Milwaukee Brewers: Keston Hiura Finding Some Early Success in AAA
By Paul Bretl
Outside of their 10 run game against the Atlanta Braves on Sunday, the Milwaukee Brewers’ offense has struggled for much of the season. They currently rank 25th in total runs scored, 27th in team OPS, and 28th in team average. As always there is no one reason behind the lack of offensive output, in fact, there are likely many. But one thing we do know is that the struggles of Keston Hiura at the plate — who is supposed to be one of the Brewers better offensive players — certainly isn’t helping.
After a strong rookie campaign in 2019, Hiura — like so many other batters — struggled during the shortened 2020 season, tallying an average of .212, a .707 OPS, and a strikeout rate of 34.6 percent. Was this the start of a downward trend or just the result of a weird year? Personally, I lean towards the latter and don’t believe that there is much to glean from 2020.
Unfortunately, things for Hiura have not improved. Instead, over a small sample size, they’ve gotten worse, all while he tries to deal with a position change, moving over to first base. In 89 plate appearances with the Milwaukee Brewers, Hiura is slashing .152/.247/.266 for a .512 OPS. He’s also striking out more at 36 percent of the time and has a lowly wRC+ of 47, according to Fangraphs.
Basically just head over to Baseball Savant and pick out an advanced stat that isn’t exit velocity and Hiura will be well below league average. Not to mention that a number of his swings and misses aren’t at bad pitches, rather pitches catching a large portion of the plate, which points to this matter being worse than Hiura just trying to fight through a slump.
As a result, Hiura was sent to Triple-A Nashville and was even given some time off before that to clear his head. And the good news for Hiura and the Milwaukee Brewers is that he is finding some success.
Again, this is a small sample size and is certainly no guarantee that everything is fixed, but in 16 at-bats, Hiura is slashing .250/.368/.500, totaling an .868 OPS. He also has four doubles and has drawn two walks—although it’s worth noting he still has seven strikeouts.
It’s certainly a pleasant sight to see Hiura hitting the ball hard, but to some extent he was doing that in Milwaukee, ranking in the 74th percentile in average exit velocity.
It’s a promising start in Nashville for someone who is expected to be a key contributor on this year’s Milwaukee Brewers team. However, as I’ve already said, this is a very small sample size and this doesn’t mean that everything is fixed either—those strikeouts are still an issue and we have to see this success translate at the big league level. But things do appear to at least be pointed in the right direction.
When Hiura was first sent to Nashville, manager Craig Counsell mentioned that he didn’t anticipate this being a long stay for Hiura. We will see if that’s the case but let’s hope it’s true because this Milwaukee Brewers’ offense could certainly use a boost, and hopefully Hiura can provide that upon his return.
Nashville’s next game will take place this Tuesday against Gwinnett.