Milwaukee Brewers: Why Santana’s Injury is Biggest Downer of First Half

Domingo Santana will be on the DL at least until the All-Star break because of his ailing elbow issue, which isn’t a good sign for a team looking for young players to develop.

While the Milwaukee Brewers right fielder has showed issues in right field defensively, there have been hopes for him early in the season. For a franchise looking for young players to signs of hope to come in the future, Domingo Santana has played nearly half the team’s games so far (40 of 79).

Early in the season sites like FanGraphs was impressed by his adjustments and compared him to great uprising young stars like George Springer. But, it doesn’t mean it made his numbers perfect as like any player his age, it’ll take a while for him to develop.

Looking at other stats like his K% (34.7%) and 99 wRC+ aren’t great, there aren’t too many big flaws in his offensive numbers in the small sample size of the 2016 season. Especially when you think Zach Davies is the only other Milwaukee Brewers player currently on the roster who is younger than him (by just a few months).

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As most Milwaukee Brewers fans are realistic and know the season is more about player development and possible trades, the main hope is to point back to players that’ll be part of the upcoming team in years to come. Many may be thinking of a player like Jonathan Villar now who has certainly made a name for himself as at the start of the season was more of a fill-in.

There have been other downers this season like Will Smith’s injury, Jimmy Nelson’s recent struggles, and the Opening Day starter (Wily Peralta) not even being on the roster anymore and it’s fair to argue any of them. (When I think of the last one I’m amazed to just be 7 games back in the wild card.)

But, every season has its ups and downs as players like Junior Guerra and Jeremy Jeffress make you think otherwise. The pitching department for the Milwaukee Brewers has been an odd story itself.

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If anything, the 2nd half will hopefully be Domingo Santana’s time for Milwaukee Brewers fans to see more of what kind of player he is as offensively at least he’s exciting to watch. Now if only he was faster in the outfield like George Springer…but I’ll just make sure to focus on his swing.