Major League Baseball

Firing Roenicke now brings Brewers' decisions of past into question

Published May. 5, 2015 12:47 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

Ken Rosenthal

If you retrace the Brewers’ steps, both major decisions they made in retaining Ron Roenicke as manager were defensible.

They chose not to fire Roenicke after last season’s 9-22 finish, giving him the benefit of the doubt after the team arguably over-achieved for the first five months.

They then exercised Roenicke’s option for 2016 in March, seeking to avoid the perception that he was a lame duck entering the final year of his contract.

Baseball executives will tell you, however, that few things they do are more important than evaluating their own personnel, including managers and coaches.

By firing Roenicke with a 7-18 record and replacing him with Craig Counsell, the Brewers essentially admitted that they screwed up.

Counsell got off to a memorable start Monday night, presiding over a 4-3 comeback victory over Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers in his managerial debut.

But the better the Brewers play under Counsell, the worse the decision to bring back Roenicke will appear.

Hindsight is 20-20, but a number of people in the game were surprised that Roenicke survived the team’s collapse at the end of the season. The players, in their view, looked utterly defeated -- and not for the first time.

The Brewers also went through a 7-24 stretch that crushed their chances early in 2013. At one point that July, multiple scouts questioned the work ethic of the players, with one telling FOX Sports, “There’s a lot of quit on that team.”

Roenicke and club officials disputed that claim, but the Brewers finished 74-88. Last season was much better, at least through Aug. 25, when the Brewers still led the NL Central. But after the collapse, general manager Doug Melvin did not confirm that Roenicke would return until Oct. 10.

Melvin, in explaining the dismissal of Roenicke on Monday, repeatedly cited that the team had only three winning streaks of two or more games since last Sept. 1. Two of those streaks occurred last September. If the Brewers sensed that Roenicke was part of the problem then, they should have dismissed him right away.

Instead, they brought back Roenicke, then made very few upgrades to their club. Their struggles in April were partly attributable to injuries to two of their best players, center fielder Carlos Gomez and catcher Jonathan Lucroy. But the Brewers did not use that as an excuse Monday, changing managers even though they may concede the season and trade off veterans soon.

I asked Melvin: Did Roenicke lose the players?

“I don’t think he lost them,” Melvin said. “But he and I sat down a few weeks ago. I said, ‘Ron, how do we stop these losing streaks, going 2-8, 1-9?’ I don’t know why that is. That’s what we’re going to find out, what Craig is going to find out. I know we don’t have a No. 1 starting pitcher like a Kershaw. But there is no reason we shouldn’t be better than 7-18.

“I’m not down there (in the clubhouse) every day to know if the manager is losing them. He had great relationships with them. That’s his managing style. The next step is to be firm. You can bring them in and sit them down. He said, ‘I talk to them all the time.’ I don’t know if his relationship with the players was too (close).”

Again, these issues did not just surface recently; Roenicke did not change his style. The Brewers miscalculated by retaining him. And they miscalculated figuring that most of their improvements would come from within.

Their plan was for right-hander Jimmy Nelson to replace the traded Yovani Gallardo. For Adam Lind, their one major offseason acquisition, to upgrade first base. For shortstop Jean Segura to bounce back, and for three of last season’s acquisitions -- outfielder Gerardo Parra and relievers Jonathan Broxton and Jeremy Jeffress -- to play meaningful roles.

Most of that actually has happened. But some of the team’s most important veterans -- right fielder Ryan Braun, third baseman Aramis Ramirez and right-handers Kyle Lohse and Matt Garza -- have not produced.

So now here’s Counsell, stepping down from the front office to take over a club that soon might be disassembled.

“That’s why we gave him a three-year deal,” Melvin said. “He understands that may happen. We’ve got to win games now. I told him to go out and win as many games as possible. The performance of the club will tell us what we do. It always does.”

OK, but the Brewers already are 11-1/2 games back in the NL Central, and they would be rather short-sighted if they established the one-game, wild-card playoff as a legitimate goal.

The Mets, Astros and Cubs all benefited from taking a step back, though their reconstructions were lengthy and painful. If Brewers owner Mark Attanasio truly is serious about rebuilding, he will need to authorize the trades of at least one of the team’s most valuable pieces -- Gomez, Lucroy and Segura -- and maybe all of them.

Counsell then will need to prove his mettle with younger players, no easy task for a first-time manager. The good news is, Counsell already is familiar with the Brewers’ minor leaguers. He has participated in draft meetings and worked closely with the team’s pro scouts. The insight that he gained should only help him going forward, and he also is likely to receive strong front-office support.

Melvin might be general manager for only one or two more seasons, but the Brewers are working on a succession plan in which they would elevate him to say, club president, and hire a new GM to do the heavier lifting. As Melvin put it, “I’m confident I’ll be here in some capacity.”

Sounds like a plan. Now the Brewers need to execute it and make tough decisions at the appropriate times. They did not do that with Roenicke at the end of last season. And low-revenue teams, operating with lesser margin for error, can miscalculate only so much.

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball