Scott Paulus
Keston Hiura Spring Training 2019 in Phoenix AZ. Scott Paulus/Brewers
We’re still months away from the hottest stretch of the MLB trade season, but it’s possible we already know who’s likely to be one of the Brewers’ biggest in-season additions.
In a season where one of baseball’s biggest storylines has been the long-awaited major league debut of prodigious minor league hitter Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the Brewers also have a top prospect with a less familiar name but very little else to prove before receiving an MLB call-up. While Keston Hiura hasn’t generated the same volume of attention as Guerrero, he’s putting up minor league numbers worthy of being included in the same conversation.
Hiura went one-for-two with a walk for AAA San Antonio on Sunday, which was actually a bit of a step back from his recent performance. After that game, he was batting .471 in his last 10 games, a span including four three-hit games and a pair of two-homer games. All told, he’s batting .346 in 30 games this season with a .393 on-base percentage and .757 slugging. He’s hit 10 home runs already in 2019 after hitting 13 all of last year.
It’s normal for hitters to require an adjustment period when they’re assigned to a new level, but Hiura’s performance has routinely defied convention:
- Aggressively assigned to Low-A Wisconsin in his first professional season, he hit .333 with a .374 on-base and .476 slugging in his first 27 games at the full-season level.
- In 2018 with High-A Carolina, he had the closest thing to a rough start he’s experienced at the professional level, hitting .272/.313/.448 in his first 30 games.
- Following a midseason promotion to AA, he batted .271/.328/.415 in his first 30 games in the pitcher-friendly Southern League for Biloxi.
- The Brewers extended the longest season of Hiura’s career by sending him to the prospect-rich Arizona Fall League, where he batted .323/.371/.563 and won the league’s MVP award (over the aforementioned Guerrero).
- Now, still only 22, Hiura is out-hitting nearly every player in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
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Hiura’s path to the majors is somewhat similar to another all-time Brewers great: Ryan Braun raked his way through the Arizona Fall League in 2006 and made his AAA debut in 2007, batting .342/.418/.701 in 34 games for Nashville. Despite concerns about his defense, the Brewers promoted Braun to the majors in May of that year.
It’s an oft-used cliché that a top prospect awaiting the call to the big leagues “needs to work on his defense,” but in Hiura’s case defense has been an occasionally-cited concern. Following an elbow injury he was exclusively a designated hitter in his final college season and has only relatively recently been able to play a full-time workload at second base. He’s started there in 24 of San Antonio’s 30 contests this season, at least in part answering some questions about his durability and capacity.
Even if all the questions surrounding Hiura can be considered answered, however, his big league opportunity still might be delayed by factors outside his control. The Brewers closed his clearest path to the majors when they signed Mike Moustakas in February. Milwaukee gambled on the veteran lefty by playing him most days at second base and have been rewarded with another solid bat in their lineup, but doing so temporarily blocked their best prospect.
There’s likely not room for Hiura to get regular playing time as long as the Brewers continue committing to Moustakas and Travis Shaw. Shaw’s season is off to a very rough start, however, as going 0-for-10 in the Mets series dropped his batting average to .172. David Stearns and company are unlikely to give up on Shaw easily, but if Hiura’s hot start continues it might put some pressure on them to go a new direction.
Hiura’s situation is the kind of problem good teams have: The Brewers have too much talent and too many established veterans on their roster to create a clear path to the big leagues for a player that probably belongs there. If Hiura keeps hitting, however, the pressure will build for the organization to make room for him.
