When will Frelick get benched?

[nate82]

While everyone is worrying about Regnifo, Perkins, and Ortiz and rightfully so it feels like Frelick is being overlooked. If you take Regnifo and Ortiz out of the equation, Frelick has arguably been the Brewers worst regular this season.  Put it this way Frelick is worse than Hamilton so far this season.  

Right now, he owns a slash line of .222/.292/.304 with a 70 wRC+ and -0.2 WAR. Over at FanGraphs, he has been a negative contributor both offensively and defensively, so he is not really providing much value on either side of the ball.

That said, his splits against right-handed pitching are actually respectable, so maybe the answer is giving him a platoon partner against lefties.

Frelick's splits:

VS LHP: .120/.182/.200 for a wRC+ of 8.  That is not a mistake that is his wRC+ against LHP.  

VS RHP: .269/.341/.352 for a wRC+ of 99.  

Mitchell is currently being sat against LHP but I believe the Brewers also need to sit Frelick against LHP.  The Brewers definitely need another RH batter in the OF as neither Mitchell or Frelick should be seeing LHP going forward and no Frelick seeing a lot of pitches is not a positive when he does absolutely nothing after seeing all those pitches.  

 

Frelick's statcast info:

[wallus]

I agree with the premise and idea.

The easiest option would be playing Perk as he can still hit lhp a little.

Lockridge will help with this as well. 

[yfinn6]

His performance has largely been bad. Love the guy but kind of wish they would have sold high on him; not sure when that would've been. 

[trwi7]

Replace him with who?  It's hard to take the team seriously with so many black holes throughout the lineup and roster and seemingly no desire to improve it.

[HarryDoyle]

Right. Unlike Ortiz, Rengifo, Perkins and Hamilton, I expect results from Frelick.

[StearnsFTW]

1 hour ago, trwi7 said:

Replace him with who?  It's hard to take the team seriously with so many black holes throughout the lineup and roster and seemingly no desire to improve it.

It's a fair question.

 

My answer would be Lara.

 

Frelick stinks.

[TURBO]

NEVAH!

[adambr2]

There is no point in having Frelick sit on Milwaukee bench every day. 

There is also no point in replacing him with a known quantity like Perkins or Lockridge.

If you are going to bench him, which I definitely understand, he should be optioned to go work things out in Nashville and Lara should be up to take his ABs.

[nate82]

16 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

There is no point in having Frelick sit on Milwaukee bench every day. 

Maybe not benched but he should only see RHP and sit against LHP.  He is a negative to the team against LHP.  Now just need to find a right handed bat to platoon with him.

[owbc]

3 hours ago, nate82 said:

Frelick's statcast info:

This wouldn’t be terrible for a centerfielder with plus defense…

[adambr2]

8 hours ago, nate82 said:

Maybe not benched but he should only see RHP and sit against LHP.  He is a negative to the team against LHP.  Now just need to find a right handed bat to platoon with him.

Lara has a .410/.490/.690/1.180 slash line against LHP in AAA.

I know that doesn’t mean it’ll perfectly translate to the majors, but if he can even come within 300 points of that OPS against LHP, there’s your bat.

[YelichPosse]

For once we have some, if not nice, at least interesting choices in AAA for the bottom third of the roster. Lara intrigues me more than even ole Sal, who always seems completely lost at the plate. It’s like he’s wailing at a piñata 95% of the time. 😝. 

[umphrey]

Can’t wait til we get into June and some AAA hitter call ups become more viable. Lara, Pratt, Jett are all looking like interesting options right now. Would like to see Frelick in a platoon and defensive sub role until he works through his issues at the plate. The other ABs go to one of those prospects. 

[folly412]

Plenty of ABs in that outfield for Lara.  Especially since you don't lose anything defensively either.

 

[Brian]

Lockridge should be cleared to play in early June but he might need a tune up in Nashville before Milwaukee. 

[RWeeksFan23]

15 hours ago, nate82 said:

While everyone is worrying about Regnifo, Perkins, and Ortiz and rightfully so it feels like Frelick is being overlooked. If you take Regnifo and Ortiz out of the equation, Frelick has arguably been the Brewers worst regular this season.  Put it this way Frelick is worse than Hamilton so far this season.  

Right now, he owns a slash line of .222/.292/.304 with a 70 wRC+ and -0.2 WAR. Over at FanGraphs, he has been a negative contributor both offensively and defensively, so he is not really providing much value on either side of the ball.

That said, his splits against right-handed pitching are actually respectable, so maybe the answer is giving him a platoon partner against lefties.

