Arcia sent to minors; Kratz acquired in trade
Showing no signs he was close to breaking out of his season-long slump at the plate, Orlando Arcia was optioned by the Milwaukee Brewers to Class AAA Colorado Springs on Friday with the aim of getting him back to being a consistent offensive contributor.
Arcia’s demotion was one of several moves made by the team on its busiest transactional day in recent memory.
Bidding adieu along with Arcia were backup catcher Jett Bandy, who was designated for assignment, and right-hander Jorge López, who was also optioned to Colorado Springs.
Joining the Brewers were catcher Erik Kratz, who was acquired from the New York Yankees in a minor trade; infielder Eric Sogard, who was recalled from Colorado Springs; and right-hander Adrian Houser, who was recalled from Class AA Biloxi.
Arcia, the Brewers’ top prospect two years ago at this time, departs having hit just .194 with two home
runs and 13 runs batted in. His on-base percentage sank to .233, and he was 0 for his last 15 and 2 for his last 29 at the plate.
He did contribute a pair of gamewinning RBI singles — one in the 12th inning on opening day in San Diego and the other to beat the Chicago Cubs at Miller Park on April 6.
“We’re a better team when Orlando Arcia is up here playing like we know Orlando Arcia can play,” general manager David Stearns said. “This is an effort to help him maybe take a little bit of the pressure off, get him out of the spotlight of a major-league stadium every night and get back to being a player who can contribute offensively.”
Arcia did continue to play solidly with the glove, with his nine defensive runs saved ranking first among majorleague shortstops and third among all major-league players according to FanGraphs.
“He still has made significant contributions to this club defensively throughout the course of the year, and those are really valuable,” said Stearns. “He has not allowed his offensive struggles to carry over to his defense; his defense has been outstanding all year and we recognize that.
“This is an opportunity for him to go down to Triple-A and get back to being the offensive player we know he can be. A guy who can contribute on both sides of the ball.”
In recent weeks, manager Craig Counsell had been giving recent call-up Tyler Saladino more frequent starts at shortstop in Arcia’s place. In more than just over two weeks with the Brewers, Saladino is hitting .400 with three homers and six RBI.
“Tyler’s earned some playing time, and that was part of this decision,” Stearns said. “If we’re going to start playing Tyler a little bit more, that means the at-bats for Orlando — at least in the near term – were going to become a little bit fewer and farther between. That didn’t make a ton of sense to us at this point.”
Arcia hit .277 with 15 homers and 53 RBI in 2017 in what the team was hoping would be a breakout season for him. He also developed into one of the more popular players in the clubhouse despite the fact he doesn’t turn 24 until Aug. 4.
“Orlando’s still pretty young,” Stearns said. “I think we forget that because he’s been on the prospect radar for so long. He got up here at such a young age, he had success here at a young age. So we forget how young he still is. At this age you see a lot of players his age in Double-A.
“This is a speed bump. That’s what this is. He’s going to get through it and he’s going to be a very good player moving forward.”
Counsell, like Stearns, believes Arcia will emerge from his demotion a better player.
“The game doesn’t spare anyone — it doesn’t matter if you’re labeled a top prospect,” he said. “You go through a time when you struggle, and it’s not fun, and it’s challenging, and it kind of works on your mentally as I’m sure it has been doing to Orlando. But he’ll get out of it. I think we’re all confident that he’ll come out of this better.
“Sometimes you have to go through the struggles, and he’s going through them right now. Hopefully he’s able to get things evened out and get into a better place.”
Another chance for Kratz: Suffice it to say the Brewers’ catching plan for 2017 was blown up.
The hope was that Manny Piña and Stephen Vogt would share the majorleague duties with Bandy as a third option, if he could clear waivers at the end of spring training.
Things changed drastically when Vogt suffered a shoulder injury in camp that worsened on minor-league rehab, resulting in season-ending surgery. The Brewers hoped Bandy would seize the opportunity and hold his own but when his bat never came around, they decided to designate him for assignment and acquire Kratz in exchange for a player to be named later or cash.
Bandy slumped badly after the first month of 2017 and never recovered, losing the backup job to Vogt. This season, he was hitting .188 with one homer and one RBI in 24 games. Stearns said the hope is that Bandy will clear waivers and remain in the organization on an outright assignment.
“We’ll see if there’s a trade scenario there or, if not, we’ll put him on waivers and the hope is that he gets through waivers,” Stearns said. “This is a player who’s contributed a lot to this team over the last year and a half, so our best-case outcome is we get him down to Triple-A, get him going as well and hopefully allow him to contribute here.”
The Brewers thought they were upgrading the backup catcher position over the long term when they traded Martin Maldonado, a light hitter but a defensive whiz, to the Los Angeles Angels for Bandy after the 2016 season. Maldonado quickly became the No. 1 catcher in LA and won a Gold Glove, and is six years younger than Kratz.
“I think Jett started off last year really hot for us,” Stearns said. “We went out and made the acquisition for Stephen Vogt, and after that (Bandy) hasn’t really been able to get it going again. And that happens sometimes. It’s not through any lack of effort or any lack of work on Jett’s part. He’s worked very hard to get going offensively, and we just haven’t seen it yet this year.”
Jacob Nottingham, the Brewers’ top catching prospect who made his majorleague debut earlier in the season, is on the disabled list at Colorado Springs and wasn’t an option to replace Bandy. The Brewers passed on Sky Sox catcher Christian Bethancourt, who has bigleague experience and was batting .328 with a .835 OPS in 35 games.
Asked about preferring Kratz over Bethancourt, Stearns said, “With Erik, we really think we’re getting a proven, very solid defensive catcher. And, potentially, a guy who’s made offensive strides in his game over the last couple of years at Triple-A, primarily. It’s someone who’s going to be a nice complement to Manny.”
Kratz, who will be 38 on June 15, was with Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in Pawtucket, R.I. when he got news of the deal. The Brewers had shown interest in signing him as a minor-league free agent over the winter but he opted to join the Yankees.
New York was the sixth different organization for Kratz, including two tours with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. In 228 games in the majors, he has batted .203 with a .250 OBP, 24 home runs and 75 RBI but the Brewers considered him a defensive upgrade over Bandy as well.
“He’s a very solid defensive catcher, a guy who’s been around the league a while,” Stearns said. “He was having a very nice year in Scranton this year. We’re happy to have Erik here and we believe he’s going to be able to impact the club.”
Kratz will have the challenge of learning the Brewers’ pitching staff on the fly, without benefit of spring training to get to know them.
“It’s not the first time I’ve done it,” said Kratz, who went right out and caught a bullpen session of Brent Suter. “I know one time I came midseason and got to the field at 6:30, so I got a fivehour jump on that this time. It’s not me necessarily learning them; it’s them being comfortable with me.
“They need to be able to do what they do to be successful, and they need to feel comfortable that I know them and I want what’s best for them, and that takes time. It’s not overnight but it’s something that’s exciting for me.”