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MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers' mystifying September swoon on Monday cost manager Ned Yost his job.
The team dismissed Yost with 12 games remaining in the regular season and the Brewers off to a 3-11 start to the final month. They fell into a tie with the Phillies atop the National League Wild Card standings after Philadelphia swept all four games between the teams over the weekend in what outfielder Ryan Braun called "a complete and total disaster."
Bench coach Ted Simmons was also let go and "reassigned to an advisory role." Third-base coach Dale Sveum, who served as Yost's bench coach for one season before Simmons was brought in last winter, will take over as interim manager.
Why now?
"That's a difficult one to answer myself," said general manager Doug Melvin, who will address the matter further in a 6:30 p.m. CT press conference at the team hotel in Chicago. "The club is just not performing close to the way they performed earlier. We have 12 days left and we don't know what could jump-start the club. This was, I guess, the only thing we thought had a chance of jump-starting the club.
"It's tough when you have someone who has done what Ned has done for the organization, built the organization back where it hasn't been in 15 years. I feel sometimes I quit on Ned a little bit by not allowing him to do it for the last two weeks. But in the end, the decision was made."
Melvin would not say what role ownership, particularly principal owner Mark Attanasio, played in Monday's announcement. Melvin said he would address that matter in the press conference.
With Yost and Simmons out of the mix, Melvin said that additional "changes" and "additions" would be announced later by Sveum.
The Brewers went 20-7 in August to take a 5 1/2-game lead in the Wild Card race but have been outscored this month, 75-38, while losing 11 of 14 games. While losing both ends of a doubleheader on Sunday, they were limited to five runs and seven hits in 18 innings.
Yost, a former Brewers backup catcher, inherited a team coming off a 106-loss season when he took over in October 2002, and, along with Melvin and shrewd Drafts under Jack Zduriencik, restored the Brewers to prominence. The team snapped a streak of 12 losing seasons with an 81-81 finish in 2005, then went 83-79 last season for its first winning year since 1992.
The Brewers are 83-67 this season.
"Ned has done an outstanding job to put us in position to go to the postseason," Melvin said. "He's done a great job and I am mystified, too. The players might know the answer [for their poor play]. That's probably a better question for the players, why they are not performing now. They are the ones that control it."
At the end of the disappointing 2007 season, when the Brewers finished two games behind the Cubs in the NL Central after leading the division by as many as 8 1/2 games, Melvin extended Yost's contract through 2009.
"A lot of other organizations have tried to do this with managers and general managers, teams like Kansas City and Pittsburgh that have been through dry spells, and haven't been able to do it," Melvin said. "We had a manager who put his heart and soul into it and helped develop these kids. A lot of managers wouldn't have put their heart and soul into it like he did. It's like letting a friend go with no answers. There's no answers why we're playing this way."
Sveum has Minor League managerial experience but has only coached in the Majors.
"They'll all find out how tough Ned's job was, right?" Melvin said. "Dale is a capable guy, a good baseball guy. He is familiar with our ballclub. Dale is up to the challenge and we'll see what he can do with a short period of time.
"I have confidence in Dale or I wouldn't be putting him in this position."
Successful midseason managerial moves
Only 13 teams have advanced to the postseason after changing managers during the season. Two of those teams (1978 Yankees, 2003 Marlins) won the World Series
The team dismissed Yost with 12 games remaining in the regular season and the Brewers off to a 3-11 start to the final month. They fell into a tie with the Phillies atop the National League Wild Card standings after Philadelphia swept all four games between the teams over the weekend in what outfielder Ryan Braun called "a complete and total disaster."
Bench coach Ted Simmons was also let go and "reassigned to an advisory role." Third-base coach Dale Sveum, who served as Yost's bench coach for one season before Simmons was brought in last winter, will take over as interim manager.
Why now?
"That's a difficult one to answer myself," said general manager Doug Melvin, who will address the matter further in a 6:30 p.m. CT press conference at the team hotel in Chicago. "The club is just not performing close to the way they performed earlier. We have 12 days left and we don't know what could jump-start the club. This was, I guess, the only thing we thought had a chance of jump-starting the club.
"It's tough when you have someone who has done what Ned has done for the organization, built the organization back where it hasn't been in 15 years. I feel sometimes I quit on Ned a little bit by not allowing him to do it for the last two weeks. But in the end, the decision was made."
Melvin would not say what role ownership, particularly principal owner Mark Attanasio, played in Monday's announcement. Melvin said he would address that matter in the press conference.
With Yost and Simmons out of the mix, Melvin said that additional "changes" and "additions" would be announced later by Sveum.
The Brewers went 20-7 in August to take a 5 1/2-game lead in the Wild Card race but have been outscored this month, 75-38, while losing 11 of 14 games. While losing both ends of a doubleheader on Sunday, they were limited to five runs and seven hits in 18 innings.
Yost, a former Brewers backup catcher, inherited a team coming off a 106-loss season when he took over in October 2002, and, along with Melvin and shrewd Drafts under Jack Zduriencik, restored the Brewers to prominence. The team snapped a streak of 12 losing seasons with an 81-81 finish in 2005, then went 83-79 last season for its first winning year since 1992.
The Brewers are 83-67 this season.
"Ned has done an outstanding job to put us in position to go to the postseason," Melvin said. "He's done a great job and I am mystified, too. The players might know the answer [for their poor play]. That's probably a better question for the players, why they are not performing now. They are the ones that control it."
At the end of the disappointing 2007 season, when the Brewers finished two games behind the Cubs in the NL Central after leading the division by as many as 8 1/2 games, Melvin extended Yost's contract through 2009.
"A lot of other organizations have tried to do this with managers and general managers, teams like Kansas City and Pittsburgh that have been through dry spells, and haven't been able to do it," Melvin said. "We had a manager who put his heart and soul into it and helped develop these kids. A lot of managers wouldn't have put their heart and soul into it like he did. It's like letting a friend go with no answers. There's no answers why we're playing this way."
Sveum has Minor League managerial experience but has only coached in the Majors.
"They'll all find out how tough Ned's job was, right?" Melvin said. "Dale is a capable guy, a good baseball guy. He is familiar with our ballclub. Dale is up to the challenge and we'll see what he can do with a short period of time.
"I have confidence in Dale or I wouldn't be putting him in this position."
Successful midseason managerial moves
Only 13 teams have advanced to the postseason after changing managers during the season. Two of those teams (1978 Yankees, 2003 Marlins) won the World Series
