Last week the Brewers announced two surprising signings as Luke Voit and Tyler Naquin joined the organization. Both veteran players agreed to Minor League contracts with invites to spring training. As experienced players, it’s possible that either one of them could make the Brewers opening day roster. However, if Tyler Naquin is going to make the Brewers roster he must be better defensively.
Brewers outfielder Tyler Naquin must be better defensively in order to make the opening day roster.
Naquin has spent seven seasons in Major League Baseball in which he has played for Cleveland, Cincinnati, and the New York Mets. Throughout his career he has played all over the outfield, but hasn’t posted great defensive metrics since the 2019 season.
Fangraphs uses the metric Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) against average to measure a player’s success as a defender. A negative number means that a player was a below average defender, zero equates to average, and positive means above average. Unfortunately Naquin has not posted a DRS above league average since 2019.
Over the past three seasons, Naquin has had the following DRS’s: -6, -9, and -2. Throughout his career he has a -18 DRS. His ability to roam the outfield has not been good over the past few years and baseball savant put him in the bottom eighth percentile in regards to outfielder jump last year.
If Naquin was going to snag an opening day roster spot, right field seems like where he would end up. Tyrone Taylor is currently out with an elbow injury and Jesse Winker is expected to serve primarily as the designated hitter to begin the season.
Once Winker is ready to play the outfield, Naquin still might be a better defensive option than Winker. Winker posted a -16 DRS in 2022 and -6 in 2021. However, he has since undergone surgeries to his knee and neck that may have been limiting him in the past.
Despite the defensive concerns, all of this could open the door for Naquin in right field. Only time will tell if this comes to fruition or not, but the Brewers could elect to give Naquin a shot at playing time prior to turning to other options such as Joey Wiemer or Sal Frelick.
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