This is the final weekend without Major League Baseball until the end of October, and roster projections are in full-swing.
Friday, the Brewers made three key roster decisions to help give clarity to the Opening Day roster. However, I want you to read this with a grain of salt because Pat Murphy has made it very clear to the media, the starting 26 will not be the finishing 26. There will be mixing and matching and optioning and everything in between to keep bodies fresh for the season.
The moves made today include announcing Jackson Chourio making the Opening Day roster, optioning Joey Wiemer and Aaron Ashby to AAA Nashville, and re-assigning Christian Arroyo to minor league camp. As for the latter, Arroyo can opt-out of his deal and become a free agent, he was a non-roster invitee anyway.
Wiemer and Ashby will play in the big leagues at some point this year, especially in Ashby’s case with this club’s need for pitching. This move for Wiemer is reminiscent of his option at the end of last week of the season with Nashville, placing the building blocks for fixing his swing.
Now Wiemer has the chance to get everyday at-bats against AAA pitching with his new approach. As of Friday morning, he has not hit an extra-base hit in spring training – maybe his biggest calling card to a big league roster.
Now let’s start projecting and speculating on what the position player roster could look like in New York next week. Here are three scenarios I foresee the Brewers are workshopping to open the season.
Three “catchers” and Frelick taking the most starts at third
- Sal Frelick – 3B
- William Contreras – C
- Christian Yelich – LF
- Rhys Hoskins – 1B
- Willy Adames – SS
- Garrett Mitchell – RF
- Gary Sánchez – DH
- Brice Turang – 2B
- Jackson Chourio – CF
BENCH
- Jake Bauers – 1B
- Eric Haase – C
- Joey Ortiz – INF
- Blake Perkins – OF
Pat Murphy wants to give Sal Frelick every opportunity to start Opening Day at third base. Defensive evaluation aside, this alignment would allow the best hitters to hit more often. The lineup features balance of righties and lefties, speed and power, contact and damage. One thing that could hamstring this lineup is its versatility, but I encourage a deeper look at that.
I wrote in last week’s notebook about the challenges Murphy will have with late-inning defensive substitutions and the risk of losing an at-bat from a key player if a lead is lost (especially relevant with the loss of Devin Williams for three months).
The Brewers have been working tirelessly with Jackson Chourio on his defense in center field. From my own eye, it has not met the standard from his scouting reports, and maybe it offers a different rearrangement of defenders late in the game. Maybe Blake Perkins takes over for Chourio after his last at-bat of a game with the lead – his outfield defense metics would have been near the top of baseball with enough qualifying innings.
You still have the Oritz or Frelick question at third base, but the perils of a tie game and Sal not getting another at-bat would be tough to swallow.
The last caveat of this lineup is the three catcher setup. But that’s not exactly what you think it is. Quick trivia: who has the most starts at DH for the Brewers since the start of the 2021 season? Andrew McCutchen with 82. The universal DH hasn’t been plug-and-play role for the Brewers, but maybe Gary Sánchez is that guy?
Furthermore, it allows you to keep Eric Haase as your backstop if something were to happen to either William or Gary. But let’s also be honest, if things go according to plan for William, he’s probably catching at least 130 games and playing in the other 32 as a DH. He wants to play everyday. But Haase survived today’s cuts, I think the Brewers are seriously considering it.
Two catchers and Frelick still making the most starts at third
- Sal Frelick – 3B
- William Contreras – C
- Christian Yelich – LF
- Rhys Hoskins – 1B
- Willy Adames – SS
- Garrett Mitchell – RF
- Gary Sánchez – DH
- Brice Turang – 2B
- Jackson Chourio – CF
BENCH
- Jake Bauers – 1B
- Andruw Monasterio – INF
- Joey Ortiz – INF
- Blake Perkins – OF
One name not mentioned in the first scenario was Andruw Monasterio. He would be optioned to AAA in scenario 1, but a key piece of the bench for the Crew in this scenario. All of the hesitations with subbing Frelick out of third base would still exist offensively, but Monasterio defensively still provided positive metrics.
Furthermore, this scenario gives you two right-handed options to pinch-hit for Brice Turang when a situational lefty is on to face Brice – just like we saw the Diamondbacks do to Brice in the Wild Card series last year.
Versatility has been one of the Brewers’ biggest strengths over the last few seasons, and this scenario would capitalize on being able to mix and match late-inning clutch moments.
Two catchers and Frelick is back in the outfield
- Sal Frelick – RF
- William Contreras – C
- Christian Yelich – LF
- Rhys Hoskins – 1B
- Willy Adames – SS
- Gary Sánchez – DH
- Jackson Chourio – CF
- Brice Turang – 2B
- Joey Oritz – 3B
BENCH
- Jake Bauers – 1B
- Andruw Monasterio – INF
- Garrett Mitchell – OF
- Blake Perkins – OF
More of what we’ve been talking about with the versatility off the bench, but the flaw with this set-up is the lack of right-handed bats you would use in an unfavorable left-on-left situation.
Joey Oritz can play any of third, short, or second base, and starting him at third base doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to finish the game there. Garrett Mitchell can be used as a late pinch-runner for Sánchez, but you don’t get to use him on defense (but that’s where Perkins comes in).
As you can tell with all of this, Bauers is on the team as the only other member of the team who can play first base on games Rhys will be the designated hitter. With this scenario, Sánchez is on the bench and able to help as that key right-handed bench bat for a tough lefty.
I’m not sure the Brewers want to keep Mitchell’s electricity on the bench in this scenario, which is why Frelick’s performance at third is just as important for Mitchell’s playing time this season. The Brewers are doing everything they can to keep all of these young stars in the lineup, and Frelick’s willingness to move to third creates a chance for it to happen.
However, with all of that being said, I can’t wait to laugh at this in a week for how wrong I might be. Nonetheless, we may laugh in June because things never go like you think they will go over the course of 162 games
