When the Brewers made the moves to get Christian Yelich and sign Lorenzo Cain, it appeared that Domingo Santana would be the odd man out. Braun would move to right field, and Santana gets dealt for talented pitcher. That hasn’t happened, and it looks like it might not for the remainder of Spring Training. Two things happened yesterday. One, Craig Counsell announced that Braun and Yelich will not play any right field this season, and the second was Steven Souza got dealt for peanuts by the Tampa Bay Rays. Souza’s numbers are similar to Santana’s last season, and Tampa received nothing for him. Could the market just not be there for Santana?

This blog post could look stupid if Santana is part of the package that brings Chris Archer to Milwaukee, but it’s worth considering as Milwaukee hasn’t been able to move Santana. My guess is they wanted to look at ways to bolster their rotation by dangling Santana out there for people. The bites haven’t come and Milwaukee is going with plan 2. Their outfield defense takes a hit with Santana out there, but he still has a rocket arm in right field. I’m one to believe Santana’s 2017 season was not a fluke by any means and see the potential in him to have another strong season. The market doesn’t agree with me.

Santana is probably the five hitter in this lineup the way the team is set up now. Braun would hit third after Yelich and Cain then Travis Shaw and Santana at the five spot. I could see an opportunity for him to hit third when Braun isn’t playing and bat Eric Thames at the five spot instead. Santana did see time hitting second last season, but I don’t imagine he will get many opportunities there with the new outfield duo taking those spots.

Happy for Santana that at the time of this blog post publish, he’s staying.

Charlie.