With free agency expected to heat up, these six hitters would make sense for the Brewers

The expectation around baseball — or at least the hope — is that with the winter meetings wrapped up and Shohei Ohtani's record-setting free agency complete, the rest of the market will now get rolling in earnest as December progresses.

It hasn't been all quiet, of course, as roughly 45 players have agreed to major-league contracts. The Brewers have been among the active teams, too, with official agreements in place for pitchers Wade Miley and Colin Rea, a contract extension signed by Jackson Chourio and a reported deal in the works for pitcher Joe Ross.

But what about the rest of the offense?

The Brewers, as you likely already know, struggled to score runs in 2023. The majority of the offense should be back for the 2024 season, including all the team's top contributors, but there are still some holes to fill and a need for at least one impact bat.

This year's free-agent class is relatively thin on hitting, but there are still some interesting names that could fit the Brewers from a roster construction standpoint as well as a cost one, since they are unlikely to play at the top of the market with the likes of Cody Bellinger and Matt Chapman.

Tim Anderson, SS/2B

Last season was a bad one for Anderson, who hit .245 and had a paltry .286 on-base percentage and .296 slugging percentage. Those numbers, though, were such an aberration from his career performance – Anderson had an .820 OPS from 2019-22 – that the ultimate question is if it was just a one-year outlier or if it’s the start of his performance falling off a cliff.

There are reasons to believe Anderson still has the ability to be a useful player. He won’t turn 31 until June and still exemplified many of the skills that made him a two-time all-star with the White Sox. His contact rate and hard-hit percentage remained almost identical in 2023 from the previous year while he actually chased less often.

The key to Anderson’s success as a hitter has always been optimizing his batted balls despite not producing elite exit velocities; that ability to line balls at ideal launch angles a la Luis Arraez largely diminished in 2023 as his ground ball rate skyrocketed.

The Brewers wouldn’t need Anderson at shortstop, his primary position, but he has indicated he is open to playing second base on his new team moving forward. Milwaukee would be prudent to enter the year with additional options at second base rather than simply handing the job to Brice Turang, whose .218/.285/.300 slash line was also among the worst in baseball. Another team may swoop in and offer Anderson more money for a guaranteed starting role, but both the player and person would seemingly be a good fit in Milwaukee.

Possible contract: One year, $5.5 million

Donovan Solano, 1B/3B

Solano will turn 36 this month but has experienced a career resurgence in his 30s with a 110 OPS+ since 2019. He primarily plays first base but can also fill in at third and second and bats right-handed, all of which would make him a seamless fit on the Brewers roster.

Solano’s power is more gap to gap – his career-high in homers is seven – and he’s never had 400 plate appearances in a season, but the Brewers are in need of a proven solution at either corner infield spot and he could be a cost-effective answer.

Possible contract: One year, $4.5 million

Isiah Kiner-Falefa, utility

Kiner-Falefa appeared at six positions last season for the Yankees and could fit the defensive-minded Brewers well. He’s been worth 22 outs above average and 19 defensive runs saved in only 1,200 innings at third base and, depending on what metric you’re going off of, grades out anywhere from great to passable at shortstop at second base.

His offense is a known quantity at this point. That isn’t to say it’s great, though you could certainly do worse than a career 81 OPS+ from a glove-first utility player, but there were significant improvements in his underlying skill set even though his OPS jumped only four points.

A whopping 17.7% of Kiner-Falefa’s batted balls in 2022 were hit 70 mph or slower, making them almost automatic outs off the bat, and only 11% were hit 100 mph or faster.

He flipped those numbers on their heads last year, dropping the 70 mph or slower contact rate to 9.6% and the improving the 100 mph or better rate to 21.9%.

Possible contract: One-year, $5 million with a club option

Rhys Hoskins, 1B

The Brewers need some sort of impact bat addition somewhere in the lineup. Hoskins has been by far the best hitter on the market since 2020, and because he missed all of 2023 with a torn ACL he will be much more affordable than hitters of his pedigree usually are.

In the three years before suffering the ACL injury last spring, Hoskins had a 126 wRC+ that ranked ninth among MLB first baseman. The Brewers have had 30 seasons in which a first baseman had at least 100 plate appearances, and since Prince Fielder left after the 2011 season, only once did anyone have a wRC+ as high as Hoskins' (Jesus Aguilar in 2018).

Had Hoskins not missed all of last year, he likely would be in position to command somewhere in the range of three years and $50 million-$55 million. But because the injury affected his market, it now makes sense for Hoskins to shoot for a one-year deal and attempt to secure a long-term contract next winter.

Fangraphs’ crowdsourced contract estimate for Hoskins is one year, $14 million, but with the lack of enticing bats on the market that seems low.  But if his market doesn’t materialize the way he hoped, a contract in that range would be more than justifiable for a “safe” two-to-three win power-hitting first baseman.

Possible contract: One year, $16 million with a mutual option

Evan Longoria, 3B

Brewers fans (and Tyrone Taylor) don’t need any reminder that Evan Longoria still has some juice in those legs after his leaping grab completely changed the course of Game 1 of Milwaukee’s wild-card series loss to Arizona.

And the 38-year-old should still be able to produce at the plate, too.

Longoria batted .223/.295/.422 with the D-backs last season for a 93 OPS+, which isn’t great but also was across only 74 games and featured the second-lowest, full-season BABIP of his career.

But even at that age, Longoria is still hitting the ball harder than nearly everyone and that can likely carry over in 2024.

Of course, there are workload concerns with Longoria, who hasn’t reached 100 games played in a year since 2019, when he was 33. But because the defense is still solid, he offers some veteran upside as a part-time player and potential weakside platoon partner alongside Tyler Black.

Possible contract: One year, $3 million

Nick Ahmed, infielder

Another right-handed hitting backup infielder makes the list. A staple of the D-backs for years, Ahmed was released in September while having the worst year of his career. He hit just .212 with a .257 OBP and .303 slugging percentage, numbers that made Turang’s offense look excellent by comparison.

But, again, the Brewers may want to continue to add depth at the middle infield spots in the event that Turang (and Andruw Monasterio, for that matter) don’t perform well enough.

In three of the last five seasons, Ahmed has had an OPS+ above 90.

Add in the fact the slick-fielding Ahmed can still pick it and you can see a potentially valuable reserve. He may hold out for a big-league deal, but having been worth only 0.4 wins above replacement the last two seasons, perhaps all he will find is a minor-league deal. And the Brewers have a good track record to point to in that area.

Possible contract: One year minor-league deal with early opt-out

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Six free-agent hitters who could make sense for the Brewers