Milwaukee Brewers do right thing with Lorenzo Cain DFA

The Milwaukee Brewers did the right thing on a number of levels on Saturday when they designated Lorenzo Cain for assignment, putting an end to his 458-game run as a member of the franchise.

Milwaukee Brewers make correct call on a pair of levels with Lorenzo Cain DFA

First and foremost, the Milwaukee Brewers waiting to make the move until the day that the 36-year-old Cain officially became a member of the Major League Baseball 10-year service time club is a classy move. Milwaukee could have parted ways with Cain earlier in the season after he struggled to a .179/.231/.234 slash line with just one home run and 36 strikeouts in 145 at-bats. However, Cain has left a mark on the Brewers franchise, including earning an All-Star Game appearance in 2018 and finishing seventh in the National League MVP vote as he logged a .308/.395/.417 slash line. Those contributions were appreciated and acknowledged with Saturday’s timing.

Second, the move was right for Milwaukee as a team as Cain had hit just .157/.173/.255 over his past 15 games and had found fewer and fewer ways to contribute to a Brewers team that is chasing the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central standings, trailing the Cardinals by just one game entering Saturday’s play.

Cain acknowledged in a video interview after his DFA that his body had been through a lot over the course of his career that spanned 13 seasons with the Brewers and Kansas City Royals and said that “the body is definitely ready to rest a little bit for sure.”

Does that mean that Cain is ready to retire? It’s a strong hint, but there would also likely be other teams willing to see what he has left in the tank should he choose to come back to finish the season.

Milwaukee handled the decline of Lorenzo Cain in the right way on Saturday. In an era when baseball is seen so often as only a business, the Brewers showed there is still a human side to transactions as well.