NEWSLETTER
The Milwaukee Brewers have been working a rebuilding process for a few years now. They started to see fruit in 2017, and decided to more aggressively pursue that corner-turning in 2018 by supplementing the team with trades and free agents. It worked! Not only did the Brewers win the NL Central over the Cubs, but they did so by winning a whopping 96 games and made a run to the NLCS.
The Brewers’ break out was predicated strongly on surprising next-level performances from guys across their roster. Position players, starters, and relievers all over the place had career years, which is a credit not only to the players and the front office for identifying them, but also to the coaching staff for helping put them in the best possible position to succeed.
… and now two of the most important coaches are gone, having left of their own choosing so that they could take lateral jobs with other organizations.
Uh. Wut?
Hitting coach Darnell Coles was with the Brewers organization for six of the past seven years, including the last four as their hitting coach. Then, when this season ended, he resigned, and ultimately took the hitting coach job with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Pitching coach Derek Johnson was famously poached from the Cubs, who’d famously plucked him from his long-time role as the pitching coach at Vanderbilt. The Cubs brought Johnson in to lead the pitching development down on their farm, but the Brewers hired him away to be their pitching coach before the 2016 season. After three years, he left to become the pitching coach with the Cincinnati Reds.
Again … wut?
Although contract negotiations undoubtedly factored into the moves, you’ve got two top, well-regarded coaches who’ve had tremendous success choosing to leave their club at the height of that club’s success. This is not typical.
It’s hard to know for sure what’s going on behind the scenes, but GM David Stearns’ explanation for Johnson’s departure sure makes it sound like the Brewers were not willing to pony up the money to keep him (Journal Sentinel): “We attempted to work something out but ultimately D.J. decided he had other opportunities and decided to pursue them. We try to compensate fairly across the board. We understand this is a competitive market and we have good people. We leave it to each person to decide what’s best for himself and his family.”
Is it possible that the Brewers had success, had a couple coaches up for new contracts, and then decided to cheap out when those coaches were understandably targeted by other clubs (for lateral moves)? I guess so. It would probably be the most logical explanation at this point, even as damning as it looks.
Worse, of course, would be some institutional problem that these coaches were looking to run away from. There’s no indication of that, so again, I still with the more logical financial explanation. In any case, it’s going to be challenging for the Brewers to replace two key coaches in a single offseason. The players and front office will ultimately make the most difference as to the club’s competitiveness next year, but this won’t help.
Also, it’s just kinda weird.
