Photo Credit: Jean-Gabriel Fernandez
With one exception, the Brewers’ 2019 coaching staff will largely remain intact for the 2020 season. For a while, however, there were some doubts.
The Brewers made one change in the days following the season, dismissing first base coach Carlos Subero after four years in that role and 18 years in the organization. Having been around the game a long time, Subero will almost certainly land on his feet: Jon Morosi of MLB Network mentioned him as a possible MLB managerial candidate and noted that he’s managing the Venezuelan team in the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier 12 tournament this fall. Venezuela is scheduled to face Japan to open pool play in Taiwan on Tuesday.
Subero almost wasn’t the only Brewers coach to leave the organization, however: Craig Counsell’s longtime mentor and bench coach Pat Murphy also interviewed twice for the Mets’ recent managerial vacancy. Murphy managed in the majors in an interim role with the San Diego Padres in 2015 but joined Counsell’s staff just days after the conclusion of that season. The Mets eventually hired recent former player Carlos Beltrán, but as part of the process, Murphy was praised for his ability to build relationships with players while also implementing the game’s ongoing influx of data.
The Mets’ decision to go another direction in their managerial search means the Brewers won’t have to replace multiple coaches for the second consecutive year. Following the 2018 season, the coaching staff took a pair of major hits during the fall, headlined by highly regarded pitching coach Derek Johnson leaving to take the same role with the Cincinnati Reds.
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It’s impossible to fully quantify a coach’s impact, but the Brewers suffered a notable decline in pitching performance following Johnson’s departure: They ranked fourth in the National League with a 3.73 earned run average in his final season in Milwaukee and 10th in the league with a 4.40 ERA in 2019. Meanwhile, the Reds were 14th in the NL with a 4.63 team ERA in 2018 and moved all the way up to fourth with a 4.18 ERA in their first season under Johnson.
At the same time, hitting coach Darnell Coles had been with the Brewers for four seasons in that role and eight seasons overall before leaving to join the Arizona Diamondbacks. The change in performance wasn’t as jarring in this case, but there was still a slight decline between seasons: The Brewers actually scored more runs and posted a higher on-base plus slugging in their first season under new hitting coach Andy Haines but moved down in the rankings in both categories due to a severe change in the league’s offensive environment.
All told, avoiding having to make wholesale coaching changes this fall is likely a net positive for the Brewers. While difficult to quantify, the coaches’ familiarity with each other and their roles would seem to allow everyone to focus on the task at hand with minimal growing pains. That comfort level could also extend to the Brewers’ returning players, who can pick up where they left off with coaches that are familiar with their preferences and tendencies.
At the same time, the fact that Brewers coaches have been in high demand around baseball in recent years is a positive sign for the organization. Teams typically don’t try to poach coaches away from organizations they view as unsuccessful or behind the curve of the game’s changing landscape. The fact that the Mets, Reds and Diamondbacks have all either hired or expressed interest in a Brewers coach in recent years could be taken as a clear sign that the Brewers are doing something right and other franchises are taking notice.
