MILWAUKEE — While all of baseball knows the Brewers will be sellers at the trade deadline this year, most of the players considered prime candidates to be moved by July 31 are the reason Milwaukee is wallowing in the NL Central basement.
But quietly, left fielder Gerardo Parra has emerged as the team’s hottest hitter and, in turn, one of the players more likely to be wearing a new uniform come Aug. 1.
Parra was out of the starting lineup Sunday but singled in a seventh-inning pinch-hit appearance to finish the three-game series against the Pirates 4-for-11 with two runs, two doubles and an RBI at the plate. Since April 25, he is batting .337 and leads the team with a .313 average — putting him among the top 10 in the National League.
Parra has been especially good since manager Craig Counsell inserted him into the leadoff spot, where he has a .363 average (33-for-91) with five home runs and 13 RBIs. Parra has scored 18 runs from that spot in large part because Counsell was able to drop Carlos Gomez down to the heart of the order.
“It has an impact throughout the lineup,” Counsell said. “Why Carlos Gomez has driven in a lot of runs is because Gerardo Parra is on base or extending innings to get to Carlos with men on base.
“They’re tied together because of that. Carlos is getting those opportunities because Gerardo has been on base so much, or continued an inning. It’s all related. It shows you how much impact it has had on our offense.”
Parra, who the Brewers acquired from Arizona last year at the trade deadline, knows that as he keeps playing well, his name will be the subject of more and more rumors but he’s trying to focus on the job at hand.
“I am happy that I am playing good but I don’t want to think about all of that,” Parra said. “When you think too much about those things, it puts pressure on you. I just want to focus on playing for my team. We have been playing much better.”
The 28-year-old is making just over $6 million this season and will become a free agent in the winter.