Brewers fire manager Ron Roenicke after historically bad start

The Milwaukee Brewers have fired manager Ron Roenicke, the team announced Sunday.

The Milwaukee Brewers have fired manager Ron Roenicke, the team announced Sunday. His replacement will be officially named Monday morning, but according to FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal, former Brewers player Craig Counsell will be the team's next manager.

This was Roenicke's fifth season with the team. He was under contract through the end of the 2016 season after the club exercised its option on his contract in March. 

The Brewers have won three of their last four games after starting the season 4–17, which was the worst start by a National League team since 1997. 

As to Milwaukee's next manager, USA Today's Bob Nightengale reports "all signs point to" the Brewers hiring Counsell to replace Roenicke. Counsell, who played six seasons with the Brewers, has been a special assistant to Melvin since 2012 and interviewed to be the Tampa Bay Rays' manager last off-season before pulling himself from the running.

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"This has been a difficult start to the season, something that we certainly didn't anticipate," Brewers GM Doug Melvin said in a statement. "Over roughly the last 100 games, we have not performed at the level that we should. It's all about wins and losses, and after the first month of play this year we didn't see the progress and improvement we had hoped for."

Speculation that the Brewers might part with Roenicke began last off-season, following a second-half collapse in 2014. The Brewers led the division by 6 1/2 games on July 1, and held the division lead for a total of 133 days. They were tied for the division lead on Aug. 31 but went 9-17 in September and finished eight games behind the Cardinals in the division. 

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- Dan Gartland