Former A's Second Baseman Lands Back with the Brewers

Needing some veteran depth, the Athletics signed Luis Urías in the middle of February, and he earned a regular spot in the A's lineup throughout the year thanks to the injury to Zack Gelof which kept the A's regular second baseman out of the lineup for the entire first half of the campaign.

Urías ended up playing mostly at second base, but got into a few games at third this season, and ended up playing in a total of 97 games with the A's. In that time he went 66-for-287 (.230) with a .315 OBP, eight home runs, and put up the lowest strikeout rate of his career, sitting at 13.6%.

Last season with the Seattle Mariners he struck out in 31.2% of his plate appearances across 41 games, and he's been a 20.8% strikeout guy over his career. His walk rate (9.4%) was also more in line with his career 10.2% mark, which was another step in the right direction.

Last Monday, the A's designated Urías for assignment, essentially giving him an opportunity to land a gig elsewhere that could see him on a postseason roster. On Sunday, the Milwaukee Brewers, whom he spent three and a half seasons with, signed him to a minor-league deal.

Urías showed the A's and their fans over the first month of the season that he can get hot for a stretch, as hit was batting .270 with a .348 OBP through May 23, and he was even gaining some interest from teams like the Chicago Cubs well before the Trade Deadline. He ended up struggling in July, batting .182 with a .289 OBP in 33 at-bats in July, so a deal never came together.

The big caveat here is that this deal with the Brewers is a minor-league contract, which means that he's not on the 40-man roster. Per MLB's postseason roster rules, a player must be not only in the organization, but on the 40-man to be postseason eligible. Milwaukee could potentially get away with having Urías join the team if an injury occurred during October, which is not a bad backup plan--just in case.

In his time with the Brewers, Urías was a 6.3 bWAR player, batting a cumulative .239 with a .335 OBP and averaging 10.5 home runs per season. It's easily the most productive stint of his career, and while he didn't quite reach those heights with the Athletics, he wasn't terribly far off, either. If Milwaukee ends up needing him, Urías could certainly be a useful piece to the club as they chase a World Series.