Possible Fallout Scenarios From Sunday’s On-Field Brawl

As reminded by a couple of people on Twitter, players suspended for on-field incidents take their 25-man roster spot with them to suspension. What that means is that when Carlos Gomez and Martin Maldonado serve whatever suspensions they are (probably going to be) given, the Brewers will play without their roster spot for that length of time.

Carlos Gomez has already said that he’ll appeal any suspension levied against him and they can be staggered such that even if both players miss games, they won’t have to be missed concurrently.

That said, being that Maldonado is the team’s backup catcher the Brewers will likely want to have coverage available on the 25-man roster just in case the worst happens to the healthy catcher (*knocks on wood*) Jonathan Lucroy.

Since the Brewers don’t have a third catcher on the 40-man roster, any coverage would require a pair of moves. They’d need to open a 40-man roster spot and then move someone off the 25-man as well. Could that be accomplished by pushing the injured Tom Gorzelanny to the 60-day DL and then maybe optioning a relief pitcher or even Scooter Gennett down to Nashville for the length of the suspension? That would seem to make the most sense. It saves you from potentially losing an asset, and since you have several relief pitchers already making use of options this season, there’s plenty of flexibility.

As for losing Gomez, who in all likelihood will get less of a suspension than Maldonado, covering that all depends on how long it takes for his appeal to be heard. If it takes long enough that Logan Schafer could come back from the DL, then fine. However if it’s sooner than that, Elian Herrera would need to fill in as the starting CF and they’d only have three outfielders on the roster unless they again did a coupled move to get the other 40-man outfielder (Caleb Gindl) onto the 25-man roster.

Then again, if they can stagger the suspensions such that they’re only down one man at a given time, perhaps Elian Herrera’s versatility can cover the team well enough. After all, he was originally signed as a catching prospect when he was picked up as an amateur free agent by the Dodgers back in 2003.

Missing the players is bad enough, and we’ll have to wait to see how it all shakes out, but losing the ability to cover the games those players miss makes it an even tougher situation for the Brewers.

Stay tuned.