Brewers get right in Cincy, Lo Cain Era ends in Milwaukee.

And so ends the Lo Cain Era in Milwaukee. What a run! David Stearns signed him on the same day that he traded for Christian Yelich (January 25th, 2018) and the Brewers have been in the postseason every single year since. Despite their recent struggles, that’s not a coincidence.

Sadly for Lo Cain, the bat just was not able to get going this season. He hit .179 in 43 games and was very honest about not feeling comfortable at the plate. He’s still an above average glove by almost any measure, but it was probably time for the Brewers to move on and see what they have in Tyrone Taylor as an official everyday player in centerfield.

But don’t let this season jade you, Lo Cain’s second run in Milwaukee was an overwhelming success. He finished 7th in MVP voting in 2018, was a Gold Glove winner for the first time in his career (which is as preposterous as it is baffling) and a positive locker room influence his entire time here. He opted out of the 2020 pandemic season after a few games, and it’s a popular thought among Brewer fans that he ‘never bounced all the way back’ after that, but that’s simply not true. He battled injuries in 2021, but when he was on the field his defense was SPECIAL. His 0.8 defensive WAR rating in 2021 was 11th best ALL TIME for an outfielder 35 years or older. Other names on that list? Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Robin Yount. Are those guys good orrrrrrr? Offensively he wasn’t bad either, his OPS was .730 and he hit 8 home runs in only 257 plate appearances. Had he stayed at that rate and played a full season he would have had his best power season in a Brewer jersey.

But at 36 years old, and with a body he treated like a used car in centerfield, the dropoff was noticeable this season. We always knew when he signed a 5-year deal at 31 years old that the back end of that contract might be a little iffy. The Brewers did the classy thing and let him reach exactly 10 years of service time before they DFA-ed him on Saturday. That allows him a more lucrative pension if indeed this is it for him. I still think he might have some value for a team looking for late-inning defense, or if a contending team sees their centerfielder go down for an extended period, they may well call on Lo Cain, but just in case that doesn’t happen, the Brewers did him a solid.

Despite a VERY good MLB career, it feels like Lo Cain isn’t going to be headed to Cooperstown, but he is a mortal lock Brewers Wall of Honor player. Cue the footage:

‘Lo Cain makes that play,’ is something we’ll be saying for a LONG time on deep shots to center field that don’t get caught.

Anyway, how about those Brewers over the weekend! The month of June has been a tire fire so far, but they get right with a sweep of Cincy on the tail end of another 3-city, 9 game road trip. Sunday’s game was the 68th of 162 games on the schedule, and they’ve already played HALF of their road games. 41 road games to only 27 home games this season. That’s nuts. And they’re sitting at 38-30, in a tie for first, all despite a litany of injuries and COVID illnesses.

Now generally speaking I’m a, ‘relax it’s only ____’ guy until we get to the trade deadline. But tonight feels like the start of a pretty important series, even though it’s still only June. The Cardinals and Brewers have played 8 times this year, and the season series is split 4-4. Another 4-game series starts tonight, and if the Brewers can win (or sweep) the series, they not only grab the season series lead, but they’d get back a 2 or 3 game lead in the division. With the 4th of July looming, that feels fairly significant.

PS: The timing was not only good for Lo Cain’s pension, but it also makes sense for David Stearns and Tyrone Taylor. He’s got 6-ish weeks now to stake claim to that everyday job. If he can’t do it, my guess is that centerfield is the place they look for a potential major upgrade at the deadline.