Brewers plan to move Mike Moustakas to a new position on the infield
The Royals will play a pair of spring-training games next month against a split-squad Brewers team in Arizona, and a familiar face could be on the field for Milwaukee.
Just not in his usual position.
The Brewers are on the verge of signing Mike Moustakas to a one-year, $10 million contract, but he won’t be playing third base. Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the Brewers will be trying Moustakas at second base this spring.
“I don’t think we’re going to see something that we don’t completely expect, but I think it’s worth it in spring training,” manager Craig Counsell told the Journal Sentinel. “I talked to Mike a couple of weeks ago about it, actually. He was on board the first time (it was discussed) and he’s still on board.
“Whoever goes over there will still have some third base time but one of them will be the primary second baseman.”
The other possibility to move to second base is Travis Shaw, who manned the position after the Brewers traded for Moustakas last summer. But Shaw is penciled in for third base with the Brewers.
Baseball-Reference.com shows Moustakas has never played second base, even in the minor leagues, although he played 65 games at shortstop in the minors. He also had four appearances at first base last summer with the Royals.
Royals manager Ned Yost said Tuesday that he has full confidence that Moustakas can handle the duties at second base.
“Moose, he’ll be able to do that,” Yost said. “He took grounders at second and offered to play second for us if we needed it at times. He’s versatile enough, and it’s a mindset where Moose is a great worker to begin with and whatever deficiencies he has he’s going to iron out before the end of spring training because he’s going to work his tail off.”
Oh, and Brewers center fielder Lorenzo Cain is happy to be reunited with Moustakas. Again.
“You kind of got a glimpse of what he did last year for us,” Cain told MLB.com. “Helped us out big time. If he signs, we get him for a whole year. That’s nice. He’s going to bring leadership and toughness to this team. He has all of that and we all know what he can do on the field. Nice addition. Nice to have. I’ve been around him for a while, so I understand what he can do and what he brings.”
You can read more of the Journal Sentinel story here.
This story was originally published February 19, 2019 at 10:20 AM.
