The Milwaukee Brewers had planned to give Mike Moustakas a shot at second base when they acquired him in a trade deadline deal last year. The move never happened because Travis Shaw took to the position so well that it wasn’t necessary.
With Moustakas signing a free agent deal with the Brewers this week, the opportunity to keep Shaw at third and try Moustakas at second is in the works.
Moustakas has never played second base at the Major League level, but Brewers manager Craig Counsell said this is what Spring Training is for.
“We would explore Mike at second base, is what we’re going to do, because that’s what we don’t know about,” Counsell said. “At some point, we would have to make a decision.
“What we’ve talked about is not anything different than the conversation we had in late July last year when we were debating this whole thing. Basically, what happened is Travis did a really nice job (at second base) and we ended up not exploring Mike at second base.
“Now that we’re in spring training, we have time to do that. This is what spring training is for.”
Counsell said whoever plays second base, they will still have some third base time but one of them will be the primary second baseman.
The Brewers first full squad workout is Tuesday. They’ll open Cactus League play against the Cubs on Saturday.