Article: The Brewers Need to Move Jesse Winker Out of the Top of Their Lineup

[Matthew Trueblood]

Jesse Winker can't keep batting second. It just can't happen. It's time for the Brewers to try out a few of the hitters who have had much more success this year at that crucial spot in the lineup.

Image courtesy of © Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

As sabermetrically-inclined baseball fans always hasten to remind us, batting order matters relatively little. Barring a truly antithetical lineup that gives as many at-bats as possible to the worst hitters on a given team, teams just can't gain or lose nearly as many runs based on how they line up as based on who is in that lineup to begin with. Jesse Winker being in the lineup at all, right now, is more damaging to the team than the fact that he bats second.

Still, there's something to be said for eliminating dysfunction, even at a time when drastic steps aren't possible. The Brewers need Winker to get right. They can't afford, based on the health and performance of their other options at the moment, to simply cut him, or even to bench him against righties, because doing the latter would become a major hurdle to the kind of recovery of form they need.

That doesn't mean that Winker has to hit in the most important spot in the lineup when he's in there, though. Craig Counsell needs to send a message to his team about the value and urgency of delivering results, and to give his lineup a chance to create more runs. The best way to do that, at the moment, is to slide Winker down to sixth or seventh in the lineup, and to give some auditions to players who are outhitting him.

One candidate is Brian Anderson. With another homer on Saturday, Anderson continues his steady production. He had a prolonged power outage from the end of April through the beginning of this past week, but even then, he was putting together competitive at-bats. Based both on his track record and his approach, he should be able to produce the way a team needs their second hitter to produce, even against righties, at least in the short term. He's never going to be a superstar, but as he showed during the first 10 days of the season, he can get as hot as anyone, and he has the punch to convert rallies into runs quickly. Winker, now slugging .270 on the season, glaringly lacks that capacity.

If Counsell wants to swap another lefty into that position, Brice Turang could be worth a look. Coming up through the minors, he was always a top-of-the-order hitter, with his gap power and speed making him a dynamic presence. Obviously, Turang has has his own struggles at the plate thus far, but he's been much better over the last two weeks. He's making adjustments as quickly as the Brewers could reasonably have hoped, and could create some havoc on the basepaths along with Christian Yelich.

The most boring (but probably closest to optimal) choice would be to simply slide Willy Adames up to second in the order, make Rowdy Tellez the new No. 3 man, and hope that William Contreras can start elevating the ball enough to be a credible cleanup hitter. That's the least messy solution.

Less conventional than any of these, but perhaps most intriguing at the moment, is one more possibility: Owen Miller. He's come to Milwaukee and made exactly the adjustments I anticipated at the start of the season. The Brewers have helped him turn a starter kit of Luis Urias-like skills into Luis Urias-like production, and then some. He's been shielded from righties to some extent, and thrusting him into an important lineup spot against them would be a big challenge to him, but he's earned that shot.

One way or another, it's time for an offensive shakeup, and the Brewers' available moves are limited. Getting Winker out of the way so the more productive hitters in the heart of the order can generate more runs seems like a no-brainer, at this pivotal point.

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[MrTPlush]

A lot of people will point out his OBP, which is good and all…but there is a reason the scoreboard shows OPS.

His slugging is a horrid .270 and causes his OPS to be just .625. Sure, he gets on base, but it is going to take 2+ hits to get the dude in. Even a double is unlikely to get him in from first.

That being said, there isn’t a better option. Rearrange deck chairs and put Turang up there…or whoever else. They all suck, that isn’t going to make much difference.

 

[wiguy94]

57 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

A lot of people will point out his OBP, which is good and all…but there is a reason the scoreboard shows OPS.

His slugging is a horrid .270 and causes his OPS to be just .625. Sure, he gets on base, but it is going to take 2+ hits to get the dude in. Even a double is unlikely to get him in from first.

Yeah I have been saying this for a while. His OBP is highly overrated because he's such a terrible baserunner. He's the definition of station to station as a runner. Generally speaking to score him from 1st you would need 3 singles, a double+single, or a HR. 

[duewizard]

2 hours ago, MrTPlush said:

A lot of people will point out his OBP, which is good and all…but there is a reason the scoreboard shows OPS.

His slugging is a horrid .270 and causes his OPS to be just .625. Sure, he gets on base, but it is going to take 2+ hits to get the dude in. Even a double is unlikely to get him in from first.

That being said, there isn’t a better option. Rearrange deck chairs and put Turang up there…or whoever else. They all suck, that isn’t going to make much difference.

 

Yep. Winker is the slowest runner in baseball according to Statcast. He is 302 of 302 in average speed with at least 25 competitive runs at 22.6ft/s.

[TURBO]

Thankfully, we gave up basically nothing to get him. 

BUST.

[MrTPlush]

2 hours ago, TURBO said:

Thankfully, we gave up basically nothing to get him. 

BUST.

Thankfully Kolton Wong has been useless too. Specifically, Wong has a -1.2 WAR….which is kind of impossible to even wrap your head around.

[RWeeksFan23]

On 5/21/2023 at 1:31 PM, duewizard said:

Yep. Winker is the slowest runner in baseball according to Statcast. He is 302 of 302 in average speed with at least 25 competitive runs at 22.6ft/s.

That's crazy. Dude is even slower than all the catchers? Like the Salvador Perez's of the world

[RWeeksFan23]

I agree Winker sucks and shouldn't be hitting second, but if you move him down, what scrub would be undeservingly moving up in the order?

[wiguy94]

1 minute ago, RWeeksFan23 said:

I agree Winker sucks and shouldn't be hitting second, but if you move him down, what scrub would be undeservingly moving up in the order?

Ride the hot hand with Miller.

1. Miller

2. Yelich

3. Adames

4. Tellez

5. Contreras

6. Anderson

7. Winker

8. Taylor

9. Turang

[owbc]

On 5/21/2023 at 11:31 AM, duewizard said:

Yep. Winker is the slowest runner in baseball according to Statcast. He is 302 of 302 in average speed with at least 25 competitive runs at 22.6ft/s.

He was a terrible baserunner last year, I'm impressed that he got worse. 

For whatever reason, whether it be physical or mental or both, Winker just seems like a guy who is no longer interested in being a baseball player. I think he's physically capable of being a faster baserunner but he simply isn't interested in being one. This comes after having previously lost interest in playing defense, which I again think was more mental than physical. 

[duewizard]

2 hours ago, RWeeksFan23 said:

That's crazy. Dude is even slower than all the catchers? Like the Salvador Perez's of the world

Miggy has the same speed (understandable as he is 40). Next guys on the list are Grandal (22.7), Kirk (23.0), Rowdy (23.8) and Vogelbach (23.9).

Perez is 292 with (24.9)

[MrTPlush]

5 hours ago, wiguy94 said:

Ride the hot hand with Miller.

1. Miller

2. Yelich

3. Adames

4. Tellez

5. Contreras

6. Anderson

7. Winker

8. Taylor

9. Turang

Riding the hot hand is just poor strategy. You are trying to bank on short term past results and hope to catch lightning in a bottle. You are always one step behind and going to chase a carrot you will never catch. When do you consider a guy the hot hand? 2 games? 3 games? Then when you move them up, when do you decide they aren’t hot anymore? 2 games? 3 games? You will probably miss out on a few hot games and then keep them around a few bad games to match.

The offense is pretty pathetic, but it’s just grasping at straws. It’s going to make one feel good, but rearranging deck chairs is a short-lived feel good moment.