The Brewers have optioned infielder Keston Hiura to Triple-A Nashville, per a team announcement.
This is the second time this year the Brewers have demoted Hiura, whom they previously sent down at the beginning of May. Milwaukee recalled Hiura a little while later after he put up an eye-popping .438/.526/.906 line with three home runs and two stolen bases in 38 plate appearances with Nashville, but he returned to struggling after the team brought him back. The 24-year-old was a .152/.247/.266 hitter across 89 trips to the plate when the Brewers sent him down, and he’s now at an even worse .130/.217/.222 through 122 PA. Hiura has also struck out at an alarming 39.3 percent rate and logged an paltry .093 isolated power mark with one home run.
Hiura, of course, is a former star prospect who more than matched the hype as a rookie in 2019, during which he batted .303/.368/.570 with 19 homers and nine steals in 348 PA. But he fell flat a season ago and simply hasn’t been able to rebound since then. Hiura has spent the majority of his time in the bigs this year sharing reps at first base with Daniel Vogelbach, who has also registered below-average numbers.
the downfall and decline of this kid was so unexpected.
Looks like a completely different person out there
Agreed. Hopefully he can come back
I know that his mom is battling life threatening issues right now, cancer i think. Gotta wonder how much is mind/interest is really into it with that going on
Hes a good kid, met him at a brewers on deck event and got his autograph
Hope he can rebound, but as someone who watched my dad go through cancer for 4 and a half years before passing away, it can be tough. I just hope he can get it together. While in the majors this year he’s just been so swing happy. But I hope it all gets sorted out.
sorry to hear that about your father. Never an easy situation
That might be true, but wouldn’t that affect his performance in Triple A as well then? According to the article his stats at that level are terrific.
He still struck out at a really high rate in AAA which is his main issue so I would ignore the triple slash. Which is what Milwaukee should have done and not promoted him anyways
MIlwaukeestrong –
He’s always seemed like a fantastic person in every interview I’ve ever seen. I’ve always been very impressed with him and his kindness/humility. I sure will be rooting for him and hope he overcomes his struggles
Javier Baez went thru a lot of mental turmoil prior to his sister’s death and it certainly seemed as though it affected his play. He turned things around quickly after her passing.
Explain then why he was so good in AAA? I feel for the kid but unless he is consistently struggling the mother being sick is just not a plausible excuse.
The logical explanation would be he feels less pressure in the minors hence is able to perform better regard of what else may be going on. Also, playing out of position in the majors could also be having an effect. Players are a creature of habit, maybe not being at his natural position is also having a negative impact?
1. It was the pcl. There’s 3 or more “Coors Field” type offensive parks there. He hit for 8 games while still K’ing well over 30%. Do you think he really learned/ fixed something in those 9 games?
2. The contact issues didn’t change from MLB to AAA to MLB. Sounds like he’s not reading the ball out of hand, he’s guessing and swinging. So he went down, changed nothing, but got a lot more junk than he gets in the majors. It was 9 games. Who knows if AAA pitchers were even scouting him. Let’s be honest, if you’re a fringe AAA guy, are you gonna waste an hour of prep on a major leaguer whos expected to hit there?
He basically got on base or K’d in his week in aaa. Milwaukee is trying to win the central so hoped he figured it out. But I’d bet if he had 3 weeks in AAA, that slash woulda been a lot worse
You can’t ignore that magnificent slash line.
An out is an out is an out.
K rate simply doesn’t matter when you are batting .400 with a ton of power.
OPS and OPS+ are all that really matter when assessing someone, not their K rate.
He’s just bad.
He’s an AAAA guy and will never be good in MLB again.
A white sox fan would find an compelling rebuttal to this comment
They might be better off just cutting their losses with this kid. He’s not a traditional 1st baseman and plus he’ll always be a Defensive liability.
Defense likely won’t matter next year when the DH comes to the NL.
You never know if sending someone down will work! They have no choice, he has to produce! If he has option, you use them! I hope the hero returns soon, with better results!
No more destroying the cardinals
Hiura and Cain for Kingery?
Bwhat
what’s that absurd about this? its a change of scenery swap. Cain’s really just in there to balance saleries. doesnt need to be him.
Because Hiuras offensive ceiling is a lot higher than Kingery, despite his issues. Giving him up for a lesser player who is also completely lost at the plate doesn’t help anything, even if the cash evens out.
Because Cain’s defense is still valuable and it’s still possible he can turn it around if he stays healthy. There’s no reason for his change of scenery to be Milwaukee, or even a contender.
Cain is washed up at the plate.
Should have been a 3 year deal, not 5.
Getting rid of him gets big money off the books.
Lol
Uh… no. Nope.
Phillies gonna toss in Bohm? That would make it fair. Phillies dump Kingery for a better veteran, both teams take a chance on a struggling youngster.
see above
So much for this idea 🙂
He can’t lay off the off speed junk
Can’t hit a fastball right down the middle of the plate, either
Not true.
His swing and miss at fastballs in the zone has been his issue.
Not getting notifications on my iPhone anyone else having this issue?
Yes, get an Android.
Brewers probably should be looking for a new hitting coach.
Hitting coaches have very little impact on the hitters in the bigs. That is what every mlb player says. They are a sounding board more than anything.
