Milwaukee Brewers: Where It All Went Wrong

There are a multitude of reasons to explain away the Milwaukee Brewers struggles during this season. At the top of the list is definitely pitching. However, things started going downhill for the Brewers long before the team reported for Spring Training in February.

It all started back at the end of October following Milwaukee’s loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the playoffs. Pitching coach, Derek Johnson, leaving the team to join the Cincinnati Reds coaching staff left a gaping hole that the Crew has struggled to fill.

Milwaukee has dealt with its share of injuries to starting pitchers during this season. However, it has been the ineffectiveness of a few key pitchers that has hampered the Crew. That is where the importance of Johnson over the previous three seasons comes into play.

Jhoulys Chacin

Jhoulys Chacin, Milwaukee’s Opening Day starter in 2018, enjoyed somewhat of a career renaissance under the tutelage of Johnson. Although nobody will ever mistake Chacin for an ace, that’s exactly what he was for the Brewers during last season. Chacin started a league high 35 games during the ’18 season, finishing 15-8 with a solid 3.50 ERA and helped propel the Brewers to the NL Central division title.

Fast forward to 2019 and where is Chacin? Well, the Crew recently released him following a disastrous season. Chacin has a 5.79 ERA after making 19 starts for Milwaukee this season and had been largely ineffective prior to his release. Chacin isn’t the only player to see his numbers slip following Johnson’s departure. Two of the Milwaukee Brewers most important young pitchers have also seen there performance slip during this season.

Corbin Burnes

Corbin Burnes finished with a 2.61 ERA in 38 innings across 30 appearances for the Brewers during the ’18 season. Following that success, Burnes looked more than ready to take his place among the top of the Brewers rotation.

However, this season has been a disaster for the 24-year-old right-hander. Prior to being sent to the minors earlier this year, Burnes was atrocious for Milwaukee. He has managed just 48 innings pitched while carrying a ghastly 9.00 ERA in the big leagues and has taken a giant step backwards in his development. He currently finds himself struggling with an ERA over eight at the Triple-A level.

Time will tell whether Burnes can rebound from this season and all Brewers fans hope he can find his groove again in time for the 2020 season. However, Milwaukee has struggled to develop pitching for decades so expectations should be tempered. The next player we’ll talk about may come as a surprise, but even Josh Hader has seen his numbers take a dip without Johnson on the staff.

Josh Hader

Hader earned his second consecutive All-Star game appearance during this season. However, he has not been the same dominant reliever he was a season ago. Hader has already coughed up four more home runs, in 23 2/3 fewer innings, than he did during all of last season. His K/9 is slightly up to 16.5 in 2019 from 15.8 during 2018, which is encouraging. However, this uptick in home runs allowed has caused his ERA to climb to a still respectable 2.97, but nothing like a year ago.

Hader’s struggles, if that’s what we’re calling it, can’t be blamed fully on Johnson’s departure. However, Johnson proved during the course of his three season tenure with the club that he knows how to produce results. Milwaukee’s team ERA dropped every season that Johnson was part of the staff. It is no coincidence that the Brewers win totals also improved every year with Johnson in town.

This isn’t the first time Milwaukee has lost a prominent pitching coach. Way back in the mid-2000’s the Brewers lost highly regarded Mike Maddux and the pitching staff never recovered. Being a small market franchise surely makes it difficult to retain top caliber coaches. However, times are changing in The Cream City and in order for the Crew to maintain relevance they will need to step up and pay for quality on the coaching staff.

There is no going back in time and changing the decision to allow Johnson to walk. As Brewers fans, the best we can hope is that the current front office learns from the mistakes of the past. However, history suggests we’ll be having this same conversation again in the future.

Author Twitter: @JohnGeigerII

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