Crowded Outfield At Triple-A For Brewers

PHOENIX —The Brewers sent outfield prospects Lewis Brinson, Ryan Cordell and Brett Phillips out of big league camp as a group, and they plan to keep them together as a unit as long as possible.

With that in mind, Brinson, Cordell and Phillips will be the starting outfield at Triple-A Colorado Springs this season. Brinson will be the primary center fielder, but all three will see action across the outfield.

“We value positional versatility,” general manager David Stearns said. “We never know what outfield position is going to be open when one of those guys is ready. So all three need the ability to play all three positions. We never know what’s going to come up.”

Sending that trio to Colorado Springs resulted in at least one prospect being crowded out. The victim was Michael Reed, 24, who played for the Sky Sox last season but was assigned this time to Double-A Biloxi.

Brinson, 22, and Cordell, 25, were two of the three players acquired from the Rangers last August in the trade that sent catcher Jonathan Lucroy and reliever Jeremy Jeffress to Texas. Phillips, 22, was one of four players acquired from the Astros in July 2015 for outfielder Carlos Gomez and righthander Mike Fiers.

After being acquired, Brinson played 23 games at Colorado Springs and batted .382 with four homers and 20 RBIs. The Brewers acquired Cordell after the season as the player to be named in the Lucroy deal. He didn’t play after the trade because of a high ankle sprain.

The Brewers are challenging Phillips to improve this season and hope he can hold his own with Brinson and Cordell. Phillips hit just .229/.332/.397 last year at Biloxi and led the Southern League with 154 strikeouts.

“It’s competition,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “We’ve talked about the benefits of it.”

MICROBREWS

• Righthander Devin Williams injured his elbow in an intrasquad game and had Tommy John surgery on March 23. The 22-year-old will not return to action until 2018.

• Catcher Dustin Houle, a Canadian prep whose minor league career has been sidetracked many times by injuries, had a breakthrough at big league camp. The 23-year-old went 6-for-12 in limited exhibition play with a 1.600 OPS and drew praise from Counsell and his staff.

— Tom Haudricourt covers the Brewers for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel