Goodbye, Jody Gerut

Short and sweet from Adam McCalvy — Jody Gerut is gone:

#Brewers reinstated OF Jody Gerut from the disabled list and released him. No place for him with Lo Cain playing so well.

To say that this move was expected is an understatement.

Gerut’s stint in Milwaukee was a disappointing one, coming over early last year in a trade for Tony Gwynn, Jr.  Ken Macha only seemed to want to use him as a pinch-hitter, and Gerut could never get going in that role — he hit .236/.299/.373 in 161 AB last year, and was only able to manage a .197/.230/.366 line in 71 AB this year.  He suffered a bruised heel on May 23, but the injury took so long to heal that the team ultimately got fed up, told him to go home, and then stuck him in the Arizona Rookie League for his rehab assignment.

Of course, Gerut had a hard time winning fans early on just because he was traded for Gwynn, who was one of those guys that a lot of casual fans seemed to really like (probably because of his bloodline) and overvalue.  While Gwynn has provided a lot of defensive value for the Padres, let’s not completely ignore the fact that he’s still hitting like a pitcher.  In 658 AB with the Padres so far, Gwynn is hitting .246/.336/.325.

Did the Padres “win” that trade?  Yeah, probably.  But it’s not like it’s a major win.  The only thing keeping Gwynn in the big leagues at this point is his glove.  If Gwynn was a tick worse on defense, I’d be comfortable saying that this was a perfect example of a “junk-for-junk” trade.

So we can close the book on Jody Gerut.  It was a forgettable stop in Gerut’s career, and chances are the only time we’ll remember that he even played for the Brewers in a few years’ time will be because he’ll still be the answer to the “who was the last Brewer to hit for the cycle?” trivia question — kind of like how the previous answer, Chad Moeller, was remembered.

Speaking of Gerut’s cycle earlier this year, the only thing I’m left wondering about the Jody Gerut era is if any player has hit for the cycle and been released in the same season.  It’s a pretty meaningless question (the cycle is a pretty random and meaningless feat), but it’s still an interesting one.  I’ll try to dig through the list of cycles to see if I can find one, but by all means, if anyone knows the answer to this, feel free to leave it in the comments.