Sal or Lara

[baseball101]

The Crew will have a logjam in the outfield when Sal returns. Chourio, Mitchell, Bauers (assuming he’s not playing first base) will be penciled in most nights. Who is out of the rotation going forward? Lockridge doesn’t appear to be going anywhere and is a great base runner off the bench. Lara has shown flashes but in very limited time has shown zero power and has not gotten on base enough to offset the lack of power. Is Sal healthy? 2025 Sal is a big upgrade over 2026 Lara. 2026 Sal has been bad. Interesting decision coming up for the Crew.

[yfinn6]

Send Lockridge down to get him some ABs. 

[CheezWizHed]

Lara has slumped pretty hard in the last month.. I'd send him down to AAA to get regular ABs.  See if Sal can regain some of his 2025 magic for a few weeks.  Then reconsider the best roster for the playoffs. 

[baseball101]

16 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

Lara has slumped pretty hard in the last month.. I'd send him down to AAA to get regular ABs.  See if Sal can regain some of his 2025 magic for a few weeks.  Then reconsider the best roster for the playoffs. 

This is how I feel, my only hesitation is Lara’s contract. Will the Crew really send him down?

[adambr2]

Everyone down on Lara but no one pointing out that Mitchell has been slumping far worse than Lara. 

Would I like to see Lara do a little more with the bat? Yes, but he’s still getting on base at a decent enough clip and clearly getting better and more comfortable in the outfield. 

Lockridge should be the odd man out, not Lara as Lockridge doesn’t offer any skillset in platoon advantage, power, baserunning or defense that Lara can’t already do, even if his playing time gets cut a bit. 

When Frelick returns you can rotate Frelick/Mitchell/Lara and they all play about 2 out of 3 games, which is fine. 

[baseball101]

2 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Everyone down on Lara but no one pointing out that Mitchell has been slumping far worse than Lara. 

Would I like to see Lara do a little more with the bat? Yes, but he’s still getting on base at a decent enough clip and clearly getting better and more comfortable in the outfield. 

Lockridge should be the odd man out, not Lara as Lockridge doesn’t offer any skillset in platoon advantage, power, baserunning or defense that Lara can’t already do, even if his playing time gets cut a bit. 

When Frelick returns you can rotate Frelick/Mitchell/Lara and they all play about 2 out of 3 games, which is fine. 

Good points. I know Mitchell is slumping but right now he still does everything better than Lara. I like Lara long term, He would not have been called up without Sal and Lockridge being hurt. If it wasn’t for his contract, I think he would be sent down when Sal is back.

[Jim French Stepstool]

I've been thinking about this. Frelick played RF last night & made a terrific running catch in the gap; I assume he's throwing OK although I didn't see him have to really wind anything up. You certainly don't want Lara doing much sitting. They may decide he'll get enough ABs to keep him around, especially vs LHP. It would be a nice rotation having OFs share the DH spot except you-know-who is occupying much of the that role (in fairness, Yelich hit 4 or 5 balls hard this weekend).

It could come down to whether they believe Lockridge can give them something vs lefties. Right now it looks like he has a better chance of winning Powerball than making contact with anything that isn't a fastball. 

I would guess Frelick definitely returns so it's not a case of him vs Lara, but Lockridge vs Lara. And I would hope & assume Lara's contract has nothing to do with any of this.

 

[RobertCrawley]

I'm waiting to see Sal swing so hard he hits a 10 run home run.

[Brewcrew82]

If it were up to me, I would keep Lara on the roster even when Frelick returns to at minimum platoon with Frelick (and Mitchell) against LHP. 

Comes down to whether the Brewers are okay with that for Lara developmentally. You're not exactly worried about getting Lockridge ABs.

[wallus]

Send down Lockridge and play them all. None of the outfielders (other than Sal) have really played an entire MLB season. Rest will be good heading to the playoffs.

[Jopal78]

Who brings the most impact amongst Lara Lockridge and Frelick? I’d probably say Lara and Lockridge but wouldn’t be surprised to see Sal nudge one of them to AAA until September 

[Samurai Bucky]

Since Lara started, Mitchell's at .204 / .313 / .265 / .578 with wRC+ of 68.  Hard hit % is 48.6%

Lara is .224 / .316 / .318 / .634.  wRC+ of 80.  HHP is 41.8%

Neither has been that good.  Mitchell's K rate is 29.8%.  Yikes.  I was expecting Lara to be ripping the cover off the ball.  I'm not seeing it, yet.  Perhaps with time he will be, but not now.

