The Brewers, the Rays, and the Pumping of Tires

Jonathan Dyer and Benny Sieu-Imagn Images MILWAUKEE — You all know the theoretical concept of a replacement-level player. I suspect I’m not the only one who associates that concept with a specific person: The guy who’s continuously mediocre despite repeated exposure to big league competition.

The longer he sticks around, the more chances he gets, the more I catch myself thinking, “Why? Can’t they at least try to find someone better?” Until this year, that guy, for me, was Jake Bauers . In his 20s, Bauers played for seven different organizations, spending six seasons in the majors.

In 615 games, he hit .211/.307/.365, which is a wRC+ of 88, with 58 home runs, a 29.0% strikeout rate, and -0.4 career WAR. He was a first baseman, and not an exceptional defender, who hit for neither average nor power, and struck out a lot. He isn’t a great athlete, and as a seventh-round pick out of a high school in Huntington Beach, California, he had neither the prospect pedigree nor the winning collegiate track record that would warrant so many chances.

I didn’t get it, especially because Bauers had toured so many organizations — the Padres, the Rays, the Guardians, the Yankees, and most latterly the Brewers — who have earned a reputation for knowing what they’re doing. Why did this most replaceable of players keep getting chances?

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