Trio headed out together
Outfielders will play at Class AAA
PHOENIX - The Milwaukee Brewers sent outfield prospects Lewis Brinson, Ryan Cordell and Brett Phillips out of camp Friday as a group and the plan is to keep them together as a group.
With that in mind, Brinson, Cordell and Phillips will form the primary outfield at Class AAA Colorado Springs to begin the season. Those assignments were expected for Brinson and Cordell but it was a bit of a surprise with Phillips, who struggled at Class AA Biloxi for much of last year.
“All three of those guys are going to go to Colorado Springs and will form a unit there. It’s three pretty good outfielders,” general manager David Stearns said.
Brinson is expected to see more time in center field than the other two, but Stearns said all three will move around the outfield.
“We value positional versatility,” Stearns said. “We never know what outfield position is going to be open when one of those guys is ready. So, all three need the ability to play all three positions. We never know what’s going to come up.”
Assuming Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Hernán Perez are the Brewers’ extra outfielders behind leftfielder Ryan Braun, centerfielder Keon Broxton and rightfielder Domingo Santana, another on the 40-man roster, Michael Reed, likely will be sent to Colorado Springs. Another outfielder, Kyle Wren, performed well for the Sky Sox in 77 games last year (.339 batting average, 20 steals) and also is in the picture.
“Kyle has played very well this spring,” manager Craig Counsell said. “He’s a player I’ve taken note of this spring. He has kind of done it quietly. We tend to focus on the younger players, but he has come over and played very well.”
Of the crowded outfield situation at Colorado Springs, Stearns said, “We’ll let that sort itself out. There will be plenty of at-bats for everyone. There always are in Triple-A.”
Brinson, 22, and Cordell, 25, were two of the three players obtained from Texas on Aug. 1 in a trade for catcher Jonathan Lucroy and reliever Jeremy Jeffress. Phillips, 22, was one of four players acquired from Houston in July 2015 for outfielder Carlos Gomez and right-hander Mike Fiers.
After being acquired, Brinson played 23 games for Colorado Springs and tore it up, batting .382 with four homers and 20 RBI. He performed well in the Brewers’ camp, batting .294 with two homers, eight RBI and a .973 OPS.
“Performance-wise, I think I did pretty good,” Brinson said. “I just tried to come in here and not try to do too much, (not) try to impress somebody. Just try to go out there and play my brand of baseball. That will impress people enough, I think.
“Not to sound cocky, but I have a lot of confidence in my game now. You just try to go out there and play baseball, man. Everything else will take care of itself. If you’re trying to go out there and impress people, you’re going to press and not get the job done. Even going into the season, I’m not trying to impress the guys up here.”
As for being one step away from the majors, Brinson said, “It’s actually easier, to be honest, knowing I’m one call away. All I have to do is go down there and play hard. Results are going to take care of themselves.”
Cordell was the “player to be named” in the Lucroy trade and wasn’t acquired until after the 2016 season. He didn’t play after the trade due to a high ankle sprain but in 107 games at Class AA Frisco batted .264 with 19 home runs, 70 RBI and .803 OPS.
Phillips never got going with the bat at Biloxi in 2016 and admitted this spring to pressing to try to live up to high expectations as one of the organization’s top prospects. In 124 games, he batted .229 with 16 home runs, 62 RBI, 154 strikeouts and .729 OPS.
The Brewers are both challenging Phillips to do better and showing confidence he can hold his own with Brinson and Cordell.
“I think it challenges each of them when they’re playing together, in the right way,” Counsell said. “It’s competition. We’ve talked about the benefits of it. We saw it on our team at the end of last year. That should be a talented team where you’ll see it this year.”
While folks tend to focus on the offensive production of prospects, Counsell said they were given a different directive upon being sent out.
“One thing we stressed with all three of these guys is you can improve your defense,” Counsell said. “We saw how much Keon’s defense improved from March 1 to the end of the season. It was significant improvement there. We tend to focus on how we improve offensively, but we can improve defensively, too. And it’s work.”
Susac frustrated: Catcher Andrew Susac remained frustrated by being sidelined with soreness that is more in his right trapezius muscle than neck, as originally stated. In a three-way battle with Jett Bandy and Manny Piña for two catching jobs, Susac wanted to be on the field, not getting treatment.
“It kind of sucks,” he said. “You can’t really do anything about it. We’re just looking for slow progress right now. It could be a thing where I wake up tomorrow and feel good.”
Stearns said, “We don’t think this is anything particularly serious. His ‘trap’ just needs to loosen up. I certainly understand the frustration. The good news is he has had a lot of ABs to this point and we have plenty of time until we have to make that decision.
“And those types of decisions are not determined exclusively on spring training performance. There is a lot else that goes into it.”
Stearns likely was referring to the fact Piña is out of minor-league options and Susac and Bandy have options remaining.