projects to have Christian Yelich in left, Lorenzo Cain in center, and Avisail Garcia in right — the three highest-paid players on the team. The most logical player to displace would be Garcia as he’s coming off a down season in 2020, but he’d be an awfully expensive fourth outfielder and the team would likely have a lot of difficulty trying to move him in a trade right now. Still, Craig Counsell could probably find 500 at-bats for this Eddie Rosario even if there is not DH in the National League for 2021.

Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs and Baseball Savant