With the demotion of Keston Hiura, all eyes are on Travis Shaw and to a lesser degree, Jesus Aguilar. Shaw and Aguilar were key pieces to the Brewers’ run to the NLCS last season, and this year, they can not seem to get themselves going at the plate. Shaw is hitting .168 with four home runs and only eight runs driven in. The numbers that Shaw carries look like a player who had only been playing for a few weeks of the season. Aguilar also only has four home runs for the season and hitting under .200 showing the regression monster rearing its ugly head after an All-Star caliber 2018 campaign. Slumps can only go on for so long. It is put up or shut up time for both of these players. There’s a terrifying element to this but also an exciting one.

Teams can only get behind slumps for so long before they have to cut bait. The Brewers want to see three or four more weeks out of these players before making a decision on what to do with their roster. If Shaw struggles, he will likely be sent down to Triple-A to work on his game. Shaw has two options left, and Brewers could use those on him if these numbers carry into July. Part of the reason why Milwaukee didn’t do it now is a veteran respect thing and with Shaw being a free agent next year, Brewers decided to avoid a bargaining chip against them even if it looks like Shaw may not be on this team next season. Aguilar’s situation is much trickier.

Aguilar is out of options. He is a big leaguer for life, and if the Brewers wanted to send him down, he would be put on waivers. I find it hard to believe that a lowly team like Baltimore, Miami, Detroit, etc. would not take a flyer on a former All-Star. Brewers likely do not want to risk that. Brewers may consider Aguilar for a trade, but they need him to get hot to avoid having zero production out of your first base position. This duo could be playing first base in a platoon setting moving forward if they can start seeing production. Eric Thames, despite a decent season, is the odd man out with the Brewers not having enough right-handed bats available. If Aguilar continues to crater, the Brewers might have to see if Hiura can play first base which might be out of the question.

Right now, it feels like there’s no way that either of these guys breaks out of their slumps. But remember, Aramis Ramirez. He was the king of playing like absolute hell in April and May only to go off in the summer months. Shaw and Aguilar do not have the historical data like Ramirez did where we can have solace in it happening yet there’s still a chance. Slumps happen at different times of the long baseball season. We only know Aguilar and Shaw’s slumps, because they happened at the beginning of the year.

We’ll see what happens when both likely are in the lineup tonight against Miami.

Charlie.