SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- "Just imagine me as a squirrel," said Brett Phillips, and he's going somewhere with this, so let's hear him out.
First, some context: Phillips put up an .851 OPS over the final month of the 2017 season in the thick of the Brewers' pennant chase while making a series of Statcast-worthy throws from center field, and he entered the offseason with a chance to play a prominent role for the Brewers in '18. He still could very well do that, but Phillips' path to the Opening Day roster was, shall we say, complicated by the late-January additions Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich to an outfield that already included Ryan Braun and Domingo Santana.