Grisham’s promotion is an organizational victory for Brewers
OAKLAND, Calif. – Trent Grisham was on the golf course Wednesday when he received the call of a lifetime.
It was Milwaukee Brewers farm director Tom Flanagan on the other end, informing Grisham he was being promoted from Class AAA San Antonio.
“I was on my third hole and he said, ‘You’re going up,’ and I was just shocked, really shocked,” said Grisham, who was
playing his round with his fiancee,
Megan.
“I was playing really bad. I was actually happy to get off the course.”
While Grisham’s golf game might need some work, his baseball swing is as good as it’s ever been and the primary reason he found himself starting in center field for the Brewers’ interleague series finale with the Oakland A’s Thursday afternoon.
Grisham bid adieu to San Antonio with the game of a lifetime Tuesday night, a two-homer cycle in a Missions victory that raised his season average to .381 and his OPS to an otherworldly 1.247.
In 34 games with the Missions and another 63 earlier in the season with Class AA Biloxi, Grisham combined to hit .300 with 26 home runs and 71 runs batted in to go along with an OPS of 1.010, numbers that simply were too good for the Brewers to ignore despite the fact they’re already well-stocked with talented veterans in the outfield.
“I didn’t really anticipate it at all,” Grisham said of his callup. “I was just focused on showing up every day in San Antonio and playing hard and doing what I do.
“It’s a great surprise, for sure.” Truth be told, Grisham’s promotion is an organizational victory.
While he was the 15th overall pick in the 2015 draft, Grisham – then known as Trent Clark before he changed his name – traveled a long, arduous road through Milwaukee’s minor-league system that saw him lose his prospect status despite the fact he’s still only 22 years old and was consistently among the youngest players at each of his stops.
Grisham was considered to be one of the best pure high-school hitters in the 2015 draft and after hitting .309 in his first 55 professional games in 2015, he fell off to .231 in his first full season with Class A Wisconsin.
He hit .223 the next season at advanced Class A Carolina, then .233 in 2017 at Biloxi. While Grisham’s plate discipline was solid, the knock on him was he was simply not aggressive enough and as a result he hit only 19 homers in his first 354 games.
That all led to some soul-searching this past offseason for Grisham, who made some changes in his approach. He turned some heads when he hit .379 with two homers and four RBI in 17 Cactus League games this spring and then returned to Biloxi and began his seasonlong assault on opposing pitchers.
“It started with moving my contact point to the front, to make more consistent contact out in front,” he said. “With that, I started playing better and better and I just got more and more confidence. And now that’s really what I’m relying on, confidence in myself and just going out there and playing.”
Brewers hitting coach Andy Haines credited minor-league hitting coordinator Kenny Graham, San Antonio hitting coach Al LeBoeuf, Biloxi hitting coach Daniel Santin and Wisconsin hitting coach Dave Joppie with helping Grisham’s transformation at the plate.
“It’s really a good lesson for all of us,” manager Craig Counsell added. “This is a talented kid, and he’s still young. When you look at the finished product, everybody takes their own journey. It’s not always a smooth, upward climb and sometimes guys go in a different direction. But it’s Trent’s journey and it’s ended up in a really good place.
“Certainly, when a guy goes through the ups and downs, while he’s down the coaching is hopefully helping him and staying the course with him and planting the seeds with him as much as anything. A lot of times for our player development, it’s plant seeds, plant seeds, keep watering, keep watering and when it blooms, you don’t always know and it’s not always the same for everybody.
“I think our coaches have done a great job of continuing to plant the seeds with Trent and he’s taken it on himself to make some changes and be a little more aggressive, and it’s turned into some really good results.”
Grisham’s mother, brother, nephew and fiancee were all in the stands Thursday to witness the end of one journey – to the majors – and, if all goes according to plan, the beginning of another – to stay and become a regular contributor.
“Ups and downs, for sure. But it’s been really exciting,” said Grisham. “Going into this last offseason I really wanted to get better and figure out what was going on and kind of put some stuff together.
“I didn’t really have any expectations for this year – just go play hard and see what happens because I knew I was prepared. Then all this came out and played really well and it’s just been building and building.”
In order to accommodate Grisham’s recall as well as the arrival of left-hander Drew Pomeranz, the Brewers optioned utility man Tyler Saladino and right-hander Taylor Williams to San Antonio.
To get Grisham onto the 40-man roster, the Brewers designated right-hander Jacob Barnes for assignment.