Kolten Wong to Brewers

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

He can play defense but he's not a good hitter at all. Not really sure why we gave him this much for multiple years.

 

I think it was pretty obvious that, given the financial limitations, the Brewers are not going to be able to sign players without some warts to their overall game.

[TURBO]

Can Wong play 3B?

[brewerfan82]

He can play defense but he's not a good hitter at all. Not really sure why we gave him this much for multiple years.

Posted this in the other forum, but he's really not that bad of a hitter and he gets on at a good clip. But obviously his biggest asset is his glove at 2nd.

 

2018-20 vs. RHP:

 

2018-20 vs. LHP:

[homer]

Kolten Wong has career .855 OPS at American Family Field.

 

That seems good.

 

 

I'll be curious to see how the park factors differ between St. Louis and Milwaukee. If I had time I'd look up Wong's "wall scrapers" simply because I like the name of that stat.

[MrTPlush]

Can Wong play 3B?

 

Zero innings in his pro career. So safe to say probably a hard no. Why pay a premium for his defense to make it worse? Guessing he is our 2B.

[Soupbone]

Like it a lot. Much better on defense. Hiura can DH in a year if 1B doesn't work. OBP was/is a weak area for Brew Crew. Makes us better.

[TURBO]

Can Wong play 3B?

 

Zero innings in his pro career. So safe to say probably a hard no. Why pay a premium for his defense to make it worse? Guessing he is our 2B.

 

I'm not saying to play him there, I would be totally against putting a bat like that at 3B...

[adambr2]

Wong is not that bad of a hitter. He's been slightly below league average and slightly above league average in OPS+ the last 4 seasons. He's basically average. Not a liability. He's very consistent, not consistently great but you know what you'll get and he seldom strikes out.

 

He's also arguably the best defensive 2B in baseball. I don't know what people expected him to cost. He's not the caliber of player that was going to be available on a 1 year/3M prove it deal. He's a very good acquisition in a tight division.

[trwi7]

He can play defense but he's not a good hitter at all. Not really sure why we gave him this much for multiple years.

Posted this in the other forum, but he's really not that bad of a hitter and he gets on at a good clip. But obviously his biggest asset is his glove at 2nd.

 

2018-20 vs. RHP:

 

2018-20 vs. LHP:

 

A career wRC+ of 96 is not a good hitter. Even his best is just barely above average and for the most part he makes absolutely garbage contact so the fact that he doesn't strike out a lot isn't even that great.

[long ball]

I think Wong is a pretty useful player. His key offensive skill being a good OBP also helps.

 

It doesn't exactly help the offensive issues from last season since in aggregate he's roughly league average if not slightly below.

 

As others have already chimed in, it will be interesting to see what they do with the rest of the position player group, mainly Hiura.

[PeaveyFury]

He can play defense but he's not a good hitter at all. Not really sure why we gave him this much for multiple years.

 

I think it was pretty obvious that, given the financial limitations, the Brewers are not going to be able to sign players without some warts to their overall game.

 

I'm not even sure the warts are all that real. He's had a 1.5-2 oWAR over most of his career. People see a .700-.750 OPS and equate that to 'not that great,' while forgetting to adjust for positional expectations. He's an above-average offensive 2B, with literal gold-glove caliber defense. Not sure what happens with Hiura, but the team just added a 3-4 WAR player today, and I can't believe that can be viewed as bad by anyone who looks at the numbers.

 

I think this signing also makes a larger trade far more possible. I don't know what the plan is for Hiura, but it isn't to have him play 2B. He adds a lot to the team as a potential DH bat, but moving him to 1B is far from a guaranteed success. Seems far more likely this opens up the possibility of a trade, which hypothetically, would be a pretty significant one.

[jerichoholicninja]

Unless the DH is a last minute add for this year or next I feel it's more likely that Huira is traded than goes to 1B. Or maybe they're going to play a lefty shift for every batter with Arcia taking the whole left side of the infield, Wong playing "real" 2B, and Huria in short right.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

I'm just hoping that this will perhaps limit the "Brewers don't spend any money" and the "Brewers only dumpster dive" or "only shop in the Bargain Basement" posts for a few days.

[PeaveyFury]

A career wRC+ of 96 is not a good hitter.

 

wRC+ is a great measure of a player relative to all hitters in the league while ignoring their position. As a 2B, Wong is above average offensively.

