Universal DH: Winners and Losers in the NL
Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers’ decision should be easy. Ryan Braun is a 36-year-old team legend who is gracefully aging out of his every-day usefulness as an outfielder.
Braun can still hit. He batted .285 with 22 home runs and 75 RBIs in 2019, his best season in three years. But the defensive metrics turned negative on Braun three seasons ago, and they have not come back.
Beyond that, the Brewers have positioned themselves over the past two winters to rely less on Bran’s defensive skills.
In December of 2018, they acquired Ben Gamel in a trade with Seattle. Although hardly a defensive whiz, Gamel is better than Braun. He appeared in 108 games last season, all in the outfield, and although he divided that work covering for Braun, Lorenzo Cain, and Christian Yelich, there’s nothing that says Cain or Yelich need regular assistance.
The only downside is that Gamel batted just .248 for Milwaukee in 2019, which didn’t provide the Brewers a lot of motivation to lean harder on him this year. But the Brewers buttressed that this winter, signing free agent Avisail Garcia.
With Tampa Bay in 2019, Garcia batted .282 in 125 games. He also hit 20 home runs, both figures very much in line with his career production.
So between Garcia and Gamel, the Brewers should be well-covered in they do the obvious and turn Braun into a full-time DH.