Milwaukee Brewers: Understanding who's running my team

One of a series of articles looking at the front office structure of each major league team. Today, we look at the Milwaukee Brewers.

Owner: Mark Attanasio
President of Baseball Operations and General Manager: David Stearns

The Brewers are baseball’s case study for how to successfully run a small-market franchise.

Operating in the game’s smallest market (by a half million people) and less than 90 miles from its third-largest, the Milwaukee Brewers under Attanasio’s leadership have won more than half their games, claimed two NL Central championships and made four postseason appearances.

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Since Stearns came on board as general manager, the record is even better: a .530 winning percentage, a division title and the franchise’s first back-to-back post-season trips ever.

Attanasio purchased the team from Wendy Selig-Prieb, who had taken over operations when her father, team owner Bud Selig, became commissioner. An investment banker, he founded Crescent Capital Group in 1991.

His operational style has been founded on trust of his top pros, notably former GM Doug Melvin, who he inherited from the Selig administration. Through thick and thin, Attanasio stayed with Melvin for a full decade until transitioning into a senior advisory role following the 2015 season. That’s when Stearns came in.

A 2007 political science Harvard grad, Stearns worked in the commissioner’s office and with the Cleveland Indians and Houston Astros, the latter as an assistant general manager to Jeff Luhnow for three seasons.

He became general manager following the 2015 season and had his title upgraded following the 2018 season.

Compared with their competition, Attanasio and Stearns are working with a short financial deck. Forbes puts the franchise’s value at $1.18 billion, ranking only 24th among the 30 teams and fourth among NL Central clubs.

The team took in $288 million in revenues in 2020, at 16th almost precisely a median figure and up 68 percent from a decade earlier. That sounds strong, although it’s actually a bit off the MLB-wide 67 percent growth rate for the same period.

Over that same decade, Milwaukee’s payroll growth has actually moderated. The team allocated $144.8 million to player salaries in 2019, up about 53 percent from the $94.5M payroll of a decade earlier.

That means the present salary structure equates to 50 percent of revenues, a percentage that is conservative by the standards of small-market teams.

Conservative and yet successful. In Stearns’ four seasons running the team’s on-field moves, the cumulative impact of those moves – as measured by Wins Above Average* – has been +42.5 games. In 2018, Stearns’ short-term moves improved the Brewers by 10.2 games; they qualified for post-season play by seven games.

Then in 2019 Stearns’ short-term moves improved the team by another 5.8 games; the Milwaukee Brewers qualified for post-season by three games. A plausible case could be made, then, that Stearns has maneuvered the Brewers into post-season play twice in his first four seasons.

In virtually every revenue aspect, the Brewers are mid-pack. The exception is revenue sharing, which hurts them. The league wrote Milwaukee a $464 million check-in 2019, the fifth smallest amount in baseball and $68 million less than the average figure.

The Milwaukee market generates $366 million, well below the $698 million average but unsurprising given the area’s status as the game’s smallest market. Miller Field produces $239 million in stadium revenue, 16th best but well off the $307 million average.

The Brewers brand has not yet gripped fans. It generates just $106 million in revenue, more than only the Athletics, Reds, Royals, Rays and Marlins.

Significantly, despite its revenue mediocrity, the Brewers are one of only 13 franchises that have grossed a pre-tax surplus for every season of the just-concluded decade.

Whether the Brewers will continue their recent on-field success is a matter for baseball fans in Milwaukee and elsewhere to debate. Off the field, the team looks poised – at least in the short term – to continue its pattern of judicious, productive management.

Cot’s Contracts projects the team to open the 2020 season with a $117 million payroll that would represent a $5 million reduction from opening day one year ago and $27 million less than the team’s final payroll.

The two highest-paid players, Ryan Braun ($17 million) and Lorenzo Cain ($16 million) are both in their mid-30s and may or may not be renewed. The seven-year deal the Milwaukee Brewers inherited when they acquired Christian Yelich expires at the end of this season, but the team should have the flexibility to compete to re-sign him.

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*This calculation is obtained by determining the net impact of all player transactions on team performance for the season(s) in question. Wins Above Average is a zero-based offshoot of Wins Above Replacement; thus, the final figure suggests the degree of positive or negative movement in the standings attributable to front office moves.

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Milwaukee Brewers: Understanding who’s running my team

By Bill Felber | Jan 25, 2020

One of a series of articles looking at the front office structure of each major league team. Today, we look at the Milwaukee Brewers.