Milwaukee Brewers: Morrison & Grimm Make Opening Day Roster

The Milwaukee Brewers announced that Logan Morrison and Justin Grimm would both be making the Opening Day roster this season.

With MLB Opening Day now just around the corner, teams are making their final adjustments and tweaks to their final rosters. And when it comes to the Milwaukee Brewers, we learned on Sunday that two of their non-roster invitees, Logan Morrison and Justin Grimm, would be on the 30-man roster this weekend in Chicago.

Morrison put together an excellent season in 2017 while in Tampa Bay, where he logged an .868 OPS, an OPS+ of 133, along with 38 home runs in 601 plate appearances. However, the last two seasons for Morrison haven’t been so kind.

In 2018 with Minnesota, he would battle injuries, and in 2019 with Philadelphia, he just couldn’t find playing time at the big league level. When it was all said and done, over that two-year span, Morrison has a slash line of .187/.275/.371 with 17 home runs and an OPS+ of 74 in just 397 plate appearances.

Coming into Spring Training this season, Morrison was a wildcard, but he impressed right away posting a .964 OPS and three home runs in his 33 plate appearances. He’s also been able to carry that momentum over to the Brewers’ scrimmages here in Summer Camp.

Prior to the season being suspended, Morrison was a fringe roster player, but with rosters expanding to 30 for the first two weeks of the season, having him on the Opening Day squad was a no-brainer as he gives Craig Counsell an additional left-handed bat with some pop as well as some added depth at first base.

Similar to Morrison, Grimm has had past success, but as of late, he has really struggled at the big league level. Brewer fans may remember Grimm from his time in Chicago with the Cubs, and it was back in 2015 that he put together a career year. In 49.2 innings out of the bullpen, Grimm posted a 1.99 ERA, a FIP of 3.11, a 1.148 WHIP, and 12.1 strikeouts per nine innings.

Unfortunately, since then, Grimm has not been able to replicate that season, and he has bounced around quite a bit. From 2016 to 2018 with three different teams – Chicago, Kansas City, and Seattle – he would log a 5.60 ERA, a WHIP of 1.412, while his strikeouts per nine dropped to just 9.7. And most recently, in 2019, he didn’t see any action at the big league level.

But once again, like Morrison, Grimm was very good in Spring Training as he posted a 1.50 ERA with nine strikeouts and four walks in six innings of work along with performing well in Summer Camp.

While the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen is very top-heavy with players like Josh Hader, Corey Knebel, and Brent Suter, there are some question marks around the overall depth. Meaning, if Grimm can continue to find success into the regular season, he will provide this unit with a nice boost.

As I’ve already mentioned, two weeks after the season begins, rosters will have to be cut from 30 to 28, and then two weeks after that, from 28 to 26. In such a short season, the Brewers – or any team for that matter – don’t have the time to try to ride out any slumps, so for Morrison and Grimm to stick with the ballclub longer than just a few weeks, they’ll have to continue playing at a high level.