Brewers: 2 Players Who We Should Be Patient With, 1 Who We Shouldn't

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Major League Baseball seasons are long. At 162 games across six full months, plus some in March and October, there's a reason they call it the Dog Days of Summer. And with such a long season, even the best players go through their cold stretches.

When it comes to the Milwaukee Brewers, there are very few players on the team you could say haven't gone through some sort of a slump in 2023. More position players have fallen into this category than pitchers, but it's happened across the board nonetheless.

Now while some have snapped out of theirs (see: Christian Yelich), others haven't, leaving fans frustrated and wondering when things will ever get better. Some of those players should probably be given a little patience. Others, not so much.

Here are two Brewers players who deserve a little patience right now and one who doesn't.

Brewers DH/OF Jesse Winker deserves a little patience

Last offseason, rumors started swirling that Brewers second baseman Kolten Wong could be traded to the Seattle Mariners, the only question was for what return. Eventually, the trade happened, and the main piece Milwaukee got in return was a foe who used to terrorize them as a member of the Reds: DH/OF Jesse Winker.

Winker was coming off of a down year with Seattle in which he slashed just .219/.344/.344 with 14 homers and 53 RBIs in 136 games. He finished his first year there on the IL with a neck strain and there were also rumors of him not meshing well in the clubhouse.

That was a far cry from his production before that with Cincinnati. In five seasons, capped off with an All-Star appearance in 2021, Winker never batted below .255, never had an OPS below .830, and had three double-digit home run seasons. The Brewers got to see much of the damage he caused firsthand.

And that is largely why Winker still deserves a little bit of patience. Five out of his six seasons prior to arriving in Milwaukee were very productive, which is why the Brewers saw him as a prime bounceback candidate.

Winker has also gone through a bout of bronchitis as well as an IL stint for yet another neck issue, making it tough to get going this season. But he's 29 and in his prime, has a productive history, and has plenty of the season left to go. Plus, he's making enough money to the point that he isn't going anywhere anyway. So let's be patient.

Brewers 2B/3B Luis Urias deserves a little patience

Brewers fans had one big question surrounding infielder Luis Urias coming into this season. Will he look closer to the 2021 version or the 2022 version?

Granted, the two seasons actually looked relatively similar on the surface. After slashing .249/.345/.445 in what was considered his breakout 2021 season, his line of .239/.335/.404 in 2022 wasn't all that different.

What did change was the cumulative stats. After tallying 23 homers, 75 RBI, 77 runs, and 25 doubles in 2021, those numbers dropped to 16, 47, 54, and 17 the following season. That said, injuries also resulted in his games played going from 150 to 119 as well.

Unfortunately for Urias, injuries were the story once again here in 2023. Right toward the end of the Brewers' Opening Day matchup against the Cubs in Chicago, he hurt his hamstring trying to leg out a single and was on the IL the next day. It wasn't until earlier this month that he returned to the team.

And that is exactly why Urias deserves a little patience. While the numbers aren't pretty (6-for-41, 2 2B, 1 HR, 13 Ks), he has played in all of 14 games so far this season. Plenty of players have a slow couple weeks to a season before they turn things around.

With the Brewers having (hopefully just temporarily) lost their grip on the NL Central lead, some players do need to step up and get the offense going again to get that lead back. But with Urias, let's just be a little patient and see what happens once he has more games under his belt.

Brewers INF Andruw Monasterio doesn't deserve a little patience

Perhaps leading the race for the most surprising addition to the Brewers active roster in 2023 is infielder Andruw Monasterio. Perhaps equally surprising was the quick impact he had once he got there.

At one point, Milwaukee found themselves suddenly short middle infielders with Urias still on the IL and Willy Adames out with a concussion. Monasterio was then added to both the 40-man and 26-man rosters and came storming out of the gate for the Crew.

Monasterio collected seven hits in his first six games with the Brewers, including a double and a three-run homer. Since he was producing, and rookie Brice Turang was in a slump that eventually reached 1-for-41, it saw the latter get demoted to Triple-A for a bit of a reset.

Since then, Monasterio himself has cooled down quite a bit. In his last 10 games, the 26-year-old has gone just 2-for-20 with seven strikeouts and just three walks. And though he doesn't have any errors yet, he is already in the negative in Outs Above Average (-1) and Defensive Runs Saved (-1).

Meanwhile, Turang has a hit in seven of eight games since joining Triple-A Nashville, three of which were homers. The batting average and OBP are still low, so it would be nice to see those come up a bit, but at least there are signs of life. And don't forget about his elite defense.

Ideally, Turang is the one you're rolling with at second, it was just a matter of him slumping at the same time another infielder happened to be hot. But if that's no longer the case, there's no need to be patient with Monasterio, just make the switch back to your original starting second baseman.

It's hard to be patient when your team is struggling. Unfortunately, you're often bound to the players you have and patience is your only option.

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