Milwaukee Brewers: The Right Field Situation

This season the Milwaukee Brewers have gotten mixed results when it comes to the starting lineup. At second base Jonathan Villar got off to a very slow start on both sides of the ball, as well as Orlando Arcia, who is still a work in progress offensively. However, a surprising development into the first month of the season has been the incredibly streaky start of starting right fielder Domingo Santana.

Santana, a former top prospect in the Houston Astros system and one of the headliners in the Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers trade, has looked a bit lost at the dish in 2017. His slash line for this year is a surprising one at .169/.276/.323 with two homers and five RBIs through 21 games.

This type of slow start seems warranted as Santana hasn’t exactly had the most consistent playing time in the last two seasons.  For a team that looks like it might be ready to compete sooner than expected, to go along with a stacked minor league outfield headlined by Milwaukee Brewers super prospect Lewis Brinson, is not what they should be be doing.

Let us not forget about Eric Thames who can also play right field. This scenario could also get Jesus Aguilar into the lineup as well, which could help boost the Brewers offense. In short, Domingo needs to find himself and soon before he finds himself riding the pine.

An in-house option not named Thames, who may become the starter in the next week or so if Santana shows no improvement, is the super utility-man, Hernan Perez. When the season began, Perez was to be nothing more than an undervalued bench bat who can play multiple positions.

With the recent acquisition of another super utility-man in Nick Franklin, who is also a switch-hitter and can play every position, that the Brewers could consider using Perez as an everyday starter. Over the last two games, Perez has seen a few superb at-bats. On Tuesday, he tripled twice and hit a home run and amassed a total of ten bases for the game, a very impressive feat for any player.

Next: Is Eric Thames An MVP Candidate?

We will have to wait and see, but if the struggles continue for Santana or any other regular, they better be looking over their shoulder as Hernan Perez is looking ready to swipe an everyday spot as soon as an opportunity presents itself.