Brewers excited to acquire Mike Moustakas, who could see time at a new position

Mike Moustakas, second baseman?

The Brewers didn’t rule out that possibility after acquiring Moustakas late Friday night in a trade with the Royals. Travis Shaw, a left-handed hitter like Moustakas, already plays third base for Milwaukee.

“We were looking for another big bat to add to the lineup, and we got it,” manager Craig Counsell told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We’ve talked to Travis. Travis will play second base tomorrow. I know Mike is open to playing second base, but we’ll start out with Travis playing there.

“We feel like we can put together a really tough lineup out there on a daily basis now. You look at the (lineup) and you feel like it’s four really solid left-handed bats. We’re in a stretch of facing a lot of lefties, but over the course of the season you’re going to face a big number of right-handers. We feel like we can put out a dangerous lineup on an everyday basis.”

Moustakas, who has played first base for the first time at the major league level this season, was a shortstop in high school and played that position briefly in the minors. But he’s never played second base, so it’s interesting that Counsell said Moustakas is open to playing the position.

Shaw told the Brewers website he’s willing to make the move particularly after adding a big bat in Moustakas.

“I feel like I can do a decent job over there,” Shaw told Brewers.com. “Everybody is going to say I can’t do it, and I’m going to take that challenge to heart. (Moustakas) is obviously going to make our lineup better, make our lineup deeper.”

Brewers general manager David Stearns told the Journal Sentinel he had been talking on and off with Royals general manager Dayton Moore for a month.

“We’re focused on the offensive side, adding an impact bat to the lineup, a guy who we think fits our lineup and ballpark real well in Mike Moustakas,” David Stearns told the Journal Sentinel.

“The truth is, with the way we move our infielders around, conventional positions don’t apply to us all that much. We ask a lot of all of our infielders, to play all over the dirt. So, Travis has played all over the dirt for the majority of this season and most of last season as well.”

This story was originally published July 28, 2018 at 8:20 AM.