‘A fresh start’
The Brewers say their offensive struggles are in the rear-view mirror as they gear up for 2021.
As hard as they may try, many Milwaukee Brewers fans can't get the memory of last season's offensive meltdown out of their minds.
It's understandable because it was brutal to watch at times.
But what about the key players involved in the meltdown? Are they still haunted by the scads of strikeouts, the inconsistent clutch hitting and the over-reliance on home runs that helped pave the way to a quick postseason ouster at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers?
Nope.
“I don't think we've paid much attention to what happened last year,” Keston Hiura said. “We have a good group of guys, solid guys returning, and obviously made a bunch of big signings to help that offense and defense as well.
“I think it's one of those teams where you're going to be in every single game no matter what. We're really excited about it. We haven't really talked about much last year because that's all in the past now, and we're really focused on this year.”
Christian Yelich, speaking to reporters earlier in camp, was even more blunt.
“This is baseball. That stuff happens,” he said. “You can't change it now and you can't do anything about it. Good or bad, what you did the previous year doesn't matter because you can't do anything about it. Whether you were the MVP the previous year or you sucked, everybody starts at zero in spring training and the new year.
“We live in a business where it's ‘what have you done for me lately.' What I've done lately is play terribly, so I'm looking forward to a fresh start and starting a new year.”
Indeed, short memories and an ability to look at the big picture are musts in a sport where failing seven out of 10 times is considered terrific.
Hiura, Yelich and pretty much the rest of Milwaukee's regulars became accustomed to dealing with adversity early and often in the two-month sprint that was the pandemic season of 2020.
Hiura, the hitting phenom, led the Brewers with 13 home runs and 32 runs batted in over 59 games but also saw his batting average plummet from .303 as a rookie to .212 as a sophomore and his strikeout total of 85 lead the National League.
Yelich, the 2018 NL MVP and 2018 and '19 NL batting champion, opened the season 1 for 27 and never recovered, finishing with a .205 average, 12 homers and 22 RBI. His 76 strikeouts were second-most in the NL.
But the duo was hardly alone in its struggles.
Omar Narváez, Avisaíl García, Justin Smoak, Eric Sogard and Brock Holt — the team’s biggest additions from outside the organization — were all flops, with Smoak and Holt both being jettisoned midseason as the Brewers scuffled for solutions.
Lorenzo Cain opting out after five games certainly didn’t help matters. Ryan Braun couldn’t avoid the nagging injuries that had plagued him for several seasons.
As a result, Orlando Arcia finished as the team’s leading hitter among regulars with a .260 average, while low-budget signing Jedd Gyorko and waiver claim Daniel Vogelbach were among the few reliable options at the plate down the stretch.
All told, they combined to lead the NL with 572 strikeouts (second in the majors) while finishing 12th in the NL in hitting at .223 (26th in the majors) and runs scored with 247 (26th in the majors), and 13th in the NL in OPS at .702 (24th in the majors).
New year, new hitters provide hope
It’s against that backdrop that the Brewers are turning the page, with the expectation that the bottom dropping out on so many players was a result of the tumult caused by COVID-19 and the hope that the addition of veterans Kolten Wong and Jackie Bradley Jr. can help right the ship and balance the lineup.
Going strictly by the numbers in the spring — which can be a misleading exercise, admittedly — Milwaukee’s offense is in a good place heading into opening day Thursday against the Minnesota Twins at American Family Field.
Entering Tuesday’s exhibition finale at Texas, the Brewers had hit the secondmost homers (44, tied with Boston), driven in the third-most runs (144, tied with Kansas City), had the third-highest OPS (.831) and scored the fourth-most runs (152) while ranking in the top half in walks (102, 11th) and batting average (.258, 13th).
And almost across the board, the players who are seeking big bouncebacks fared well.
Yelich crushed it with a .370 average and OPS of 1.371, slugging three homers with eight RBI in 13 games. García and Hiura were tied for the team lead with four homers and 11 RBI while hitting .298 and .283, respectively.
Narváez was at .273/1.051 with three homers and seven RBI, and Cain was finally getting his legs under him after a quadriceps strain pushed his Cactus League debut all the way back to March 20.
Then there was Wong, who already looks like a fixture atop the lineup with a .294 average, 1.015 OPS, three homers and four RBI, and Bradley, who was hitting .250 in nine games while trying to manage a right wrist he had surgically repaired shortly after his run with Boston ended.
Even a youngster like Luis Urías was performing well with a .314 average.
“We’ve got a number of players who are in a really good spot, including some players who had rough 60-game stretches last year,” manager Craig Counsell said as his team left Arizona.
“To see Omar having the type of spring he’s had, to see Avi come in in the type of shape that he came in and really produce this spring, obviously Yeli looks like he’s back in a really good spot — all those guys, we need those guys to be productive.
“They’ve put in a lot of work both off-season and during camp to get to a good spot. We just want to keep them there. We want to keep everyone right where they are as we head into the regular season.”
Getting back to routine has been key
It’s a culmination of a balancing act over the course of the spring in which Counsell and his staff seek to ramp up the expected everyday players like Yelich and Wong while at the same time trying to get players like Hiura and Urías as much playing time as possible.
It’s a much different scenario than last year when teams got into the third week of games before camp was shut down. Then, players had just three weeks to get back up to speed in July while not being able to utilize in-game video — a huge departure that many hitters struggled with.
“For the most part, we’ve been able to accomplish exactly what we wanted to with them as far as spacing out at-bats, getting them started early and doing it over 41⁄2 weeks,” Counsell said in discussing more of a return to normality this spring.
“It’s not just the game action. It’s also the daily work with Andy (Haines) and Jacob (Cruz, the Brewers’ hitting and assistant hitting coaches), doing it at this pace instead of the rushed scenario over 17 days they had to get ready last year.
“It certainly made a big difference for our hitters. As much as anything, I’ve noticed it’s been off the field, away from the game. They’ve been able to get into a solid, I don’t want to say leisurely, but an at-their-own-pace routine.”
Now seemingly in a good place at the right time, Milwaukee’s lineup should be one that features much more balance from top to bottom in terms of both handed-ness and skill sets.
Wong should be a great table setter — especially with his ability to put the ball in play. Hiura, Yelich and García figure to form the meat of the order. After that, it’ll probably be some form of Bradley or Cain and Narváez with Travis Shaw mixed in as well when he’s playing third base.
Arcia and Urías figure to round it out, with Vogelbach the team’s top bat off the bench. Then there’s always the fun of watching pitcher Brandon Woodruff getting back into the batter’s box with the designated hitter gone for 2021.
No question, Counsell has plenty of options. And on a team that’s suddenly featuring some outstanding pitching and defense, a bounce back by the offense would make the Brewers a very wellrounded team in an NL Central that appears to be up for grabs.
“From a position-player standpoint, this is a pretty set group,” he said. “There’s not necessarily a lot of questions here, or decisions. We have different options.
“I do think the lineup will change a lot because of the outfield situation and the third base-shortstop situation. I think we’ll be able to put eight good hitters in the lineup every night. It’s just going to look different a lot of times because we’re going to be moving guys in and out.
“They’re going to be playing regularly, but it’s going to be different nightly, if that makes sense.”