Todd Rosiak

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

PHOENIX - A terrific finish to 2016 wasn’t enough to convince Keon Broxton he’s the prohibitive favorite to be the Milwaukee Brewers’ opening-day centerfielder for 2017.

“I feel like I still have a lot to prove,” Broxton said. “I feel like every day I step out there I have a lot to show to the world and show to myself. So to say I feel like I’m the centerfielder, yeah and no.

“At any point in time your job can be gone just like that, just as if I came in and took someone else’s job. I can’t get comfortable at all. If I am the centerfielder then that’s awesome.

“I still have a job to do every day, and that’s what I’m going to focus on.”

Acquired in December 2015 along with minor-league pitcher Trey Supake in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Broxton actually was the starter against the San Francisco Giants on opening day in 2016.

But that was just the start of a rollercoaster ride for him.

He went back and forth between Milwaukee and Class AAA Colorado Springs four times until finally sticking with the Brewers in late July.

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Broxton had been overmatched at the plate in the early going, and by the time the first half of the season was over he’d hit just .125 with 33 strikeouts in 64 at-bats.

He fared well each time he was sent back to the Sky Sox, hitting .287 with eight homers and 26 RBI overall, but it wasn’t until Broxton’s final stint there that he made a crucial adjustment to his batting stance — dropping his hands to waist level and then raising them as the pitcher released the ball.

It was like flipping a switch for Broxton, who looked like a different player over his final 46 games. He hit .294 with eight home runs and 17 runs batted in with an OPS of .937. He also got on base at a .399 clip and stole 16 bases.

“The extremes of his season were really rare,” manager Craig Counsell acknowledged. “I don’t think you’re going to see many seasons that you’re going to see those extremes.”

Broxton’s season ended Sept. 16 after he fractured his right wrist running into the brick outfield wall at Wrigley Field. But he had displayed mental fortitude in bouncing back from his early struggles and ended up hitting .242 with nine homers, 19 RBI and 23 stolen bases.

"The game is not always going to be friendly to you,” Counsell said. “You’re not always going to get the news you want. It’s going to punch you in the face sometimes, and Keon got punched a couple times last year. He got knocked down a couple times last year.

“But because he kept at it, it didn’t affect him mentally. He kept going and trying to find a way and eventually it paid off. It’s a credit to him.”

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There were some bumps along the way this off-season for Broxton, as well.

He found himself in the headlines in early November after being arrested in Tampa, Fla., on a misdemeanor trespass charge. He was noted in the police report as being “extremely intoxicated” and “hostile” with officers who initially responded to a fight.

He issued a public apology through the Brewers later that day, and said he considers the matter closed.

“We’ve already talked about that and squashed that,” Broxton said, referring to general manager David Stearns and Counsell. “It’s done and over with.”

And despite not needing surgery on his wrist, Broxton said he didn’t bounce back as quickly as he’d hoped.

“It took a while,” he said. “It took a lot longer than I thought it was going to take — around about the end of November. I couldn’t start hitting or anything, really, until after Christmas.”

Broxton expects to be limited some early on in camp but considers the wrist fully healed.

“It just took a while to get the strength back and the range of motion to where I could fully do baseball activities,” he said. “But right now it feels 110%. It feels like I never even broke it.

“That’s what I was worried about — it healing and still not working the same. But the next time I picked up a bat it was just like I left it.”

Broxton, who turns 27 on May 7, has competition for the job in center from returnees Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Michael Reed, as well as top prospect Lewis Brinson.

Nieuwenhuis, 29, hit .209 with career highs of 13 homers and 44 RBI in 125 games in 2016, while Reed saw limited action as a September call-up. Brinson, acquired from Texas as part of the Jonathan Lucroy trade, has yet to make his major-league debut.

Other prospects in camp such as Brett Phillips and Ryan Cordell are capable of playing center, and super utility man Hernan Perez started seven games out there as well last year.

“I’ve got a job to do every day,” Broxton said of the competition. “I’ve got to come in and get better and play the game the best I can, and that’s all I can really worry about.”

The challenge offensively for Broxton this season will be proving he can make more consistent contact. He struck out 88 times in 207 at-bats, or 42.5% of the time, in 2016 on a team that struck out a major-league-leading 1,543 times.

The Brewers also ranked third in the majors in walks with 599, with Broxton logging 36 and finishing with a .354 on-base percentage.

“This is a key part of our offense with a lot of our players this year,” Counsell said. “For a lot of these guys that is the next step, the ball-strike growth. It’s not easy. It’s really hard. But it is certainly the next step.

“Keon, how much he’s able to get on base through the walks and what that does is important. He’s got it; it’s just about keeping that going in the right direction.”

Defensively, Broxton covers plenty of ground in center at 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds. His homer-robbing catch of an Anthony Rizzo drive helped save a 2-1 victory for the Brewers over the Cubs early last September at Miller Park, and he was credited with nine defensive runs saved overall.

Broxton has the physical tools. Now he’ll try to put it all together for a full season in 2017.

“Just keep working, man,” he said of his expectations. “Just be the best I can be every day.”

By the Numbers

8 - Number of players to make a start in center field for the Brewers in 2016. They were: Kirk Nieuwenhuis (68), Keon Broxton (58), Ramon Flores (19), Hernan Perez (seven), Michael Reed (five), Jake Elmore (two), Domingo Santana (two), Alex Presley (one).

8 - Also the number of times Broxton reached base consecutively in a series at Arizona last August.

5 - Hits Broxton had against the Diamondbacks last Aug. 6, in five at-bats, making him the first Brewers rookie to collect as many in a game.

6 - Brewers rookies to steal 20 or more bases in franchise history. Broxton became the sixth last season, joining Paul Molitor, Pat Listach, Alex Sanchez, Scott Podsednik and Nori Aoki.

.290 - Nieuwenhuis’ batting average in 64 games at Miller Park in 2016, along with 11 homers and 31 RBI. He hit just .127/2/13 in 61 road games.