Brewers manager Ron Roenicke
The Milwaukee Brewers will retain the services of manager Ron Roenicke in 2015, but two of Roenicke’s coaches will not be back.
Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said he didn’t think Roenicke was ever in jeopardy of losing his job, but there were some key issues that needed to be discussed, including the reasons for the Brewers late season collapse that saw them miss the playoffs.
Roenicke is under contract through 2015 and there’s a club option for 2016 as well. The Brewers opted to part company with hitting coach Johnny Narron and first base/infield coach Garth Iorg.
Melvin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “We did look at Ron’s career and while we made the playoffs once, he does know our players better than anybody. He knows our organization. He has had three out of four winning seasons. That isn’t satisfactory but from a winning percentage (.517) he compares well with a lot of managers in the game.
“We looked at that and said we have created a winning atmosphere here. We’re not satisfied with it; we do have to make it to the playoffs. But we think Ron is still the best person for the job.”
The Brewers went 9-22 over the last 31 games, falling out of playoff contention. They led their division for 150 days, becoming only the fifth club in major-league history to lead a division for that length of time and not make the playoffs.
The Brewers struggled at the plate down the stretch. The hitters didn’t work the count. They swung too freely, striking out too much and drawing few walks.
Base running was poor at times as players ran their way into outs and the team’s defense took a step back, which is the reason Iorg was let go.
Melvin sais he and Roenicke discussed several areas that they can improve on, including just communicating more throughout the season, in an effort to ward off rough stretches and losing streaks.