Milwaukee Brewers decided to do some holiday shopping before Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Brewers made a move for second baseman/shortstop Luis Urias and left-handed pitcher Eric Lauer for Trent Grisham and Zach Davies. This move came as a surprise with most Brewers fans penciling Grisham to a corner outfielder spot for next season. That is not happening, instead, Brewers decided to move on from shortstop Orlando Arcia and added somewhat promising back end rotation lefthander. This also means Milwaukee has money to spend this offseason.

Urias was one of the Padres’ most-hyped prospects coming into last season. He is 22 years young and could hit in the minor leagues. Urias did not put it together in the major leagues last year. He struggled but part of me feels like that’s natural for a young hitter. Urias also messed with his swing which led to some of the failures. When the young shortstop flourished in the minor leagues, he played at a hitter-friendly home ballpark. Urias gets that again with Miller Park compared to PETCO. I don’t expect him to be an all-star out of the gates, but he seems like a sound option at shortstop and an upgrade from Arcia.

You may look at Lauer’s numbers and think… ‘This guy isn’t that good.’ I’m with you. But what’s interesting is he carried a 2.7 fWAR last season. That would have tied for second with the Brewers last year. Also, he had an issue with Coors Field which led to his ERA being near five runs per game. Without the three games at Coors, the stats tell a different story. Again, people should not expect him to be Cy Young, but Lauer can be a contributor for the Brewers.

Brewers are now free of 41 million dollars from last year assuming Arcia will be non-tendered. If they also non-tender Travis Shaw on Monday, they will be at 45 million dollars. That is a significant amount of money. More I’ve thought about, I believe they’re trying to get Mike Moustakas back. And some of this money will help that. They also could look to upgrade their rotation, first base or the corner outfielder. Don’t sleep on that last part. There is some talent for left and right fielders like Nick Castellanos, Marcell Ozuna, Yasiel Puig, Avasail Garcia, and Corey Dickerson. It would not surprise me to see Milwaukee go that route and shift Ryan Braun to first base.

If the Brewers sit on their hands with the money they’ve shredded, they might as well trade Christian Yelich. That sounds reactionary and hyperbolic but if you’re not going to make some significant upgrades with an MVP on the roster, you don’t deserve to have him. Not to mention, Brewers probably would be highly unlikely to resign him as well. I’m not there yet with Brewers. We’re still very early in the offseason, and many things can happen in the coming weeks.

Charlie.