MLB Rumors: Milwaukee Brewers could look to trade Rickie Weeks?

The Milwaukee Brewers would love for you to take second baseman Rickie Weeks off their hands.

With promising prospect Scooter Gennett ready to take over the job (.324/.356/.479 in 69 games last year), Weeks is essentially taking up valuable space on the roster and in terms of their payroll ($11 million).

There was a time not long ago when many teams would have loved to add Weeks’ bat to their roster. Guys capable of hitting 20 home runs from the second base spot are hard to come by. Unfortunately for the Brewers, Weeks has channeled the bad version of Adam Dunn in recent years and raised eyebrows across the league with his struggles to keep his average above .200.

Difficult though it might be, trading Weeks would certainly be an ideal route for the Brewers. Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel lays out the situation:

"The Brewers have no desire to commit another $11.5 million to Weeks, not with Gennett knocking on the big-league door. A better option would be for another club to show enough interest this spring to work out a trade for Weeks, even if the Brewers have to absorb some of his salary. That would allow the club to move forward with Gennett, who wouldn’t be making big money for years.”"

Weeks is off to a hot start this spring, batting .357 with a home run so far. But even if he wins the job and sends Gennett to Triple-A to start the year things get complicated: if Weeks gets 600 at-bats in 2014 it triggers another $11 million option for 2015, meaning the team would have to go through this all over again one year from now.

If there are any takers, the Brewers would love to unload Weeks to be rid of this problem and to get a more productive player into their everyday lineup.