The rebuilding Brewers’ 2016 season has officially begun, and there are plenty of unfamiliar faces on the field.
As the franchise undergoes a complete overhaul, ridding itself of veterans and bringing in young talent, much has changed – in personnel and organizational ethos – since the beginning of last season.
Milwaukee’s 40-man roster contains a whopping 20 new players, including four in Monday’s lineup against Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants who weren’t on the team last year.
Here’s a quick guide to those four new Opening Day starters:
Keon Broxton
Position: Center field
Previous team: Pirates
In December, general manager David Stearns traded first baseman Jason Rogers, a longtime minor leaguer who’d been unable to break through at the big-league level in Milwaukee, to Pittsburgh for the 25-year-old Broxton.
The 6-foot-3, 195-pound center fielder has excellent raw tools and is a physically gifted player, but he, too, has been unable to put it all together and play consistently in the majors. A career .253 hitter, Broxton averaged 12.5 homers and 56.2 RBI and 25 steals in six minor-league seasons.
He's a strong fielder and brings speed and power on offense (though he only hit .224 during the spring). Considering they didn't see Rogers as part of their rebuilding future, the Brewers were happy to buy low on Broxton, a young player they think can still reach his high ceiling with regular playing time.
Chris Carter
Position: First base
Previous team: Astros
Carter, massively built at 6-4 and 245 pounds, is a powerful slugger with a propensity to either blast a ball over the fence for a soaring home run or strike out with a mighty whiff.
Carter averaged 30 homers and 182 strikeouts a season over the past three years with Houston. In 2014, he socked 37 dingers, which tied for the second-most in the majors and his 13.7 at bats per homer was the best rate in baseball.
Stearns, who came to Milwaukee from Houston, has spoken highly of the 29-year-old Carter, whom he signed to a one-year contract. Carter not only provides plenty of pop to the lineup, but he also brings veteran experience to the young clubhouse.
Aaron Hill
Position: Third base
Previous team: Diamondbacks
Hill was acquired along with starter Chase Anderson in the Jan. 31 trade that sent shortstop Jean Segura and minor-league pitcher Tyler Wagner to Arizona.
A 34-year-old veteran infielder, Hill is a career .268 hitter who’s averaged 12.6 homers and 54.2 RBI over his 12 seasons in the bigs. He had his worst season since 2010 last year, putting up a .230/.295/.345 slash line in 116 games with the Diamondbacks.
Though he’s lost some range, Hill is still considered an above-average fielder (.989 career fielding percentage; six errors last year). He will man third base until the Brewers can develop or discover a young player to take over at the position for the long term.
Jonathan Villar
Position: Shortstop
Previous team: Astros
Acquired in one of Stearns’ first trades back in November, in exchange for minor-league pitcher Cy Sneed, Villar has become Milwaukee’s starting shortstop spot despite a rough spring (.190 average 58 at-bats), thanks to sound defense and a dearth of better options.
The 24-year-old has good speed, having stolen at least 34 bases (including seasons combined between the majors and minors) every year since 2010. In 198 big-league games, he has 42 steals and has been caught 14 times.
The Brewers also believe he has some power (25 combined home runs in the minors from 2011-12) and they hope he can develop into a better overall hitter.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
