Milwaukee Brewers made the Jackie Bradley Jr. deal official yesterday. The talented outfielder talked to the media and joined the team for their game against Los Angeles. Bradley Jr. did not play in this one obviously. Many questions for Milwaukee are around the potential of four outfielders, and how that could work for the team. People seem to forget that Craig Counsell likes to push and pull lineups more than any manager I can remember. No lineup is the same. This has to be Counsell’s Mona Lisa to get this opportunity to adjust the lineup as he sees fit. With Counsell’s ability to do this plus Lorenzo Cain saying he will not play as much, this will actually be rather easy.

To show you how it might work, let’s look at the third week of the Major League Baseball season. This is assuming that there are no delays from anything such as COVID, rain, snow, etc. Here’s what an outfield lineup might look like throughout the week.

Monday: vs. Chicago Cubs: LF Christian Yelich, CF Lorenzo Cain, RF Avisail Garcia – Don’t be surprised in a game such as this one if we don’t see Bradley Jr. come in for Garcia as a defensive replacement and get an at-bat seventh inning at one.

Tuesday: vs. Cubs: LF Yelich, CF Bradley Jr., RF Garcia
Wednesday: vs. Cubs: LF Yelich, CF Cain, RF Bradley Jr.
Friday: vs. Pittsburgh Pirates: LF Garcia, CF: Cain, RF: Bradley Jr.
Saturday: Vs. Pirates: LF Yelich, CF Cain, RF Garcia
Sunday: vs. Pirates: LF Yelich, CF Bradley Jr., RF Garcia.

This is obviously not accounting for any sort of injuries that may happen as well. If an injury occurs, Bradley Jr becomes the everyday starter. This exercise gives Bradley Jr. four starts in seven days. That’s not bad at all. Sure, he does not play every day, but there’s still enough there to keep him happy. I wonder if Counsell will employ some sort of rotation early on then as we get into the season, he starts riding the hot bats.

I’m excited to see what Bradley Jr. brings to the table overall. It should be a fun year.

Charlie.