Typically, a player of Brinson's pedigree would be playing regularly somewhere, but an intertwined series of events led to Brinson's brief stint as the Brewers' starting center fielder, followed by three straight games on the bench against the Cardinals, Counsell said. The factors include a shuffling of the starting rotation, some opportunistic matchups against the lefty-heavy Nationals and Cubs, and Keon Broxton's return from a productive demotion to Triple-A on Tuesday to reclaim the bulk of starts in center field.
"Basically, it started in Washington when Matt Garza got injured," said Counsell. "We've taken this time with injuries to have an extra reliever [and] an extra position player.