Born to be a Brewer: September callup in exclusive company

This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers have had Angels (Echevarria, Miranda, Perdomo, Salomé), Jays (Aldrich, Jackson), Phils (Bickford, Roof), a Rocky (Coppinger) and even some Buc(k)s (Martinez, Rodgers).

But the Brewers never had a Brewer. Until one arrived on Sunday in Cincinnati.

Brewer Hicklen didn’t grow up a Brewers fan, but he is one now, after the team made him one of its initial callups when active rosters expanded by two with the start of September. He went 0-for-2 in his debut with his namesake team on Sunday and figures to get the start again when the Brewers match up against Cardinals left-hander Steven Matz on Tuesday at American Family Field.

If you’re wondering how many teams have had players by the same name, the answer is four, according to MLB’s own Reddit. The Reds have had eight players named Red appear in a game, led by 1945 All-Star Red Barrett. The Angels had left-hander Angel Moreno and the Blue Jays had reliever Jay Jackson, who also pitched for the Brewers.

Now there’s Hicklen, whose full name is Charles Brewer Hicklen, and who goes by a middle name chosen as an homage to either his great-grandmother’s or his great-great-grandmother’s maiden name. He didn’t hear anything from Brewers scouts when he was coming out of the University of Alabama-Birmingham in 2017 and was a seventh-round pick of the Royals, who brought him briefly to the big leagues in ‘22.

He was so happy to be back after hitting 21 home runs with 42 stolen bases at Triple-A Nashville this season, that he was barely annoyed that his equipment bag didn’t make it with him to Cincinnati. Hicklen started Sunday’s game wearing borrowed cleats and someone else’s outfield glove.

"I'm just blown away," Hicklen said. "I've been playing [professionally] since 2017, so to be able to get to this moment in my career is really special, and to have my wife and newborn son up here to be able to celebrate this moment with me and all the hard work that's gone into it is really special.

“There’s days that are a lot more challenging than others in the Minor Leagues, and to be able to put all of that in the past and realize it was worth it, it’s special. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from those.”

Even in the midst of a terrific season at Nashville, he’d had some tough times. He earned a spot on the Brewers’ 40-man roster in July because Milwaukee didn’t want to lose him to an out in his Minor League contract, but a slump was around the corner.

After a .981 OPS in April, .966 in May, .805 in June and .855 in July, Hicklen had a .562 OPS in August. But the Brewers wanted a right-handed bat when the roster expanded, especially after Jackson Chourio tweaked his ankle during Friday’s doubleheader in Cincinnati.

“I’ll start with this, and it sounds hokey, but this is a great kid,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “He loves it. He’s had a great Minor League career, and it gives him a chance to be here. We didn’t tell him how long it’s going to be, or whatever, but Matz pitching is one of the factors in it.”

Hicklen will enjoy every day he gets.

“This whole year, my mantra has just been to get 1% better each and every day and try to maximize my ceiling,” he said. “So often in life, we have these hopes and dreams and ambitions, and oftentimes, we forget about the journey that gets to those goals.”