[MrTPlush]

Acceptable average, should give a solid OBP, and strikes out less than 100 times in a year. He puts the ball in play.

 

Sounds like the kind of hitter people have been begging for the last decade. Overall he is about average offensively, but his skill set should be refreshing in the lineup.

 

And our SS will have a GG counterpart instead of a statue with a noodle arm.

[TURBO]

Not that we had a real chance, but I think we can kiss Justin Turner goodbye with the signing of Wong...

 

[PeaveyFury]

Acceptable average, should give a solid OBP, and strikes out less than 100 times in a year. He puts the ball in play.

 

Sounds like the kind of hitter people have been begging for the last decade. Overall he is about average, but his skill set should be refreshing in the lineup.

 

Yep. I really find it hard to be negative about signing a guy who literally put up a 5+ WAR season in the last non-COVID year and is literally one of the best defensive players at his position in the game.

[adambr2]

Not that we had a real chance, but I think we can kiss Justin Turner goodbye with the signing of Wong...

 

 

I like Turner a lot but committing 3-4 years to a 36 year old could end very badly. Heck it could start very badly.

[sveumrules]

He can play defense but he's not a good hitter at all. Not really sure why we gave him this much for multiple years.

 

ZiPS projects him for a 98 OPS+, so essentially average & above average for 2B with league average wRC+ at the keystone declining each of the last five years from 106 in 2016, to 98 in 2017, to 93 in 2018, to 92 in 2019 and to 89 in 2020.

 

So above average bat for the position (plus maybe a Miller Park boost) and best glove at the position (+57 DRS/+31 UZR since 2014).

 

They just bought a projected 5 WAR over the next two seasons for 18 million, or less than 4 million per WAR.

 

Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

[PeaveyFury]

Not that we had a real chance, but I think we can kiss Justin Turner goodbye with the signing of Wong...

 

 

I think a lot of people were already claiming that they didn't think we'd spend money like they did on Wong, so may be the reality is different than the assumptions?

 

Wong and Turner would be a VERY successful off season for sure.

[brewerfan82]

A career wRC+ of 96 is not a good hitter. Even his best is just barely above average and for the most part he makes absolutely garbage contact so the fact that he doesn't strike out a lot isn't even that great.

A wRC+ of 96 is roughly an average hitter, which maybe it's semantics but I don't consider that bad. You're also weighing in on his seasons that were 5+ years ago quite a bit, he's been pretty consistently adequate as a hitter the past 4 seasons and gets on at a good rate. Throw in his defense and he's a very nice add. Now would it have been better to use that money on 1B/3B? I think that depends on how the rest of the offseason goes.

 

2012-16:

 

2017-20:

[Madhawk23]

With the Wong signing, do you think there is any chance that we might look to package Hiura in a deal for Jose Ramirez? I know you would hate to trade away a young, controllable talent like Keston - but without the DH in the NL, I'm just not sure we have a great spot for him? Maybe it works out at 1B, but there's an equally good chance that it doesn't.

 

What else would we have to include with Keston to get the Indians interested in dealing us Ramirez?

[trwi7]

A career wRC+ of 96 is not a good hitter.

 

wRC+ is a great measure of a player relative to all hitters in the league while ignoring their position. As a 2B, Wong is above average offensively.

 

Since 2015 there have been 30 2nd basemen to have 2,000 plate appearances. Wong ranks 21st in wRC+. If we just take out the pandemic 2020 season and go to 2019 there were 19 qualified 2nd basemen, Wong was 10th in wRC+ and that was with a career high 108 wRC+. If we use his career 96 wRC+ he would've been 13th. He's just not in any way above average offensively at 2nd.

[SRB]

People were complaining about the front office not doing anything, and they just went out and got a 3-4 WAR player, and people still don't like it? I can't see anything to dislike about this other than that it probably ends any chance of Hiura becoming a career 2B.

 

2017-2020 prorated WAR per 162 games:

 

3.7 fWAR

4.2 rWAR

[A Swing and A Drive]

This signing is overpriced and awful.

 

So we fix our broken offense but signing an average player past his prime who can't hit at a position we don't need.

 

Perfect.

 

Also WAR is a made up statistic that means absolutely nothing to no one.

 

 

 

 

I'm Sorry. Needed to be said.