4:17pm: Yelich and Cain are indeed in Monday’s lineup, the Brewers announced. The team optioned Taylor and infielder Keston Hiura to its alternate site in corresponding moves. Taylor’s one of the odd men out despite a fantastic .323/.400/.581 line with a pair of homers in 35 trips to the plate. Hiura has endured an awful start, though, with a .152/.247/.266 mark, 32 strikeouts and one HR over 89 PA. So far, it has been the second consecutive adverse season for Hiura, who burst on the scene as a rookie in 2019 but hasn’t come close to replicating his output from then.
Hiura has gotten the lion’s share of playing time at first base this year for Milwaukee, which has also utilized Daniel Vogelbach at the position. Vogelbach and McKinney will now split time there. Manager Craig Counsell expressed optimism that Hiura “can be our primary first baseman,” though he admitted the Brewers “need more offense” from that spot, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relays.
4:03pm: Brewers outfielders Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain will return from the 10-day injured list Monday as the first-place club begins a series against the Phillies, Robert Murray of FanSided reports.
This will be the first action since April 11 for Yelich, who has been down with a back ailment. The Brewers were optimistic Yelich wouldn’t be out for long, evidenced by the fact that they didn’t place him on the IL until April 17 (retroactive to the 14th). Now that the former MVP is coming back from a three-week absence, he’ll try to build on the highly productive .333/.459/.367 line he logged in 37 plate appearances to start the season. However, the two-time 30-plus-home run hitter hasn’t left the yard yet in 2021.
The Brewers received very strong numbers from the left field combination of Tyrone Taylor and Billy McKinney during Yelich’s absence. The same hasn’t been true in center, where Jackie Bradley Jr. has struggled in his first year with the Brewers. Bradley divided his time between center and right to open the year, but he has played the former spot almost every day since Cain went on the IL on April 14 with a strained left quad. As is the case with Bradley, Cain has come out of the gates slowly in 2021. He batted an underwhelming .154/.214/.423 in 28 PA prior to his trip to the IL.
Hiura sent down, guy just can’t find it right now.
I hope he finds his stroke, used to be a contact hitter in college before trading that in for power. Maybe he should go back to a contact based approach
Slugging .367 is productive? Yelich is toast unless he gets some of Braun’s juice.
Obviously that’s low but his OPS is well over .800 and he had a 130 OPS+.
Kewldood69? How old are you? 15?
This is the perfect example of why service time manipulation at the start of a career is unnecessary. All a team has to do is wait for a slump and you can send a player down for a week or two or even a month to gain that extra year and just say that he needs to get his head together. At the very least it is not as obvious a manipulation of the rule. The Rockies made the mistake of not doing that with Trevor Story when he was slumping in his 2nd or 3rd year. Otherwise they could have him locked up for another year.
Technically you are correct, but you run into two issues. One: would you really wanna send a message to your team that you can be sent down if you have a couple weeks of struggles? Two: You have to burn an option to do so, and you never know when you might need that option year.
hiflew
This is the perfect example of why service time manipulation
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Better yet, don’t promote anyone without a 2/1 K/W or better. There will always be an exception somewhere, but if you can’t do better than 2/1 in the minors, you are unlikely to do much in the pros. Maybe if you’re a SS or catcher, or someone with prodigious power, but a 2B with mediocre power?
oh joy. what a time for them to be back. id imagine each hits a HR off VV.
I imagine with the rain and VV’s pitch count already they won’t, but they did come close in only 1 inning.
A true shame for Taylor, who has played very well.
Yeah he deserves to be starting. Send Garcia packing . Think it’s time to make Taylor full time starter. Make Cain available in a trade.
Garcia is a free agent after this season. Cain will be 36 and owed $18 million next season so trading him is unlikely unless they eat a big chunk of that salary. If the Brewers really want to give Taylor an extended chance it will be next season
Garcia is one of the few players doing anything with the bat but is a free agent at the end of the year. He may be a trade option at the dead line but might be a option for the future.
Hiura needs a swing change or he will never have a consistent year as a major leaguer. Way to much launch in his swing!!! Unfortunately for the Brewers, this might take some time.
JBJr has struggled in his first year with the Brewers – does that come as a surprise to anyone?
he’s a career .238 hitter so not really
He is notoriously streaky, so no. One month he will have 6 HRs and a .350, and that won’t surprise me either.
I saw Keston in the Arizona Fall League, he won the MVP over Pete Alonso and Vlad Gutters Jr, he was awesome. He’s always been a butcher in the field but was a great hitter, hope he turns it around