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- The Milwaukee Brewers fired manager Ron Roenicke on /4/3 after a 7-18 start to the 2015 MLB season.
The Milwaukee Brewers fired manager Ron Roenicke on /4/3 after a 7-18 start to the 2015 MLB season.
The Milwaukee Brewers fired manager Ron Roenicke on /4/3.
According to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com, the Brewers dismissed Roenicke after the team limped off to a 7-18 record, the worst in all of Major League Baseball.
Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin told McCalvy on Sunday he will retain the rest of Roenicke’s coaching staff. His top candidate to be the Brewers’ new manager is one of their former players, Craig Counsell.
Roenicke relieved of managerial duties: pic.twitter.com/MKPngn9ykO— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) /4/4, 2015
Counsell has no managerial experience but does have 16 years of playing experience and three years of front-office experience at the major-league level, per McCalvy.
Melvin told MLB.com he sized up the Brewers past 100 games and felt they did not win enough for the club to retain Roenicke:
“I had to look at this over the past 100 games, and the lack of winning that we’ve had. At that point, I felt we weren’t playing consistent enough baseball, and recently here, the last few games [as the Brewers won three of four], I don’t know why this couldn’t have happened earlier, but whatever.
“He was disappointed, but Ron is a professional. He’s done good work here in the past. It basically comes down to the losses in the last 100 games.”
McCalvy stresses the Brewers have been 38-66 in their least 104 games dating back to the 2014 MLB season.
THIS JUST IN: Brewers fire manager Ron Roenicke after Milwaukee’s 7-18 start to the season. pic.twitter.com/lMnSQT8QJk— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) /4/4, 2015
Melvin informed Roenicke of his dismissal on Sunday evening, just as Milwaukee won two out of three games against the visiting Chicago Cubs, per MLB.com.
Roenicke was stunned, per McCalvy.
“I told Doug I wished it would have happened a week ago,” Roenicke told MLB.com. “I would have understood it better then.”
However, Melvin already made the decision to let go of Roenicke even before the Chicago series began “because we needed time to put a new manager in place,” per The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt.
Brewers To Hire Craig Counsell http://t.co/tVGnTtlk9K— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) /4/4, 2015
When Haudricourt asked Melvin if Counsell will be replacing Roenicke, he said, “I’d rather wait until tomorrow to say anything.”
Counsell was in the running for the Tampa Bay Rays managerial opening last year but asked to be dropped out, per The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The Rays eventually hired former Cleveland Indians bench coach Kevin Cash instead.
The Brewers picked up a team option on Roenicke’s contract during Spring Training. However, Melvin emphasized it was just unfortunate that didn’t translate into a good start to the 2015 MLB season, per Haudricourt:
“We gave Ron the extension in Spring Training hoping the players would have confidence to go out and perform, and win some games early. But we didn’t play well. We won five of our first 22 games.
Brewers Fire Ron Roenicke http://t.co/vi83zVkcqk— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) /4/4, 2015
“The last three games the players have performed better and you say, ‘Why couldn’t that have happened earlier? It’s (a lack of) consistency. We just did not play good baseball until the last few games.
“We couldn’t wait to see if we’d lose three more or seven of the next 10 or whatever. Ron and I were both very frustrated at how the team was playing.
“We talked a lot about how you get the guys going and performing on a consistent basis.”
Roenicke enjoyed his most successful season as a manager in 2011, his first as skipper of the Brewers. He led Milwaukee to a 96-66 win-loss record–the best in franchise history–to go along with an NL Central division title, per ESPN.
That year, the Brewers lost to the eventual World Series champions St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS, per ESPN.
The ESPN update says Milwaukee won 83, 74 and 82 games in Roenicke’s next three seasons at the helm. He finishes with a 342-331 overall win-loss record with the Brewers.
The team will organize a 10:30 a.m. CT press conference on /4/4 to introduce its new manager, per Haudricourt.
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