The Milwaukee Brewers' season came to a close on Sunday afternoon following a 3-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs. The Brewers fell to 68-94 on the season, a season in which they thought they would be contenders in a division loaded with talent.
Unfortunately, that was not the case and after the worst start to a season in franchise history then-manager Ron Roenicke was relieved of his duties and replaced by first year manager Craig Counsell, whose last playing days where with the Brewers in 2011. The season also saw veteran pitchers Kyle Lohse and Matt Garza being pulled from the starting rotation and Mike Fiers, Carlos Gomez, Aramis Ramirez, Jonathan Broxton and Neal Cotts being dealt away in trades that netted some prospects to build on in the future. And in mid August GM Doug Melvin made headlines by announcing that he was going to step down as general manager and instead will an advisory role. 30-year old David Stearns, then the Astros' assistant GM was announced as the person to take over for Melvin going forward.
But apart from all of those changes, the way the season has gone gave the Brewers a chance to have a look or two at some young players. Pitchers Taylor Jungmann, Tyler Wagner, Tyler Cravy, Zach Davies, Jorge Lopez, Ariel Peña, Adrian Houser, Yhonathan Barrios, David Goforth and Corey Knebel each saw some playing time in the big leagues. So have position players Hernan Perez, Shane Peterson, Jason Rogers, Domingo Santana, Luis Sardiñas, Yadiel Rivera and Micael Reed.
And although there were no eye-popping performances down the stretch, Jungmann, Davies, Rogers, and Santana each showed that they can very well play at the major league level.
Jungmann's ERA was 3.77, and that despite the fact that he posted and ERA near 6.5 in is last seven starts of the season.
Zach Davies' 3.71 ERA in only six starts may seem like a small sample size, but he was able to rebound from some so-so starts and finish the season strong with a 15-inning scoreless streak.
Rogers' .297 batting average might jump out the most as he, like Davies, finished the season strong by batting .426 in his last 30 games.
.247 is not what you are looking for in a batting average, but Domingo Santana showed some power and stole a base here and there to give the Crew something to hope for in the future.
And then there are the winter meetings
It will be interesting to see how the four days in december will go when the GMs of all teams will meet in Nashville Tennessee. Could the Brewers be involved in a trade here and there? The organizational depth at shortstop leads to the conclusion that Jean Segura may be on the way out via trade in the not so distant future. And maybe they could part ways with veterans like Francisco Rodriguez and/or Adam Lind (if they pick up Lind's club option) in order to bring more young and controllable talent to the organization.
Any opinions and/or assumptions on what the Brewers might do in the trade/free agent market?
