Miami Marlins demote Lewis Brinson. What went wrong and how can he fix it in Triple A?
After keeping Lewis Brinson in the Majors for the entirety of his rookie season in 2018, the Miami Marlins planned to have a shorter leash for the outfielder in 2019. After 72 at-bats with a sub-.200 batting average, the leash has run out for Brinson.
Before opening a quick two game series against the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday in Miami, the Marlins optioned Brinson to Triple A New Orleans, where they hope the prize of the Christian Yelich trade can find sustained success. In 27 games this season, Brinson is batting .197 with a .247 on-base percentage and .263 slugging percentage. He has 28 strikeouts and only 15 hits.
“I wasn’t doing my job, so I’ve got to go down there and kind of regroup,” Brinson said. “I’m taking it as a regrouping process for me, just go down there, regroup and I’ll be back soon.”
In Brinson’s place, Miami (8-20) is activating Garrett Cooper from the injured list. The slugger began the season as the Marlins’ starting right fielder before suffering a calf injury last month in the opening week of the regular season.
Miami long hoped this would be something it could avoid for Brinson, who was a top 30 prospect in the MLB.com rankings when the Marlins landed him from the Milwaukee Brewers as the centerpiece of the Yelich deal. Miami never sent Brinson to the New Orleans Baby Cakes in 2018, even as he batted .199 in more than 400 plate appearances. The Marlins even waited out the worst of Brinson’s disappointing start to 2019, when he went 1 for 27 across a 12-game stretch and saw his batting average plummet from a season-best .275 to a season-worst .179. He recently bounced back by going 3 for 9 in his last four games heading into the series-opener against the Indians (15-12) on Tuesday, although he also struck out four times.
As Brinson struggled, Miami tried to work with him at the Major League level. He didn’t get a single at-bat from April 21 until Thursday as the Marlins worked on his mechanics. Don Mattingly, who was a hitting coach before his managerial career began in 2011, said the biggest issue is Brinson’s front side, which the manager said flies open too often.
Brinson’s demotion is the corresponding move for Garrett Cooper’s return from the injured list. The slugger began the season as Miami’s starting right fielder before he was placed on the injured list with a calf injury last month.
“He has to be able to keep that front side in to be able to be competitive against different areas of the plate,” said Mattingly, who led the American League in batting average with the New York Yankees in 1984. “You can’t go sideways. He was just kind of working side to side. You need to stay in there and be able to work through the ball instead of trying to go around it.”
The mechanical breakdown ultimately led to his poor approach at the plate. Brinson’s chase rate, which measures how often he swings at pitches outside of the strike zone, is up to 40.7 percent this year from 33.9 as a rookie, while his zone swing rate, which measures how often he swings at pitches in the zone, is down to 67.4 percent from 71.7 a year ago.
Brinson admitted he has had trouble sticking to his approach as his slump has continued and Miami has faced some of the best starting pitchers in baseball.
“You definitely get away from it,” Brinson said, “but that’s how great hitters get out of slumps. They’re not in bad stretches for too long. They know how to get out of it. They know that their approach works and they trust it.”
For now, Miami still trusts Brinson. With the Baby Cakes, Brinson will get a chance to start in center field every day in a low-pressure environment. He won’t see the same gauntlet of MLB starting pitching and the actual game results matter even less than they do for the Marlins.
“Obviously, we know this is a big part of the future,” president of baseball operations Michael Hill said. “We wanted to see his continued progress and he’s had moments thus far this year. We just felt in total that it was best for him at this time to go down and sort of clear his head and get back to continuing the program we have in place to continue his development.”
Brinson is still confident, too.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that I can hit up here, that I can be one of the best players in the big leagues when I do get back,” Brinson said. “I’ve just to got to go down there. That’s part of my plan right now.”