Photo Credit: jnashboulden (Flickr CC)
The Milwaukee Brewers have been eliminated from postseason contention for a couple of weeks now, and many of the former Brewers around the league quickly followed suit in the playoffs' early rounds. Among the 10 teams that reached the MLB postseason the Rockies had the most former Brewers with three: Jonathan Lucroy, Mark Reynolds and Gerardo Parra. Their postseason run lasted exactly one day.
The other team eliminated during the Wild Card round, the Minnesota Twins, had just one former Brewer and it's not clear if he should count: Ehire Adrianza was a Brewer for just a few days last offseason, having been claimed off waivers from the Giants on January 31 before being put back on waivers and claimed by the Twins on February 6. As such, he never appeared in a game (or anywhere, really) in a Brewers uniform.
Monday could be another rough day for former Brewers in the playoffs as Zack Greinke takes the mound for Arizona with their season on the line. Greinke is one of just seven players with a history in Milwaukee still alive in the postseason. Here are the others:
Arizona: Greinke and Jorge De La Rosa
Since making the postseason in 2011 with the Brewers Greinke has seen the playoffs several more times, in 2013, 2014 and 2015 with the Dodgers and now again with the Diamondbacks. He's averaged almost 200 wins per season since 2008, has made four All Star appearances (including one in 2017) and has won a Cy Young and three Gold Gloves.
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De La Rosa made his MLB debut in the same season as Greinke (2014) but his career has followed a very different path: He has a career ERA up over 4.50, has never pitched 200 innings in a season despite working primarily as a starter, has won zero notable awards and, perhaps most remarkably, 2017 represents his first ever trip to the playoffs. He has already made scoreless relief appearances in both the Wild Card and NLDS rounds.
Washington: Brandon Kintzler and Adam Lind
Brandon Kintzler's 2015 season with the Brewers could easily have been his last in Major League Baseball: He made just seven appearances, posted a 6.43 ERA and finished the season off of Milwaukee's 40-man roster. Last week was the second anniversary of his unceremonious departure from the Brewers organization as a minor league free agent. All he's done since then is secure prominent bullpen spots with two different franchises, the Twins and Nationals, earn his first All Star bid in 2017 and pitch his way into the postseason for the first time.
Similarly, Adam Lind's MLB tenure could have been over after the 2016 season, when he was 33 years old and had just posted a .286 on-base percentage in 126 games for the Mariners. He's bounced back with his best season in a decade, batting .303 with a .362 OBP and .513 slugging in 116 games for the Nationals. On Saturday he made his first-ever playoff plate appearance and collected his first postseason hit.
New York: CC Sabathia
Sabathia's 17th MLB season was his best one in a while and he narrowly avoided having it end on Sunday, as his Yankees beat Cleveland to avoid becoming the first team eliminated in the Division Series round. His start over the weekend was his 20th postseason appearance, but his first since 2012.
Cleveland: Michael Brantley
On Saturday CC Sabathia faced a player the Brewers once traded for him. Last week marked the ninth anniversary of Cleveland selecting Michael Brantley from a now-infamous list of candidates to be the player to be named later in the trade that brought Sabathia to Milwaukee. While most of the other known players from that list went on to have relatively quiet MLB careers, Brantley has played in 908 games for Cleveland and made his second All Star appearance in 2017.
Brantley, for what it's worth, struck out and grounded out against Sabathia.
Houston: Juan Centeno
The Astros are not that far removed from sending a major haul of prospects to the Brewers for two players: Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers. Neither player made the Astros' postseason roster, as Gomez was released in 2016 and Fiers posted a 5.22 ERA in 29 appearances this season.
Centeno, meanwhile, played in ten games as a backup catcher for the 2015 Brewers and has just 101 games of MLB experience with four franchises. He entered Sunday's game late as a defensive replacement to make his postseason debut, but never came to the plate.
