Brewers Shift Minor League Management as Lockout Continues

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Photo: visitphoenix.com

American Family Fields of Phoenix

American Family Fields of Phoenix

The names on the back of the jerseys won’t be as familiar and the faces may not be as easy for fans to recognize, but this week the signs of life at American Family Fields of Phoenix will start to suggest spring is on the way.

While MLB has already cancelled the first week of major league spring training games and reports suggest that Opening Day might be in jeopardy due to the ongoing lockout, minor league players are not members of the MLBPA, are not subject to the collective bargaining agreement and are expected to report to spring training as scheduled for the 2022 season. It’ll be an unusual spring, to be sure, but preparations are underway and a full complement of players will be on the back fields at American Family Fields of Phoenix soon.

While major league players (including all members of the Brewers’ 40-man roster) remain locked out, the Brewers have continued to hold offseason minicamps and other training opportunities for minor league players through the winter in anticipation of the events of the next few weeks. Traditionally, teams have invited select groups of minor leaguers to arrive early to participate in mini-camps and fill in the late innings of MLB spring training games, but they won’t be needed for that task this year. Minor leaguers officially report to camp next week but many will still be there early, and this week their coaching staffs will continue to come together.

New Detour

For new Wisconsin Timber Rattlers manager Joe Ayrault the trip to Phoenix involved a new detour this year. He left his home in Florida late last week to drive to Wisconsin and bring some things to his new home for the summer before getting on a plane to Arizona. Ayrault has been managing in the Brewers organization since 2010, including five years at the High-A level with the now-defunct Brevard County Manatees and four with the Carolina Mudcats, where he had managed every game that team played as a Brewers affiliate.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing the guys, my co-workers, and getting back to work,” Ayrault told reporters during his introductory press conference with the Timber Rattlers on Feb. 9. Last week’s trip to Appleton was his first, and coincided with the area’s first recorded “snow squall.”

While the snow will almost certainly melt before Ayrault returns from Arizona to open the 2022 season on April 8, his arrival in Appleton will mark another rare occurrence: A Brewers minor league managerial change. Ayrault is replacing Appleton native Matt Erickson, who was promoted onto Craig Counsell’s major league staff this winter after 10 seasons at the helm in Wisconsin.

Until this winter the Brewers hadn’t changed minor league managers at any full season level since 2016, when they moved longtime minor league manager and coach Mike Guerrero to AA Biloxi. AAA manager Rick Sweet, the tenth winningest manager in the history of Minor League Baseball, has been with the Brewers at that level since 2014 and followed the organization’s affiliate from Nashville to Colorado Springs to San Antonio and back to Nashville again. Ayrault managed the Brewers’ High-A affiliates from 2012-19 in Brevard County and Carolina before the latter team was moved down to Low-A in last season’s minor league restructuring. The new manager this year will be Carolina’s Victor Estevez, a 33-year-old who already has six years of managerial experience with the Brewers’ Dominican Summer League affiliate.

With Sweet, Guerrero and Ayrault all returning as managers for 2022 the Brewers will have an experienced group to lead their players through uncharted waters this spring. While the big leaguers’ lockers remain empty and the main field remains dark for now, there will be baseball in the weeks ahead.