Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Keon Broxton has had his ups and downs at the plate as a big leaguer. He’s proven to be awfully good at robbing game-altering home runs, though.
Too many outfielders for too few spots on Milwaukee’s 25-man roster actually landed Broxton in Triple-A to start the season. He slashed .263/.336/.431 with 9 homers, 35 RBI, and 24 stolen bases in 295 plate appearances before getting recalled to the bigs. And that only happened because Lorenzo Cain was placed on the 10-day disabled list.
He’s played every day since making his season debut on June 27th, and although it’s only been 29 plate appearances, he owns a 110 wRC+ and .339 wOBA. He’s getting plenty of love on this Independence Day for an incredible catch that took a home run away from Brian Dozier in what ended up being a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
Here’s what the play looked like.
Catch of the year?!?!
My goodness. 😱 😱 😱 #TipOfTheCap pic.twitter.com/9ewR79uZBs
— MLB (@MLB) July 4, 2018
It was only 3-1 when this ridiculousness happened, but clearly, it was a game-saving moment.
For opposing hitters trying to get a ball out of the park in the ninth inning or later, it’s best if they don’t hit it near the area where Broxton is patrolling.
On Wednesday, @Brewers OF Keon Broxton robbed his 3rd HR in the 9th inning or later during his career. Since his rookie season of 2016, no other player has more than 1. pic.twitter.com/DBXgfyds31
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) July 4, 2018
Of course, we can say, “Well, it could’ve happened in blowouts, so this isn’t that cool.” ESPN Stats & Info followed up this tweet with the details of his other robberies, and they indeed were very impactful.
All three robberies were game-saving plays:
July 4, 2018: Robs Brian Dozier of solo HR with 1 out in 9th, leading 3-1. Next batter hits HR, but Brewers win 3-2
Aug 30, 2017: Robs Randal Grichuk of go-ahead HR in 9th
Sept 7, 2016: Robs Anthony Rizzo of game-tying HR in 9th
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) July 4, 2018
This is even more impressive because he hasn’t had all that many opportunities in the outfield to make it happen. Sure, he appeared in 143 games last season, but Broxton played in just 75 in 2016 and eight so far this year.
In all, he’s logged just over 1,600 innings in the outfield during this time. That seems like a lot, but not when we compare it to someone who has played every day over the past few seasons. For instance, teammate Christian Yelich has played in 381 games since the start of 2016, which has yielded more than 3,200 innings in the outfield for him.
Broxton has been given a number of opportunities to rob potential game-changing homers in just over a year’s worth of innings as a defender. And he’s taken advantage of those chances.
Not too shabby.
About Matt Musico
Matt Musico currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book about how to become a sports blogger. You can sign up for his email newsletter here.
Email
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
