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  • The Top Brewers Rookie Of 2023

    Harold Hutchison

    By Harold Hutchison

    Rookies played a big role in the Milwaukee Brewers 2023 season--one that ended with the team’s third NL Central crown and fifth playoff appearance in six years. But which was Milwaukee’s top-performing rookie of 2023?

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    In one sense, the Brewers were expecting to see a few rookies contribute at some point during this season. However, injuries to Tyrone Taylor and Luis Urias resulted in rookies getting a lot of playing time very early. Six rookies saw extensive playing time for the Brewers, filling crucial roles that helped the team nail down the division title and make the playoffs. Ten writers from Brewer Fanatic voted for the team’s top rookie. Let’s see who got the votes.

    Others Receiving Votes
    Outfielders Joey Wiemer and Blake Perkins
    When Urias injured his hamstring on Opening Day, forcing Brian Anderson to play third base, Wiemer got the call to handle right field. He soon moved to center, when Garrett Mitchell was injured. While he flashed power and speed, his biggest contribution was defense. Blake Perkins also came up (after being signed to the 40-man roster as a minor-league free agent) and provided some decent offense and defense.

    4. RHP Abner Uribe
    1-0, 1.76 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 16 hits, 20 walks, 39 strikeouts in 30 2/3 innings pitched    .
    Uribe was a top relief prospect on the MLB Pipeline top 30 and Brewer Fanatic Top 20 lists who dominated in Biloxi and Nashville before he got the call-up to Milwaukee in July. After his July 8 debut, he became part of a shutdown relief corps (alongside Devin Williams, Hoby Milner, and Joel Payamps) that rarely blew a lead. Uribe’s stabilization of the bullpen helped take the sting out of the not-so-good results posted by trade acquisition Andrew Chafin and Elvis Peguero’s cooldown from a superb start.

    3. SS/2B Brice Turang
    .220/.288/.303 in 400 at-bats, 9 doubles, 3 triples, 6 home runs, 46 runs, 34 RBI, 26 stolen bases
    Turang was the Brewers’ Opening day second baseman, and while his 62 OPS+ over the full season didn’t seem like much, his contributions on the field defensively were outstanding. He still notched 1.6 Wins Above Replacement, and his 26 stolen bases added a certain form of dynamism at the bottom of the order. His offense  improved in the second half, and he looks to be a contributor for the Brewers for a while to come.

    2. OF Sal Frelick
    .246/.338/.351 in 191 at-bats, with 9 doubles, 1 triple, 3 home runs, 29 runs, 24 RBI, 7 stolen bases
    Frelick (controversially) didn’t make the Opening Day roster after a very hot spring training and an outstanding performance at the World Baseball Classic. He then started slow in AAA before suffering a hand injury. He returned to Nashville later in the season, and then got the call-up to Milwaukee in late July. Since July 22, he not only spelled Wiemer in center field, but held down right field until Taylor returned. In addition to being something of a sparkplug, he also provided excellent defense, although Brewers fans would like to see a little more caution on some plays.

    1. IF Andruw Monasterio
    .260/.332/.350 in 277 at-bats, with 14 doubles, 1 triple, 3 home runs, 37 runs, 27 RBI, 7 stolen bases
    Monasterio was called up to Milwaukee after a very scary line drive into the dugout in late May concussed and shelved Willy Adames. He never went back down, providing stability at third base, then splitting time at second base with Turang. Monasterio became a surprising hero for the Crew. Interestingly enough, he was not on either the Brewer Fanatic Top 20 or the MLB.com Pipeline Top 30, making him an overlooked prospect.

    Congratulations to Andruw Monasterio, the top Brewers rookie of 2023! Share your thoughts on Monasterio, the others mentioned, and even how your vote might look. 

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    wiguy94

    wiguy94 2,326

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Where was this voted on? Pretty flabbergasted that Turang is third ahead of Uribe, Wiemer, and Perkins. Turang was easily our worst rookie this season. Among the 212 players with 400 PA this season Turang had tied for the second worst wRC+ at 60 which is 40% worse than league average. Truly an abomination at the plate. 
     

    Perkins and Wiemer were better defensively and at the plate than Turang. Uribe pitched his way into a high leverage role and was pretty dominant. 

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    ClosetBrewerFan

    ClosetBrewerFan 176

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    I think it is difficult to judge who was the Top rookie.  You could make a case for almost any of these guys, particularly when Top rookie is so subjective.  Do you look at best offense, best overall performance, most impactful, etc.  The best metric we have is maybe WAR, as flawed as it is.  Per BRef, the list would be Turang (1.6), Monasterio (1.3), Frelick/Perkins (1.2), Uribe (1.0), Wiemer (0.9).  I would disagree with that but all of these are real close and likely within the margin of error. 

    I would rank them by most impactful as follows: Uribe, Frelick, Monasterio, Turang, Perkins, Weimer. 