That’s not very true. Depends on the organization. Dodgers have turned mediocre hitters into productive bats. Such as Max Muncy, Justin Turner, Chris Taylor exc..
toddkirchenberg –
Normally I wouldn’t argue with you on this, but almost the entire Brewer offense has completely tanked since this hitting coach took over. Their 2 best hitters went from being All-Stars/MVP candidates to completely lost for 2 years now during the same exact time period. Almost the entire team has been striking out at an alarming rate since Haines took over. There has to be some correlation. They are on pace to be one of the absolute worst offenses in the HISTORY of baseball this year…and last year was almost as bad! It certainly couldn’t hurt to try a new voice
Dodgers can make him come back to his original form. Dodgers need a right hand bat with all the lefties on the bench. We’ll see if Brewers are even interested on trading him.
Alwaysreal –
It would make less than zero sense to trade him now. Talk about pennies on the dollar. They couldn’t get anything of any value for him, so why bother?
KCJ –
Just a thought. Some people just need a change of scenery. Dodgers have a lot of depth and Brewers can get a decent return for him. Nothing to lose when he’s producing the way he is right now.
KCJ –
He is from California. Maybe he needs to be home.
Due to the injury epidemic and losing useful players in the off-season, the Dodgers’ immediate depth isn’t what it has been. If I’m the Brewers, I hang onto Hiura. It would look awful if a bad-hitting team trades away a guy who then heats up for someone else. The Brewers probably want to avoid a Grisham 2.0.
The Brewers had faith in Burns and Peralta during their struggles. Now look at them. Not saying the same thing will happen, but selling low on this kid wouldn’t be prudent at this time. Patients is a virtue and they need to keep trying. He’s to talented to give up now.
Grish was simply a huge mistake by Stearns.
He just didn’t recognize he had a superstar on his hands.
With Hiura it’s the opposite: he thought he had a star when the guy is honestly just no good.
zero tools at mlb level: can’t hit for average, power, run, field or throw. it was a bad pick even when being drafted for a NL team. many other options at the #9 spot where they could have went with the pick
He was hitting well in Triple A when he was recalled but his strikeout numbers were still ridiculously high. That should have been a sign to the Brew Crew that he still wasn’t ready
Really hope he finds his swing…we need this guy in the worst way!
When your OPS is above 1.000 your K rate doesn’t matter.
An out is an out is an out when you’re mashing otherwise (and at least they don’t turn into double plays).
K rate just doesn’t matter, unless you are simply bad and can’t make contact at all.
Which is Hiura’s case ONLY in the majors.
…and the uppercut claims yet another victim.
jim stem, I feel MLB did hitters a disservice a couple of years ago by orchestrating a home-run surge as a response to the rise in strikeouts. They must think we fans are really stupid. And because of it, we are seeing young hitters flounder because they can’t do it the MLB launch-angle way. Factor in ball-doctoring and these hitters don’t have a chance. Pitchers have adjusted and hitters have not. It’ll be interesting to note the fallout in the years ahead.
Bust….
Gordon Beckham 2.0?
Beckham could field
Beckham wound up having a serviceable career as a utility infielder. No way Hiura has that.
More like a MIL 2B Pedro Garcia 1973 ROY runner up and his rapid rise and decline.
Garcia finished second to Al Bumbry that year. The Brewers ROY who flamed out was Pat Listach in 1992.
What the Brewers SHOULD do is explore one of the many free agent to be first base options, and just “forget” about Hiura until he forces his way back on the roster. Aguilar and Cron would both be serious upgrades and not cost a lot. Mil shouldn’t waste this pitching excellence,
Traditional 1st baseman are simply power hitters – guys with a .260 BA, slug close to .500, without much of an arm and not much defensive agility (for the most part). Those guys should be easy to find on a 40 man in any org which is why teams are hesitant to spend a lot on them. Hiura, by all accounts, had a very good hit tool. I’m afraid this fanatical launch angle crap messed up his approach. His spray chart was impressive to all fields before his power numbers started to rise. He is a major league ball player who needs to get back on track. He can play at this level.
I’m sure a healthy Ryan Braun would still be able to hit better then anyone they have now. Wouldn’t cost them anything but money now. As far as I know he still hasn’t officially retired. Would just have to convince him to play and play an occasional first base.
It would have to be 1B ONLY for Braun.
The OF is set and Braun is a huge defensive liability out there.
A platoon with Vogie would be great and the Crew could then cut Shaw.
Good point BUT Braun is a China Doll. He has to play everyday, as he is useless as a PH. he had a horrible under ,100 average. Worth about 2 million at the most at 1st base. No guarantee on his defense at that position. Let him stay retired in the Hall of Very Good!
He can’t be injury prone if he’s not playing. He’s healthier now than the last 6 years.
He was better in 2019 than any time since 2016 because he had far fewer plate appearances and they limited his appearances (he only started 110 of the 144 games he appeared in; yes, he was truly bad in the 34 that were :PH appearances).
Hall of very good? He’s clearly the best Brewer player ever in terms of overall offensive ability.
He’s be great with only 90 games to go.
Start against all lefties and against righties he’s known to hit well.
That should give him at least half the remaining starts and Vogie the rest.
By the way I would be more concerned with Hiura if he was in his prime years and struggling like this. At 24 he still has time to figure it out. Way to early to give up on him or give him away for a box of doughnuts.
Anyone hear of a corresponding call up move?
Not Yet ,just looked!
Jac Peterson was just called up.according to Twitter and Mrs Superfan! Someone has to go as He is not on the 40 man roaster!
Pretty sure Peterson has been on the 40 since last year.