The Brewers Are Finally Seeing Some Lefties. It's Andruw Monasterio Time.

Between shuttling down to Nashville and being relegated to the bench in Milwaukee, Andruw Monasterio must feel like he's just starting to feel the grain of the bat in his hands. Though he's been healthy all year, he's only taken 74 total plate appearances, counting both MLB and Triple-A time. To put that in context, eight Brewers have at least twice that many so far, and both William Contreras and Willy Adames are close to having three times as many. 

Monasterio could be doing more to assert himself and force the issue, of course. He's been underwhelming even when he's gotten opportunities, and he remains mired in a power outage so complete that he has to be excellent at just about everything else in order to be viable--an outage that dates back to last July. He's hitting .220/.351/.305 across his two levels of competition.

On the other hand (literally), Monasterio reached base four times (including a sorely needed home run) over the last two games, both against left-handed Miami Marlins starters. The Fish send another lefty out there Wednesday, so perhaps we'll see a third straight start for Monasterio. Even given the emergence of Joey Ortiz, there's room in the lineup for the stocky, surehanded Venezuelan when there's a lefty on the bump for the opponents. The Brewers just haven't seen any.

Only nine times this year--Wednesday will make 10--have the Crew faced a lefty starter. The Cubs and Guardians have each seen lefties nine times, too, and both will face their 10th Wednesday. No one else is that low, though. Even after facing lefties three straight times, Milwaukee will have seen them less often than any other team in baseball. The Phillies have faced 20 southpaws. The Marlins have faced 18.

This is one of the challenges of being a player on the short side of a platoon, especially if your skills are subtle and limited, like Monasterio's. He now faces the challenge of succeeding in an important role, over a short period, after having gotten only extremely sparing looks to this point in the season. It's like a zoomed-out version of the pinch-hit penalty: one has to stay ready, without the rhythm and the routine that make hitting easier.

Brice Turang is a major obstacle to more frequent at-bats for Monasterio, too. He's gone from superb (.312/.375/.441) in April to more of an empty average guy (.307/.349/.403) in May, but given his glove and his speed, that will keep him in the lineup against all right-handed starters. Against lefties, Monasterio still figures to get some reps, but Turang might start occasional games even in those matchups, as Pat Murphy seeks lineup balance. It'll continue to be hard for Monasterio to do his best possible work while he's in this role, but because of the overall talent levels of Monasterio and the various alternative options the team has, they can't prioritize getting the best out of him. The goal is to win games, and that means setting aside what's best for Monasterio, unless he gives them a chance to win games more often than when the team faces lefties.

At the same time, it's important to keep bench players involved, invested, and ready for action. A team like Atlanta might be able to play their regulars every day without feeling any pain, because their lineup is so deep and studded with stars. The Brewers are good, but not on that level, and they need their whole 13-man positional corps to chip in if they hope to cobble together 90 or more wins. Monasterio could well be their best bet against lefties throughout the year, and in order to ensure that he's primed for success, the team might need to find him a few more chances in less favorable matchups. In the meantime, it's to his credit that he's seized his chance this week in Miami, showing no ill effects from whatever rust accumulated during his long stretches of sparse use.