Brewers eyeing 56 home run hitter amid interest in Carlos Santana reunion

The Milwaukee Brewers are rumored to be interested in a reunion with slugger Carlos Santana, and now there’s another player that they’re rumored to have their eye on, according to Darraugh McDonald of MLBrumors.com

McDonald writes that the Brewers are also considering Garrett Cooper at first base:

“Cooper, 33, has plenty of success as a big league hitter but just had an ill-timed down year as he was heading into free agency. He hit .274/.350/.444 from 2019 to 2022, with that production translating to a wRC+ of 117, indicating he was 17% better than the league average hitter. Due to the pandemic and some injuries, he only played 331 games over that four-year stretch, but it was nonetheless a solid run of work at the plate.”

While Santana is the bigger name, he’s also 37 years old and isn’t a long-term answer at the position. He had success after joining the Brewers from Pittsburgh last season, but it isn’t known how much more he has left. With that, and the fact that the Brewers aren’t totally giving up on next season, the interest in Cooper makes sense, writes McDonald:

“Nonetheless, the interest from the Brewers is sensible, as they didn’t have anyone firmly established at first base last year. Santana and Rowdy Tellez got most of the plate appearances, but the latter hit just .215/.291/.376, which led to him being non-tendered and signing with the Pirates. Santana’s line of .240/.318/.429 was right around league average but he’s now a free agent and going into his age-38 season. The club also gave some playing time to guys like Owen Miller, Luke Voit, Jon Singleton and Mike Brosseau, without any of them staking a firm claim to the job.”

In his seven-year career, Cooper has a .268 batting average with 56 home runs.