For a manager and a general manager in the major leagues, the decision to send a struggling young player to the minor leagues can be agonizing.

That wasn't the case this week with the Brewers, who made the right call by optioning second baseman Rickie Weeks to Class AAA Nashville.

Weeks, informed of his fate late Tuesday night, was batting .212 with five homers and 19 RBI when he got the news. A 2-for-20 skid on a trip last week dropped his average since June 18 to .156.

Once a dynamic offensive player with defensive liabilities, Weeks had turned into a glove-first player who could not be counted on for consistent production at the plate.

"It was hard in a way," manager Ned Yost said of the decision. "But, it wasn't hard in another way because I know the benefit of him going down and getting a chance to play every single day and get that stroke straightened out."

"He's struggling so bad right now. The one thing we needed to do was to get him straightened out the best way to do it was to send him down there and let him get four at-bats every single night and get it going again."

Weeks wasn't around to discuss his situation Wednesday, but Yost and general manager Doug Melvin revealed that he had been warned of a possible move when Gabe Gross was sent down roughly two weeks ago.

"We said, 'Rick, look, we know you're working hard, but it might come to this. Keep working,'" Yost said. "It just got there. He hit .100 on the road trip, and it's not fair to him and it's not fair to us."

While discussing Weeks with reporters during batting practice, Yost borrowed some syntax from former outfielder Rickey Henderson, a master of the first-name, third-person quote.

"We're going to need Rickie back here being Rickie," Yost said. "The Rickie that Rickie can be."

Melvin stressed the move was not a punishment and that Weeks remains a big part of the team's future plans.

"In the end, you have to do what's best for the player and what's best for the team," he said, adding that if Weeks stays in the minors for 18 days he will be out of minor-league options next season. That means the Brewers would not be able to send him to the minors next year without having first him clear waivers.

While Weeks' status wasn't a factor in the Brewers' decision Yost also downplayed the right wrist injury that sidelined Weeks for the end of last season. Weeks had surgery on the wrist a year ago to repair a torn tendon sheath. He was bothered by periodic bouts of inflammation as a result.

"He just got into bad habits with his swing," Yost said. "It didn't have anything to do with confidence. It didn't have anything to do with his wrist. He lost a lot of plate coverage pulling off the ball and kind of lost plate discipline a little bit. It was just a whole bunch of things."

Yost said Weeks was disappointed by the news, as were some teammates.

"Rickie is a real competitor," Yost said. "It was tough for him. In the long run, I think he knows he needs to get straightened out a little bit, offensively."