A Brewers Managerial Retrospective: Tom Trebelhorn

However, one remarkably successful manager doesn’t get a lot of credit. In today’s playoff system, he arguably would have taken the Crew to the playoffs. Let’s go over each year of his tenure.

1986

Tom Trebelhorn managed the Brewers for the last nine games of the 1986 season, following Bamberger’s second retirement, going 6-3. That stint came after serving as third-base coach in place of Tony Muser following the infamous clubhouse explosion at their spring training facility in Chandler, Ariz. Perhaps the signature moment was sweeping a doubleheader to close out the season against the Blue Jays, who had some exciting talent back then.

1987

Brewers fans know this as Team Streak, with the highs of going 13-0, including a moment of history on April 15, when Juan Nieves no-hit the Orioles; Paul Molitor’s 39-game hitting streak; and a 91-71 record. The team had its lows, too: there was a 12-game losing streak in May, and a fair number of injuries, with Jim Gantner playing only 81 games and Molitor missing 44. It also was a victim of the two-division format and the lack of wild cards–had either been in play, this team would have made the postseason. The team’s Pythagorean record of 85-77 was not horrible, but Trebelhorn eked out another six wins.

1988

The team was almost as good (in its way) as the 1987 version, finishing 87-75, two games back of the Red Sox in the two-division format. With the three-division alignment (plus wild cards), it becomes an open question if they make the playoffs. If only one wild card, they barely miss. But with two, the team probably would have faced off against the Blue Jays in a Game 163 situation, and with three, they would have been in the playoffs again. The team finished two games below their Pythagorean record of 89-73, but it was a playoff-caliber team.

1989

This was the first of two years where injuries really took Trebelhorn’s teams out. Molitor played 155 games, and Robin Yount was in 160, but many of the supporting Crew were out with injuries, including ace Ted Higuera; keystone man Gantner; Dale Sveum, and Greg Brock, forcing the Brewers to have Gus Polidor, Dave Engle, and Terry Francona (among others) see a lot of playing time. The team finished 81-81 against a Pythagorean record of 84-78.

1990

This was the only year the Brewers finished under .500 on Trebelhorn’s watch, going 74-88 versus the Pythagorean record of 78-84. Again, injuries decimated the team, with Molitor missing 59 games, among others. It was a team that never quite got untracked, despite bringing in Dave Parker to be the full-time DH.

1991

Despite injuries, Trebelhorn’s Brewers ended 1991 with a record of 83-79, three games below their Pythagorean record of 86-76. Molitor stayed healthy, but Yount was only in 130 games that season, and declined from his near-MVP form. The pitching staff was particularly hard-hit, with injuries to Higuera and ineffectiveness from other contributors. The injury bug also hit some position players, and the team missed the playoffs in Trebelhorn’s final year.

Overview

The late 1980s and early 1990s were a good run for the Brewers–one that could have been great, if not for injuries. Managers can’t control that, but Trebelhorn was able to finish his tenure with the Brewers with 422 wins and 397 losses. It was a superb run, and one that is underappreciated due to the way baseball’s playoffs were set up. In today’s three-division, multi-wild card team format, Trebelhorn would have secured two playoff appearances and a division title, matching the record of all combined prior managers of the Brewers, and when he left, he led all managers in wins and had managed longer than any other manager in Brewers history to that time.

Author’s note: From 1989-1991, I had occasional correspondence with Trebelhorn, culminating in a 1991 letter that secured me an A on a high-school English project as a freshman.