The Brewers acquired Willy Adames to replace Luis Urías. Now they’re best friends – The Athletic

PHOENIX — Luis Urías offered to book his stay in the Dominican Republic through Airbnb.

“No,” Willy Adames told him. “You will be at my house.”

And so began a winter of bonding between Urías and Adames, each visiting the other’s homeland while preparing for the upcoming season.

A good friendship began last season between Adames and Urías, despite the circumstances that made the two teammates. With Urías struggling, especially defensively, at shortstop, Milwaukee made the proactive decision on May 21 to trade for Adames, who immediately took over for Urías. The decision was a boon for the team with Adames’ energy and production helping to secure a division title, and it also brought out the best in Urías. Eventually, Urías moved to third base and thrived, finding more consistency defensively and hitting 19 homers after the trade. Essentially, by acquiring a shortstop, the Brewers also got a third baseman.

This spring, a sprained left quadriceps jeopardized Urías’ opening day status. The injury happened while Urías was rounding second base in a game on Saturday, and he will be out for at least two weeks. Urías suggested on Tuesday that the delay could be a week longer than that. The Brewers’ home opener is April 6. That doesn’t give the infielder much time to rest and then come back up. Meanwhile, the other Brewers third base options on the 40-man roster are right-handed hitter Mike Brosseau and left-handed hitter Jace Peterson. (Urías is also the team’s backup shortstop, where the other option is right-handed hitter Pablo Reyes.