Milwaukee Brewers were not a team you expected to see much turnover. They won 96 games and an NL Central crown. The band would get back together for another run at it next year. Think again. Brewers let go of their bullpen coach Lee Tunnell, their head athletic trainer Dan Wright and Darnell Coles asked for his resignation. Brewers will have to find three new coaches before the 2019 season. That’s a bit surprising, but let’s trying to figure out why new coaching is needed at Miller Park.

Tunnell has been with the Brewers since 2012. He is not a ‘Craig Counsell guy’ per say and was a part of the Ron Roenicke staff back in the day. The bullpen was the best part of the Brewers’ last season, but maybe Tunnell did not do as much as the team wanted him to do out there. Derek Johnson might run the show, and the team thought the bullpen coach didn’t do enough. Or the team didn’t like the progression made by players like Jacob Barnes, Taylor Williams and other young arms. Another possibility was Tunnell did not communicate when pitchers were struggling leading to meltdowns from Corey Knebel and Jeremy Jeffress. These are all speculative, but if you think about all of them, there’s a case to be made here.

The head athletic trainer is more interesting in my opinion for a couple reasons. One, the FSN crew would go out of their way to say how good of a job Wright does with the team. Second, the team might be looking at treatment of players a different way than what Wright has been doing. Once again, he’s not part of the Stearns-Counsell regime. They may want a new face. Also, the injury treatment of pitchers wasn’t pretty with Zach Davies getting injured whilst in a rehab start, Wade Miley getting hurt multiple times, Jimmy Nelson’s very slow recovery. All of those things add up.

Coles leaving on his own is interesting. I didn’t think Coles was a reason for the inconsistent offense at times. I just felt that’s what the Brewers brought to the table. We’ll see what hitting coach comes around for the team. Jason Lane might be an option who was Coles’ assistant. Just keep Chilli Davis away from the Brewers, and I can live with myself. Also, Paul Molitor should not even be considered. He is the anti-Counsell and very by the ‘baseball book.’ I doubt it would work out well.

Charlie.