The Brewers have announced that they have opted for infielder Keston Hiura in Triple-A Nashville. Right-hander Luis Perdomo was selected in the major league roster in the respective moves. Milwaukee already had a pair of vacancies on the 40-man roster, which sits at 39 after Perdomo’s addition.
This is another blow to Hiura, which has faced a series of struggles over the past few years. Selected ninth overall in the 2017 draft, Hiura was known as a bat-first second baseman who could move fast through the minor leagues. By the middle of the 2019 season, he had reached the Major, as it turned out. UC-Irvine’s production excelled as a rookie, posting the .303 / .368 / .570 line with 19 home runs in his first 84 MLB games.
It was a stellar product that seemed to cement Hiura’s position as the second baseman of the future, but it came with a surprisingly high 30.7% strikeout rate. Swing-and-miss for a right-handed hitter wasn’t a concern either in college or in his first semester and for minors, but punches were on the rise in 2019 when he first reached Triple-A. While fanning Hiura Dish in three out of every ten trips, he may be productive as a risk taker, but those concerns have become more apparent since that season.
Hiura played 59 of the Brew Crew’s 60 games in 2020, but only played .212 / .297 / .410 with a 34.6% strikeout rate. Milwaukee signed Colten Wong to take the primary second base job in 2021, leaving Hiura to split the time between the keystone and the first base. While posting the .168 / .256 / .301 line and less than 40% of his plate appearing, he went up and down Nashville a few times.
In an effort to curb swing-and-miss issues, Hiura tried to simplify its swing mechanics in the previous offseason. It has not yet been paid; He has traveled 20 of his first 42 trips of the season and his 58.8% contact rate on swings is not much different from his 2020-21 score. Hiura doesn’t have much time to play behind Wong and first baseman Rowdy Tellez, who are off to a tumultuous start to the season. The Brewers will send him back to Nashville – where he had good results despite a lot of strikeouts last year – for more regular play time.
Still 26 years old, Hiura has some time to find things. His service watch may start to force problems this season, though. Hiura entered the year with two years and 30 days of MLB service. Players are credited a full year for spending 172 days on the MLB roster or injury list, meaning they need 142 days in the Big this year to continue their path to free agency after the 2025 season. Hiura is likely to qualify as a Super Two qualifier but is less than three years old depending on how much time it takes for minors.
Of course, the service time factor is relevant for Milwaukee only if Hiura qualifies for the long-term roster spot. He has a small league option year left. If he spends 20+ days with minors this season, he will finish that last option in 2022. That means Milwaukee will have to move Hiura to an active roster outside of camp next year if they don’t want to make it available. To other teams. There is no doubt that the brewers will be able to take control of the strikeouts in the next few months.
As for Perdomo, he returned to Major after recovering from Tommy John surgery and missing all of last year. An earlier rule of the paddles was 5 pic, occasionally glowing right around the sinker in the mid-90s which regularly made huge ground-ball totals. Perdomo never missed many bats and struggled with occasional control issues, and posted 4.00 or more ARAs in all five of his seasons in San Diego.
After the paradox went under the knife in October 2020, Fryers released him. Milwaukee signed him to a two-year minor-league deal in 2022 and he got off to a great start in Nashville. The 28-year-old (next week 29) has managed just three runs in 12 innings with Sounds. He’s a fan of 13 and has only run a pair and has made grounders in 71% of clips since the beginning of the year. It will add a grounder-oriented, multi-inning relief option for manager Craig Council – a role that was filled by Jose Urena until he was appointed for the assignment on Monday.
