Brewers: Predicting the 2021 Opening Day Starting Lineup

4. RF Avisail Garcia

Things get a little tricky here in the four spot as the Brewers don’t necessarily have an obviously identified cleanup hitter on the roster right now. A few names could potentially work here, but let’s go with one of the hitters who was hot from the jump this spring in Avisail Garcia.

Garcia is yet another Milwaukee player looking to rebound from a disappointing 2020 campaign that saw him slash .238/.333/.326 with just two homers and 15 runs driven in. Being pressed into center field duty may have exacerbated the issue, but, regardless, it surely wasn’t the first impression he was expecting to make.

Garcia came to camp as a “best shape of his life” candidate and has looked solid all spring, batting .324 with a .937 OPS and three dingers. Like Hiura, he could stand to be more patient (12 strikeouts to just one walk this spring) but he seems prepared to join the ranks of Brewers bouncebacks.

5. CF Jackie Bradley Jr

The toughest decision to make in this starting lineup was whether to go with Cain or new Brewer Jackie Bradley Jr. Cain seems to think he will be ready to go by Opening Day, but he has played in just three Cactus League games for the Crew as opposed to Bradley Jr’s six.

But availability isn’t the only factor in play here. We already know that the Twins plan to deploy right-hander Kenta Maeda as their Opening Day starter, so by playing the matchups, it makes sense to go with the left-handed Bradley Jr over the right-handed Cain.

Bradley Jr put up one of the better offensive seasons in his career in 2020 with a .283/.364/.450 slash line in 55 games. Brewers fans will be excited to see how that offense combined with his Gold Glove defense plays out and they’ll get their chance right away on Opening Day.

6. C Omar Narvaez

Once again, we’re playing the matchup here as the Brewers have the option of rolling with a left-hander or a right-hander at catcher on Opening Day. Omar Narvaez is the team’s lefty backstop and will get a chance right away at putting a dreadful 2020 season in the rearview.

Narvaez has been one of the hottest hitters this spring by the numbers with a .321 average and a blazing 1.207 OPS with three doubles and three homers to his name. That’s already more homers and almost more doubles (two and four, respectively) than he had in 40 games in 2020.

It’s also far better than his .176 average and .562 OPS from last year, and though his 10 strikeouts in 35 plate appearances (28.6%) are still quite a bit higher than his career rate, his six walks are encouraging. His numbers honestly almost could have justified a cleanup role, but we’ll temper expectations for now and leave him at No. 6.

7. 3B Travis Shaw

The Mayor of Ding Dong City is back! After a platoon situation at third base in 2020 that was….something, the Brewers shored up the position by bringing back Travis Shaw, who signed to a minor league deal with an early spring opt out, but was added to the 40-man a couple weeks ago.

According to manager Craig Counsell, Shaw will be splitting time with Orlando Arcia at third with the latter having gotten plenty of practice there this spring. But this decision is matchup driven again and Shaw’s lefty bat will play better in this game than Arcia’s right-handed one.

Shaw would actually be one of the more prototypical cleanup options on the team, having started 235 games there in ’17 and ’18 for the Brewers. But he hasn’t been as hot as some of the other hitters this spring and though his 2020 numbers were better than his 2019 ones (.239/.306/.411 vs .157/.281/.270) he’ll need to work his way back up from the bottom third of the order.

8. SS Luis Urias

This is probably the second-hardest decision to make when it comes to the Opening Day starting lineup. Do the Brewers go with the young shortstop acquisition from two offseasons ago, or the team veteran who has started the last four Opening Days at the position?

Like at third base, Counsell stated that Arcia will be likely sharing starts at shortstop with Luis Urias. Arcia is coming off the best offensive season (.260/.317/.416, 96 OPS+) of his career, while Urias started off hot with a .286 average and .712 OPS through the first 25 games of his Brewers debut before tailing off significantly after that.

This comes down to the spring numbers, though. Urias’ bat has come alive as of late, bringing his Cactus League slash line to .259/.394/.481 while Arcia has trended in the opposite direction, dropping to .206/.229/.294. Based off of that, Urias has earned the Opening Day start.

9. P Brandon Woodruff

This one is only a half prediction. We already know that staff ace Brandon Woodruff has been named the team’s Opening Day starting pitcher for the second year in a row, the first Brewers pitcher to hold that honor since Yovani Gallardo worked his fifth straight Opening Day in 2014.

What’s changed, though, is that this time, Woodruff gets to hit during his Opening Day start! Unless the league decides on a last second addition of a universal DH, Woody will get his first at bat since the 2019 season when he batted .267 with four doubles and four runs driven in.

There’s a non-zero chance that Woodruff could be moved up a spot here as he was slotted into the eight hole for four starts back in 2019. But we’ll stay with the classic configuration of the pitcher batting last and just be happy we get to see Woody taking hacks again.

There you have it, our Opening Day starting lineup prediction. The best part is that it’s just one week until we get to see whether this matches the real thing.