Milwaukee Brewers: It’s Time To End The Tyler Saladino Experiment

The Milwaukee Brewers called up Tyler Saladino and he’s been a major disappointment so far.

When the Milwaukee Brewers made the decision to call up Tyler Saladino, they designated longtime utility man Hernan Perez for assignment and provide a challenger to Orlando Arcia at short.

It’s been a pretty weak challenge so far.

Through 14 games, Saladino has hit a paltry .091 with a .209 OPS. Saladino has struck out 15 times in 33 at-bats, which earns him a 45% strikeout rate. He had another pair of strikeouts on Saturday night, going 0-for-3.

Not Doing The Job

Back on June 27th, the Brewers DFA’ed established utility infielder and clubhouse favorite Hernan Perez because they weren’t getting the expected production out of him at the plate. Perez was hitting .235 with a .659 OPS and a 69 OPS+ at the time. Saladino is hitting .091 with a .209 OPS and a -39 OPS+.

Also, when Saladino was called up, we were told he was going to split time with Arcia at shortstop because they wanted him to pick up his defense and his bat. But Saladino has somehow been worse with the bat and hasn’t been anything special on defense either.

Why Bother?

It never really made sense to go with Saladino in the first place. Sure he was having a decent year in Triple-A, but we’ve seen this story before. We’ve seen Saladino and know what he can do. It ain’t much. So why go to a dry well again?

It’s understandable that they don’t want to bring up Mauricio Dubon just to have him sit on the bench, and he wouldn’t play much in the big leagues right now. But that would still be a better alternative than what Saladino is producing.

Perhaps Hernan Perez had gotten complacent, figuring he had pretty good job security with the Milwaukee Brewers and his production slipped as a result. Who knows? Maybe this is the wake up call Perez needed. They were lucky he made it through waivers unclaimed and stayed in the organization.

Time For Another Change?

The Tyler Saladino Experiment has not worked out. He’s worse than Arcia both offensively and defensively and Arcia knows by now that Saladino isn’t a true threat to his job. If the Brewers really wanted to put pressure on Arcia to get his play together, they’d call up Dubon and put him into a timeshare at short.

If they don’t want to do that, then select Perez’s contract again and bring him back up and DFA Saladino. Perez got his wake up call, now it’s time to stop playing games and put the best players out on the field. Saladino is not one of the top 25 players in the Milwaukee Brewers organization.

If not Perez, Travis Shaw has seemingly gotten hot in Triple-A, and could get called back up. In his last three games, Shaw is hitting .500 (6-for-12) with two home runs and seven RBIs.

Someone. Anyone. Get Saladino out of Milwaukee and on a plane to literally anywhere else. Call up Shaw or Perez or Dubon and stop with the fantasy idea that Saladino can truly challenge Arcia for a spot in the Brewers infield.

The Milwaukee Brewers have started slowly in the second half and need to inject some life in this club. Bringing back the clubhouse Energizer bunny in Perez could work. Same with Shaw. Just end this Saladino experiment.