Brewers add to infield, acquire Schoop from O’s

1:02 pm | July 31, 2018 | Go to Source | Author:

4:57 PM ET

The Baltimore Orioles have traded second baseman Jonathan Schoop to the Milwaukee Brewers.

In return, Baltimore acquired veteran second baseman Jonathan Villar, as well as right-hander Luis Ortiz and shortstop Jean Carmona, both minor leaguers.

Schoop, 26, was hitting .244 with 17 home runs and 40 RBIs for the Orioles this season.

An All-Star in 2017, Schoop missed some of the first half of this season with an oblique strain, but he’s heated up since the All-Star break. His nine home runs in July are tied for the second-most in the majors behind Matt Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals (10).

The trade is the second the Brewers have made for an infielder in recent days, following Friday’s deal for Mike Moustakas of the Kansas City Royals. It also gives them a surplus of infielders, with third baseman Travis Shaw also on the team.

Schoop has played two major league games at shortstop.

Milwaukee (62-47) entered Tuesday’s action one game behind the first-place Chicago Cubs in the NL Central.

The Orioles are on the opposite end of the spectrum. They entered Tuesday 42 games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox in the AL East.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, the last team to be at least 40 games out of first at the end of July was the 1962 New York Mets (26-76, 43 games out).

Baltimore has traded several big names in recent weeks, with Manny Machado (Los Angeles Dodgers), Zach Britton (New York Yankees), Brad Brach and Kevin Gausman (Atlanta Braves) joining Schoop on the way out.

Villar is in his sixth season in the majors and had an NL-best 62 steals in 2016. He’s hitting .261 with 26 runs scored and six home runs in 87 games this season.

Ortiz, a first-round draft pick by Texas in 2014, has a 3.71 ERA with 65 strikeouts in 68 innings for Double-A Biloxi this season. Carmona, 18 and from the Dominican Republic, is hitting .239 with 28 runs scored for Helena of the Rookie League.