Frelick's splits:

VS LHP: .120/.182/.200 for a wRC+ of 8.  That is not a mistake that is his wRC+ against LHP.  

VS RHP: .269/.341/.352 for a wRC+ of 99.  

Mitchell is currently being sat against LHP but I believe the Brewers also need to sit Frelick against LHP.  The Brewers definitely need another RH batter in the OF as neither Mitchell or Frelick should be seeing LHP going forward and no Frelick seeing a lot of pitches is not a positive when he does absolutely nothing after seeing all those pitches.  

 

Frelick's statcast info:

i'm actually surprised his chase rate is considered elite; he seems to chase a lot of high fastballs out of the zone.

[rccola42]

OF would be my priority if we're looking for a big trade. Need a difference maker badly out there, and I don't see one coming up from the minors. Lara may be a slightly improved version of what we currently have, but I still don't buy much pop in that bat.

SS and 3B should be dealt with internally given our plentiful options in the minors.

Buxton or Duran (although he's struggled) seem to be the potential difference makers that could be available.

[Frisbee Slider]

Sal has .231 BABIP this year, meaningfully below his career average of .298. Walks are up and strikeouts are down year over year. He is going to the opposite field less often this season, but exit velocity is nearly identical to last year.

[long ball]

Frelick has stunk. I do think he has some built up equity with Murphy and the front office so he’s probably not in imminent danger of losing a lot of playing time or his roster spot, but another month of this and he might. 
 

The only option on the active roster is to play Bauers in LF more. Certainly a viable option, but still we probably need either Mitchell or Frelick to play against LHP. 
 

Lara had another double and triple in AAA lst night. He’s been significantly more productive than either Williams or Pratt who are being clamored for by us fans. It may take a significant OF injury to prompt his promotion though. 
 

we are still 2 months away from the trade deadline, but it’s always fun to speculate. It’s impossible to tell who will be sellers in the AL at this point, but if the orioles end up selling again this year Taylor Ward is an interesting option. Righty bat, rental, well above average hitter, solid power. Would be a nice addition. 
 

 

[Jopal78]

22 hours ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Sal has .231 BABIP this year, meaningfully below his career average of .298. Walks are up and strikeouts are down year over year. He is going to the opposite field less often this season, but exit velocity is nearly identical to last year.

But even if he shakes out of it, what is he? A light hitting CFer miscast as a corner OFer?
 

The Brewers drafted Frelick for his high floor and athleticism, and that is seemingly what they got: an average major leaguer without a lot of upside. 

[BarremlensTSSC]

21 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

But even if he shakes out of it, what is he? A light hitting CFer miscast as a corner OFer?
 

The Brewers drafted Frelick for his high floor and athleticism, and that is seemingly what they got: an average major leaguer without a lot of upside. 

Depends if he returns to being the player he was last year.  No he's not a power hitter but he was pretty valuable in 2025. (3.6 WAR; 114 wRC+ at Fangraphs).  I'm not saying the people calling for him to be platooned and/or to call up Lara are wrong, but I do think that sticking with Frelick thus far and expecting positive regression at some point has been a reasonable choice from the Brewers.  

I continue to think we're going to see call ups, including Lara, in the next 30 days.

[Brian]

Something needs to be done because he is actually getting worse.  As his last 20 at bats is only hitting .150 

[Frisbee Slider]

32 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

But even if he shakes out of it, what is he? A light hitting CFer miscast as a corner OFer?
 

The Brewers drafted Frelick for his high floor and athleticism, and that is seemingly what they got: an average major leaguer without a lot of upside. 

Frelick was a scrappy 2-3 bWAR player the past two seasons. His OPS+ ranged from 90 to 111.

if he starts going to the opposite field again and his BABIP returns to normal, his numbers will improve.

That said, Luis Lara would probably outperform Sal next month.

[liveforoctober]

Nothing more important in baseball than breaking records and Sal is on pace to shatter the MLB record for most times reaching on catcher's interference. 

[Jopal78]

59 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Frelick was a scrappy 2-3 bWAR player the past two seasons. His OPS+ ranged from 90 to 111.

if he starts going to the opposite field again and his BABIP returns to normal, his numbers will improve.

That said, Luis Lara would probably outperform Sal next month.

Frelick doesn’t have an issue with making contact or controlling the strike zone, he just doesn’t hit the ball hard enough. Last year he starting pulling the ball and got some homers, but it appears to me pitchers have made an adjustment against him and he’s back to putting the ball in play but not driving it, which has always limited his offensive production.