The Milwaukee Brewers have traded shortstop Orlando Arcia to the Atlanta Braves, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Arcia had been the Brewers' regular shortstop for a large portion of the time from when he was called up from the minors in 2016 at age 21. During much of his stint in the majors, he was a good glove but never really put it together at the plate. He came into the season as a career .244/.295/.366 (73 OPS+) hitter. Last season was his best with the bat, as he hit .260 with a 96 OPS+, but that's still below average and it was a short season.
The return to the Brewers is a pair of right-handed relievers, Chad Sobotka and Patrick Weigel, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. Sobotka, 27, has a 5.36 ERA and 1.47 WHIP with 61 strikeouts and 30 walks in 47 career innings at the big-league level. Weigel, 26, has only appeared in 2/3 of an inning (last season, allowing two runs on two hits while walking three). In 2019, he had a 2.73 ERA between both Double-A and Triple-A.
The Brewers committed to Luis Urias at shortstop this season -- as this trade clearly illustrates -- and had been using Arcia at third base. They now appear set to play Travis Shaw at third base at a pretty regular basis. Daniel Robertson is depth there.
As for the Braves, Arcia doesn't seem ticketed for a regular starting role, at least not right away. They have Dansby Swanson firmly entrenched at shortstop and young slugger Austin Riley at third base. Pablo Sandoval is around for bench depth, just as Johan Camargo is.
Arcia's arrival in Atlanta might mean the end of the road for Sandoval. It might mean a demotion for Riley, who has struggled at the big-league level after a hot few weeks to start his career in 2019. Camargo hasn't been productive in a while, either.
Arcia was once viewed as a top-10 prospect in baseball (Baseball America had him at number eight in 2016), but his offense just never came around for the Brewers on a consistent basis. He hit .307 with an .800 OPS in Double-A and .280/.337/.419 in Triple-A in his minor-league career. He was demoted during the 2018 season and hit .341/.417/.494 in 22 games, though that was in the notoriously hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
Worst-case scenario here is the Braves grabbed a good bench glove. Best-case they find a way to unlock his offensive potential and get a good infield defender who could also hit something like .275 with serviceable power.