I'm with agreement with many to send down Lockridge.  Lara needs ABs at the major league level, but I don't know if he has earned the everyday role, yet.

[tmwiese55]

The issue with Lockridge/Lara down is that they can right right handed vs lefty pitches.  Sal back over one of them increases the LHH issue even more with these positions.    I've been kicking this around lately and I wouldn't mind seeing Yelich get 10 day stint once Sal is back. Opens the DH spot for Bauers/Vaughn.  After that you'll be into Sept so a bit more roster flex.

If that's not on the table, I think I send Lockridge down. Lara is elite elite at D, can bat RH, faster, more long term future. Plus Lockridge could use some regular ABS since he's barely played the last few months

[Brewcrew82]

3 minutes ago, Samurai Bucky said:

Since Lara started, Mitchell's at .204 / .313 / .265 / .578 with wRC+ of 68.  Hard hit % is 48.6%

Lara is .224 / .316 / .318 / .634.  wRC+ of 80.  HHP is 41.8%

Neither has been that good.  Mitchell's K rate is 29.8%.  Yikes.  I was expecting Lara to be ripping the cover off the ball.  I'm not seeing it, yet.  Perhaps with time he will be, but not now.

I'm with agreement with many to send down Lockridge.  Lara needs ABs at the major league level, but I don't know if he has earned the everyday role, yet.

FWIW, "Ripping the cover off the ball" isn't exactly Lara's game. At his best, he's a younger, switch-hitting, more toolsy version of Sal Frelick,. Which is why I like the idea of platooning them (plus Mitchell) if they're okay with only semi-regular ABs for Lara instead of regular ABs.

Knowing the Brewers, I expect Lara to get optioned instead of Lockridge. They don't care if Lockridge only gets the weak side of a platoon at most. 

[adambr2]

2 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

FWIW, "Ripping the cover off the ball" isn't exactly Lara's game. At his best, he's a younger, switch-hitting, more toolsy version of Sal Frelick,. Which is why I like the idea of platooning them (plus Mitchell) if they're okay with only semi-regular ABs for Lara instead of regular ABs.

Knowing the Brewers, I expect Lara to get optioned instead of Lockridge. They don't care if Lockridge only gets the weak side of a platoon at most. 

I am not saying this isn’t a possible choice I just don’t see any real argument for it unless the argument is that they don’t want to see Lara reduced to Lockridge level playing time, but it’s not like Lara isn’t at least worthy of splitting time with Frelick. 

Another factor to keep in mind is that September is 2 weeks away and then they can carry an extra bench player. So they may just stall things til then unless they have a different player with a specific skillset they they are planning to bring up. 

[adambr2]

Also not for nothing and probably not super fair given the amount of playing time he’s gotten but Lockridge has been absolutely dreadful since his return. 1 for 12 with 7 strikeouts. So it’s not like he’s really been making a hard case for staying when given the chance. 

[Fear The Chorizo]

2 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Also not for nothing and probably not super fair given the amount of playing time he’s gotten but Lockridge has been absolutely dreadful since his return. 1 for 12 with 7 strikeouts. So it’s not like he’s really been making a hard case for staying when given the chance. 

Lockridge is headed down the same road as Perkins was - once Sal has proven he can throw, Lockridge will either go down to AAA or get DFA'd.  

[cragi]

Lockridge doesnt fill any gaps not well covered by Frelick/Lara/Bauers. There is no reason to see the field right now and so kind of obvoius he should be down. But just in terms of getting Lara ABs the next 2 weeks, maybe. But Lara provides something defensively right now over Bauers and Frelick (depending on shoulder).  I expect Lockridge to get sent and see if he can get his numbers up. 

[ClosetBrewerFan]

I'm not sure I care.  Lara and Lockridge are pretty much redundant this year. Its really a matter of who we think will perform best the rest of the season.  I think I'll give Sal and Lockridge a slight edge so that means Lara goes down but its really a toss up to me.

[LouisEly]

Lara has made a few great catches in the OF, but he also has almost run into another OF a couple of times and had to make a leaping catch once because he lost the ball and/or took a poor route.  That lack of experience could really hurt the Brewers if it occurs in the wrong situation.

