Brewers: Predicting the 2021 Opening Day Starting Lineup

It’s almost here, Brewers fans! Today marks just one week until the beginning of the 2021 MLB regular season. Fans will be in the stands again (albeit a limited number of them) and Milwaukee will begin their quest for a fourth straight playoff appearance, increasing a franchise record.

The Brewers have spent this spring looking to get several players who underperformed on offense back on track for 2021, as well as acclimating some new names and faces into the lineup. April 1st will be the unveiling of that hard work.

So now as we get closer to Opening Day 2021, we’re all probably starting to wonder what that first starting lineup of the year will look like. Who will the starters be that day? Where will they line up in the batting order?

Here is our shot at predicting the 2021 Milwaukee Brewers Opening Day starting lineup.

1. 2B Kolten Wong

The first “tough” decision comes right off the bat. Though ex-Brewer Eric Sogard led off for the Brewers to kick off the 2020 season, current Brewer Lorenzo Cain held that honor the previous two seasons. So now that he is back from his 2020 opt out, why not slot him back in the spot for 2021?

Part of it is not knowing his availability (more on that later), but part is also that newly acquired second baseman Kolten Wong has been just so darn good at it so far in spring training. The former Cardinal just hit his third Cactus League leadoff bomb on Wednesdsay and his propensity for doing that recently landed him as a “stud” on our week 3 Cactus League studs and duds piece.

Wong’s .356 on base percentage over the last four years combined with decent speed means he will likely spend plenty of time towards the top of the lineup. Some games could see Cain leadoff with Wong flipping to the two hole, but for starters, we’re saying that Wong takes that first Brewers at bat of the 2021 season.

2. 1B Keston Hiura

Some could question whether you would go with Keston Hiura or Christian Yelich here, and rightly so. Yelich held down the two hole for quite some time, playing 100 games there in 2019 before flipping to the three spot prior to his season-ending knee injury. Last season, the two switched off in the two hole with Yelich starting 35 games there and Hiura starting 25.

However, a glimpse into a spring training trend may hold the answer to this question. In the last three games in which Hiura and Yelich have both played, it’s been Hiura batting second with Yelich coming to the plate after him.

After a bit of a slow start this spring, Hiura has been looking better of late as he is up to three home runs and a .837 OPS in Cactus League play. He still needs to tone down the strikeouts (he’s tied for the team lead with 13) but either way, he will provide plenty of RBI opportunities for the middle of the lineup.

3. LF Christian Yelich

With Hiura occupying the two hole, that makes this the one no-brainer on the list. Batting your best hitter third is a time-honored tradition, making this a perfect spot for the 2018 (and should’ve been 2019, but I digress) National League MVP, Christian Yelich.

Seeing Yelich here is a little bittersweet in ways because this was a spot that had been taken up for so many years by Ryan Braun. The legendary Brewer made 1407 of his 1671 career starts batting third, so perhaps this represents a bit of a passing of the torch in a sense.

Yelich has been straight mashing in Cactus League so far, batting .450 with a 1.542 OPS with a pair of doubles and three homers, not to mention just four strikeouts. He looks ready to put a disappointing 2020 season behind him and do tons of damage as the No. 3 hitter.

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.