Milwaukee Brewers: 2017 Season Review and Offseason Preview

The Milwaukee Brewers rode a low payroll team to within one game of a playoff spot and have prospects coming in 2018.

Coming off 68-win season in 2015 and a 73-win season last year, the Milwaukee Brewers were expected to continue their climb to relevancy, but not expected to challenge the Cubs, Cardinals, or Pirates in the NL Central. Sports Illustrated predicted they would win 70 games, or 25 fewer than the Cubs. Fangraphs had them as a 71-win team and Baseball Prospectus was the most optimistic, predicting they would win 78 games, which was still 14 games back of the Cubs.

Instead of being an also-ran, the Brewers surprised many by leading their division deep into July. It wasn’t so much that the Brewers were having a great season. They just got to a little above .500 and took advantage of a very slow start by the Cubs. Even as the Brewers continued to lead the Central, many people expected the Cubs would figure things out and surpass the boys from Milwaukee down the stretch, which they did.

Still, the Brew Crew was as close as 2.5 games back of the Cubs on September 13 and also in play for a wild card spot. Brewers fans were hoping to down some celebratory suds if the team could make the playoffs for the first time since 2011. Unfortunately, they went 9-7 over their final 16 games and finished six games behind the Cubs in the Central and a single game behind the Rockies in the wild card race.

Despite failing to snag a playoff spot, it was a successful season for a Brewers team that had their most wins since their 2011 playoff year. Their farm system was one of the best in baseball and graduated some good prospects to the big leagues. That may cause them to drop a bit in the rankings, but there is still plenty of talent there.

After winning 13 more games this year than last, the Brewers would like to build on their success in 2018. Oftentimes, though, a team will take a big step forward, then a small step back. The Houston Astros went from 51 wins to 70 wins to 86 wins from 2013 to 2015 and looked like they were ready to jump into the 90-win realm last year. Instead, they dropped back to 84 wins, then made the leap to 101 victories this season. The Brewers wouldn’t mind following that pattern.

Let’s look at what went right, what went wrong, and the top offseason needs for the Milwaukee Brewers.