Ron Roenicke's Firing Signals Brewers Are Ready to Wave White Flag, Rebuild

On March 19, the Milwaukee Brewers gave manager Ron Roenicke a vote of confidence by exercising his 2016 option. A scant six weeks later, they fired him, per Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal:

In the interim, of course, Milwaukee has slogged through a historic stretch of futility, as ESPN Stats & Info noted:

The Crew's nightmare 7-18 start can't be blamed entirely on Roenicke. General manager Doug Melvin admitted as much in a statement released Sunday:

"

This has been a difficult start to the season—something that we certainly didn’t anticipate. Over roughly the last 100 games, we have not performed at the level that we should. It’s all about wins and losses, and after the first month of play this year we didn’t see the progress and improvement we had hoped for. We appreciate all that Ron has done for our organization and he has handled his duties with great professionalism and dedication. The reasons for our disappointing start are many, but we determined that it’s in the best interests of the club to make this move.

"

The many reasons Melvin refers to include injuries to key players, protracted slumps by others and a pitching staff that's wavered between bad and awful.

The most telling part of that statement, though, is the part where Melvin mentions "the last 100 games."

The Brewers, remember, were the surprise squad of the first half last year, but they sputtered down the stretch and finished a distant third in the National League Central. 

If you combine this season's start with the second half of 2014, you get a 36-55 record and a pretty clear idea why Milwaukee is preparing to clean house.

Make no mistake: The Roenicke firing isn't a symbolic gesture or an attempt to jolt the clubhouse to life. It's a white flag and an unambiguous signal that the Brewers are heading for a full-blown rebuild.

Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

Think about it: If this were a knee-jerk move, would it have come right after the Brewers defeated the Chicago Cubs 5-3 and secured their first series victory of 2015? And would they already have a successor lined up to bring in on Monday, per The Associated Press (h/t ABC News)?

In fact, even before Roenicke officially got the axe, USA Today's Bob Nightengale reported that Milwaukee was "letting teams know" players like Kyle Lohse, Matt Garza and Aramis Ramirez would be available for trades:

Rebuilds are always painful, particularly for a club that was in the playoff mix less than a year ago. But this is the right move at the right time.

Truly, there's never been a better time to dismantle a franchise. As I noted in February, this season could feature widespread parity, meaning the trade deadline will be clogged with buyers and short on sellers.

That would set Milwaukee up to demand a king's ransom for its veteran talent and to restock a farm system that Baseball America ranked 19th in the game. 

In addition to the players mentioned by Nightengale, reliever Jonathan Broxton, outfielder Gerardo Parra and first baseman Adam Lind are all in their contract years.

The biggest prize of all might be All-Star Jonathan Lucroy (currently on the disabled list), who finished fourth in MVP voting last season and would surely fetch a bushel of prospects if the Brewers were willing to move him.

It's all speculation at this point, obviously. But all signs point to a major shakeup in Milwaukee. In fact, as Melvin himself hinted, no one in the organization is immune to criticism—or above accountability.

"I feel responsible, too," Melvin said on April 23, per MLB.com's Adam McCalvy. "Managers don't pick the talent. We all have responsibility for what's happening."

All statistics current as of May 3 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.