3 Former Brewers Who Are Struggling Elsewhere

Struggling Former Brewer #2: Avisail Garcia

Avisail Garcia had a breakout season with the Brewers in 2021. He was a crucial slugger in the heart of their lineup slashing .262/.330/.490 for an OPS+ of 118 last season. He was a major contributor to the Brewers success, having a WRC+ of 115 and had an fWAR of 2.7. Garcia also led the Brewers with 29 home runs and 86 RBIs (both career highs). However, he decided to opt out of his $12MM mutual option with the Brewers in the offseason and head to free agency.

Avisail Garcia signed a 4-year, $53MM contract with the Miami Marlins in the offseason but hasn’t found the same success with the Marlins. Garcia has really struggled this season, slashing .225/.262/.317 with an OPS+ of 65, an fWAR of -0.2, and a WRC+ of 70. Garcia’s struggles boil down to his performance at the plate, especially when it comes to plate discipline and bat-to-ball numbers.

Garcia is chasing pitches out of the strike zone, generating too many swings and misses, and has a very poor walk rate. He is in the bottom 2% of the league in chase rate (42.1%), bottom 4% in whiff rate (36.3%), and is in the bottom 2% in walk rate (3.7%). Additionally, Garcia has struck out 85 times in 78 games this season and has a strikeout rate of 28.2%, which is a career high.

The Marlins paid Garcia to be a power threat in the middle of their lineup. However, this season he only has 6 home runs through 78 games and has an ISO of .092- the 12th worst in the league among qualified batters.

It has been a brutal season for Avisail Garcia as he is struggling with his plate discipline, getting on base, and being the power hitter that he was in 2021. Only a half of a season into his four-year deal with the Marlins, Garcia will look to turn it around after the All-Star break.

Struggling Former Brewer #3: Trent Grisham

The third player on this list might be the most surprising of the bunch, and that is outfielder Trent Grisham. By now, the Trent Grisham trade is one that most Brewers fans are familiar with. It was the deal back in November of 2019 in which the Brewers traded Grisham and Zach Davies for Eric Lauer and Luis Urias, and it is a trade that has been heavily analyzed ever since.

In the shortened 2020 season, Trent Grisham slashed .251/.352/.456 with an OPS+ of 123, and won a Gold Glove award with the San Diego Padres. Appearing to be one of the best young fielders in the game, it looked like he was starting to put it together at the plate as well. His quality of contact numbers looked very strong for a player who wasn’t known for his bat. As a Brewers fan, this was tough to see.

However, 2022 has been a different story for Grisham, and it has not been a good one. So far in 2022 he is slashing .190/.292/.330  with an OPS+ of 82 and a WRC+ of 83. Grisham has not really been a threat at the plate. He is in the bottom 7 percent of the league in hard hit rate (28.8%) and in the bottom 10% in average exit velocity (86.4). He has also struck out 87 times in 91 games with a strikeout rate of 24.6%. While Grisham is not known for his bat, it has been his fielding that has been the biggest surprise of 2022.

The Gold Glover has had multiple blunders in the outfield within the last month. On several occasions, he has uncharacteristically misplayed fly balls which have resulted in extra bases and runs, and appears to lack confidence in the field. While he is still graded well in Outs Above Average, his Outfielder Jump has graded below average.

Outfielder Jump is composed of reaction time, burst, and route taken to the ball. All three metrics are noticeably down from his 2020 season. That is important because Outfielder Jump has a massive impact on the difficulty of the ensuing play and is important when analyzing just how efficient a fielder is.

It will be interesting to see how the young outfielder bounces back in the second half of the season. One major underlying factor here is that Trent Grisham is still only 25 years old and has proven to have valuable talent. However, it has not been a good season for Grisham, 91 games into the year.

All the players on this list have shown their ability to be key contributors and have major impacts on their roster, so it will be interesting to keep an eye on their performance to see how they bounce back in the second half of the season.