Ben Gamel gets big opportunity; Braun goes on 10-day IL.
After Ben Gamel’s two-run home run helped carry the Milwaukee Brewers past the Pittsburgh Pirates for a series victory at PNC Park last Wednesday, manager Craig Counsell acknowledged he needed to find a way to get him into the lineup more.
“Benny’s kind of earning some playing time is kind of how I see it,” he said. “Had a decent road trip, drove a couple balls. The thing that it really feels like he’s doing is pulling the ball in the air, and that’s obviously going to lead to some damage and some home runs. He hit a triple at Wrigley.
“That’s a good sign for Ben, I think. He’s a good hitter, but you pull that ball in the air and that’s damage.”
Little did Counsell know at the time but finding a more consistent spot for Gamel was going to suddenly become much easier with Lorenzo Cain on Saturday opting out of the rest of the season due to concerns over the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, the 28-year-old becomes the Brewers’ primary centerfielder. And the timing couldn’t be better for Gamel, who’s turned heads since the team reconvened for summer camp by displaying more consistency and punch at the plate after re-tooling his stance.
“This provides a really nice opportunity for Ben Gamel, a guy who has swung the bat well,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said Saturday. “He came back from a hiatus in a really good spot with his swing, and he’s going to get a longer look and a bigger opportunity now.”
Gamel was a reliable reserve in 2019, contributing several game-changing plays while tying a career high by seeing action in 134 games. He started 66, with 36 of those coming in left.
The Brewers’ outfield alignment changed in the offseason with Avisaíl García signing a free-agent deal and becoming the regular rightfielder. Christian Yelich moved to left and Cain remained in center, once again leaving Gamel as the swing man capable of playing all three spots.
With Cain gone, center becomes his focus. It’s the outfield spot he’s played the least over parts of the five seasons he’s logged in the major leagues, with 20 total starts compared to 160 in left and 93 in right.
There’s no expectation Gamel will come close to matching what Cain brought to the table defensively; he won his first Rawlings Gold Glove award last season and has been a regular on the highlight reels with his home-run-robbing catches at the wall.
Gamel has accounted for minus-15 defensive runs saved as an outfielder overall – minus-1 as a centerfielder – and doesn’t have a particularly strong throwing arm.
But he does have good speed and typically gets good reads on the ball with a career Ultimate Zone Rating of 3.8 (minus-0.7 in center) ranking him slightly above league average.
A starting role isn’t completely foreign to Gamel, who also played in 134 games for the Seattle Mariners in 2017. He made 82 starts in left and 45 in right and logged career highs offensively across the board with a .275 average, 11 homers and 59 runs batted in 550 plate appearances.
The Brewers have only six games in the books at this point and Gamel is hitting .250 with four RBI and an OPS of .974 after appearing in four (three starts, one each in left, center and right).
He homered a couple times in summer camp, and hit another in the Brewers’ lone exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox (although he got some help from outfielder Luis Robert, who caught the ball only to lose his glove with the ball in it over the fence).
Gamel’s left-handed bat and improved contact ability could make him a good fit near the top of the lineup and it will be interesting to see if he can sustain what he’s done to this point over the course of the rest of the shortened season.
Braun placed on IL
The Brewers will need to make an additional roster move after announcing they placed Ryan Braun on the 10-day injured list with an infected right index finger, retroactive to July 30.
Braun is hitting .231 with two RBI in four games this season.