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    wiguy94

    wiguy94 2,326

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    15 minutes ago, ClosetBrewerFan said:

    I think it is difficult to judge who was the Top rookie.  You could make a case for almost any of these guys, particularly when Top rookie is so subjective.  Do you look at best offense, best overall performance, most impactful, etc.  The best metric we have is maybe WAR, as flawed as it is.  Per BRef, the list would be Turang (1.6), Monasterio (1.3), Frelick/Perkins (1.2), Uribe (1.0), Wiemer (0.9).  I would disagree with that but all of these are real close and likely within the margin of error. 

    I would rank them by most impactful as follows: Uribe, Frelick, Monasterio, Turang, Perkins, Weimer. 

    bWAR values Turang the most because DRS is outlier positive on Turang. It's the one defensive metric that loves him and I believe that baseball reference uses DRS to factor in dWAR.

    If you go by fWAR/600 PA and fWAR/60 IP for Uribe, I think it better illustrates how valuable each of them were. 

    1. Perkins - 4.3 fWAR/600 PA

    2. Frelick - 3.8 fWAR/600 PA

    3. Wiemer - 1.6 fWAR/600 PA

    4. Uribe - 1.2 fWAR/60 IP

    5. Monasterio - 0.8 fWAR/600 PA

    6. Turang - 0.3 fWAR/600 PA

    Even bWAR this makes it look more clear.

    1. Perkins - 4.3 bWAR/600 PA

    2. Frelick - 3.2 bWAR/600 PA

    3. Monasterio - 2.5 bWAR/600 PA

    4. Turang - 2.1 bWAR/600 PA

    5. Uribe - 2.0 bWAR/60 IP

    6. Wiemer - 1.3 bWAR/600 PA

    One thing is very clear. Blake Perkins was very underrated by the voters. On a per game basis he was the best rookie. Really just a combo of competent hitting (88 wRC+), great baserunning, and great defense is how he got there.

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    Jake McKibbin

    Jake McKibbin 621

  • Brewer Fanatic Contributor

    • Posted

    7 hours ago, wiguy94 said:

    bWAR values Turang the most because DRS is outlier positive on Turang. It's the one defensive metric that loves him and I believe that baseball reference uses DRS to factor in dWAR.

    If you go by fWAR/600 PA and fWAR/60 IP for Uribe, I think it better illustrates how valuable each of them were. 

    1. Perkins - 4.3 fWAR/600 PA

    2. Frelick - 3.8 fWAR/600 PA

    3. Wiemer - 1.6 fWAR/600 PA

    4. Uribe - 1.2 fWAR/60 IP

    5. Monasterio - 0.8 fWAR/600 PA

    6. Turang - 0.3 fWAR/600 PA

    Even bWAR this makes it look more clear.

    1. Perkins - 4.3 bWAR/600 PA

    2. Frelick - 3.2 bWAR/600 PA

    3. Monasterio - 2.5 bWAR/600 PA

    4. Turang - 2.1 bWAR/600 PA

    5. Uribe - 2.0 bWAR/60 IP

    6. Wiemer - 1.3 bWAR/600 PA

    One thing is very clear. Blake Perkins was very underrated by the voters. On a per game basis he was the best rookie. Really just a combo of competent hitting (88 wRC+), great baserunning, and great defense is how he got there.

    I think that's one way of doing it, and personally rate Perkins this season very highly. But in the same context as it being tough to win rookie of the year if you come up in July, the extra playing time for Turang does play a part, at least a little bit. I think you could make arguments for all of these players, maybe less so Uribe given a relief pitcher with late-ish promotion.

    If you're looking for potentially the most success in their role, Uribe would win

    If you're looking for passable offense and quality defense you've got Monasterio (by DRS anyway) Frelick, and Perkins

    Wiemer probably had the best productivity in a one month span in June, when the Brewers needed every hit they could get

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    clancyphile

    clancyphile 179

  • Brewer Fanatic Contributor

    • Posted

    There were ten writers who cast votes for the awards.

    My ballot was:

    1. Andruw Monasterio

    2. Sal Frelick

    3. Abner Uribe

    4. Brice Turang

    Monasterio came up after that scary line drive incident in May and he just was a solid performer the entire season, both on offense and defense. In addition to that, he was a hero for the team over the June/July period.

    Frelick is very good - over the long term, he's Milwaukee's leadoff hitter. If he hadn't hurt his hand, I think he'd have been up to replace Mitchell (his surgery was in April, Mitchell was hurt in early May), and I think he would have been the team's top rookie in a runaway. As is was, the race between Monasterio and Frelick was about as close as the 2007 NL Rookie of the Year vote was between Ryan Braun and Troy Tulowitzki.

    Uribe did become a crucial component of the bullpen, so I put him third. Turang, I credited for his defense and his 26 steals on the season, but I couldn't but him higher because he was a liability at the plate. Incidentally, I can say that Uribe and Turang were also super close in the second tier under Monasterio and Frelick.

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