I also think that Lockridge is better on the bases right now.  I'm not saying that Lara won't be better eventually, I'm just saying that right now the experience that Frelick and Lockridge have outweighs the long-term upside that Lara has.  

Give Lara more regular PT at AAA for 2 weeks, then bring him back up as the 14th position player.  

[baseball101]

3 hours ago, adambr2 said:

Also not for nothing and probably not super fair given the amount of playing time he’s gotten but Lockridge has been absolutely dreadful since his return. 1 for 12 with 7 strikeouts. So it’s not like he’s really been making a hard case for staying when given the chance. 

I get that however he was playing really well before the injury.

[wiguy94]

I think it will be Lockridge going down. His underlying numbers have been horrific this year and what little offensive success he's had has been on the back of a .400 BABIP. I think you can keep Lara up and rotate playing time pretty evenly between Mitchell, Frelick, and Lara in CF and RF.

[TURBO]

Meh, all 3 players, and you can even toss in Mitchell, just aren't difference makers with the bat, and probably never will be.

We are simply stuck with at least one OF position, every single night, that simply can't hit.  Some nights it's two OF positions, and that just hurts our chances of winning on a daily basis.

I am definitely not sold on Lara, I'll even go as far as to say I think it was stupid to give him that extension.  What about is profile warranted that happening?  I saw him play a LOT of games in Appleton, and he just never seemed like the kind of player we could build around, or even compliment Chourio.  Great defense at times, but I do not think he sticks as a starting outfielder once some of our youth start making the show.

Sal is Sal, we may have already seen his peak.

Lockridge...................................meh.  I don't really care what we do with him, send him to AAA, DFA, trade him in the off season, I simply don't care.

Mitchell, shows promise occasionally, but has not lived up to what the Brewers thought he had to offer.  If he can be a trade chip this off season (but why would anyone else want him?) then trade him.

Outside of Chourio, they can replace the entire lot of them this off season and I'd be ok with that.

[sveumrules]

1 hour ago, TURBO said:

We are simply stuck with at least one OF position, every single night, that simply can't hit.  Some nights it's two OF positions, and that just hurts our chances of winning on a daily basis.

When they run out an outfield of Bauers (143 wRC+), Chourio (120 wRC+), and Mitchell (109 wRC+) they have three outfielders that can all hit to varying degrees. Since Chourio and Vaughn returned on May 4th Brewers outfielders have a 105 wRC+ that is 10th in MLB and 146 runs scored that are 6th in MLB. The Brewers 59 W - 33 L record since that date is the best in MLB by 4.5 games over each of TBR and BOS.

Over the same stretch the Dodgers OF are at a 97 wRC+ and 141 runs scored (& they've lost six games to the Brewers in the standings), while the Braves OF are at a 107 wRC+ and 135 runs scored (& they've lost nine game to the Brewers in the standings). The Cubs have an MLB best 124 wRC+ and 171 runs scored from their OF since May 4th and they've still gone ahead and lost nine games to the Brewers in the standings too over that stretch anyway.

The outfield has hurt the Brewers chances of winning of a daily basis so much that they've got the best record in MLB (again) and are only on a 100 Win pace in a season when even the most optimistic fans expected them to take a step back from their Franchise Record 97 Wins last year.

Going all the way back to 2024 the Brewers have won the most games in MLB with their outfielders coming in at 105 wRC+ (10th) | +32.5 BsR (2nd) | +46 DRS (5th) | +32 FRV (4th) | 25.3 WAR (5th) | 725 Runs Scored (5th).

Those outfield fielding numbers are a big part of the equation for the Brewers running an MLB best 3.58 ERA since 2024 with a -0.34 run gap between that and their 3.92 FIP (7th). Get a lot of fly balls (105 FB+ | t-4th), which result in a lower BABIP (95 BABIP+ | t-1st) and fewer hits (93 AVG+ | t-1st) with that Top Five OF defense behind them, en route to an MLB best strand rate (105 LOB+ | 1st), which has helped them shave a third of a run per game off their peripheral indicators for 449 games now.

[BrewerFan]

6 hours ago, baseball101 said:

I get that however he was playing really well before the injury.

He had gone 6 for 11 in the previous 4 games. That got his SLG barely over .300 and his OPS up to like .680. 

He was playing fine, but I'd rather keep going with the most talented player at this point in the year. 

Frelick  had a more prolonged hot streak. I think you need to get him going. We're a much better team when he's grinding out good ABs.