Brewers' Pat Murphy Doesn't Hold Back on 'Difficult' Opening Day Demotion

One of the Milwaukee Brewers' outfielders was going to be very disappointed at the end of spring training, and on Thursday, the final decision came down.

According to the official transactions log , the Brewers optioned three-year veteran Blake Perkins to Triple-A Nashville. That left Brandon Lockridge as the winner of the fourth outfielder competition to start the regular season, with Jackson Chourio , Garrett Mitchell , and Sal Frelick slated to start from left to right.

Perkins has never come close to a star performance, but he provides a lot of useful qualities to a roster as a switch-hitter and rangy defender in center. It wasn't easy to send him down, but the Brewers had their reasons for doing so.

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Pat Murphy dishes on Lockridge over Perkins decision

On Thursday, manager Pat Murphy acknowledged that it was a tough conversation to have, but indicated that Perkins getting sent down was the right call for Milwaukee at the moment it happened.

"Those are very difficult meetings, very difficult decisions," Murphy said, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. "But Perk is part of this thing. You have to make some decisions to keep 13 (position players)."

Murphy was highly complimentary of Lockridge, who had four home runs in his first 12 spring training games, and hinted that the 29-year-old had won the job more than Perkins had lost it.

"He was acquired for a reason," Murphy said, per McCalvy. "He played great for us down the stretch last year in so many ways, off the bench and a couple of starts here and there. His approach, his energy was just spectacular."

There will likely come a time this season when both Lockridge and Perkins are playing key roles; that's the nature of a 162-game grind. Mitchell has missed significant time to injury in each of his four major league seasons, Chourio lost a chunk of the second half to a hamstring issue last year, and Frelick has lingering left knee concerns that could eventually lead to surgery if not properly managed.

But both Lockridge and Perkins have pressure to deliver early in the season, because being either the last man on the roster or the first man off always comes with a little extra uncertainty at all times.

This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/brewers/onsi as Brewers' Pat Murphy Doesn't Hold Back on 'Difficult' Opening Day Demotion .