Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
The Milwaukee Brewers made the peculiar decision to demote second baseman Scooter Gennett, who has been the starter at the position since midway through the 2013 season. The odd part about the demotion is not that it is undeserving. It is peculiar because the general manager of one of the worst teams in baseball was quick to defend Gennett’s production and style of play one year ago.
Gennett entered the 2015 season a career .300 hitter. This season, he is batting .154, including a 0-for-10 skid against the New York Mets this past weekend that directly led to him being sent down to Triple-A. Considering no one on the Brewers is playing particularly well this year, it comes as a bit of a surprise that there is not more patience with Gennett. This becomes especially the case after GM Doug Melvin preached patience in a rant to the media in 2014.
“There’s this one guy,” Melvin said to the New York Daily News last June, “who rates the prospects in every organization, and last year labeled Scooter Gennett ‘just a backup utility player.’ Well, Scooter’s only hit nothing but .300 since last year and been one of our most important players this year and yet, when the guy was asked about him again last week, he repeated the same thing; that he thought he was nothing more than a ‘backup utility player.’”
“Why can’t these (stat) guys ever admit they’re wrong? A lot of them don’t even watch the games. But then everything has changed so much in baseball. Everything now has to be immediate. We live in a world of Instagrams when, more than any other sport, the most important thing in baseball is that you’ve got to be patient.”
Gennett has really been nothing more than a batting average player and a decent defender. As far as getting on base or providing power, he has proven it simply is not going to happen at the major-league level, at least not yet. Basically, Melvin’s only argument was Gennett’s .300 batting average, which is something that can no longer be used as a debate point.
Still, it seems a bit strange that after Melvin thought so much of Gennett one year ago, and how he believes baseball is the ultimate patience game, that he would so easily give up on one of his youngest, brightest players.
Even though Gennett’s stint in the minors will most likely not last long, it still shows Milwaukee will not tolerate any player going on a long slump. That philosophy is a complete 180-degree turn from where they were a season ago. Of course, a lot has changed since then, which is why the mentality of the general manager has been forced to evolve.
The Brewers are in the midst of a lost season. For that reason, it makes sense to take the time for Gennett to get his mind right so that he can get back to hitting. The only head-scratcher is why he could not accomplish that in the big leagues with the rest of the struggling players.
Michael Terrill is a Senior Writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelTerrill, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
