Kings of the Central for the past 2-years, the Milwaukee Brewers look to contend with a downgraded roster if they want to make it 3-straight postseasons.
The Milwaukee Brewers have all the upside of a team in a functioning rebuild as they head into 2020. They’ve been fairly active this offseason by dropping a few big bats and signing Christian Yelich to a long term contract. But in doing that, they may have taken themselves out of playoff contention for 2020.
The Brewers have developed into a very underrated winning culture under Craig Counsell as a manager with two-straight playoff appearances and coming one game short of going to the World Series. They’ve been innovative in their bulk usage of the bullpen while also attracting key free-agent position players and putting together lineups with a ton of firepower.
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But now the Brew Crew is going to have to take a step back and try to stay competitive with a host of younger players and cheaper veterans this season. They dropped three key bats in their lineup in Travis Shaw, Mike Moustakas, and Yasmani Grandal all to sign Christian Yelich to a seven-year, $188.5 million dollar extension this offseason even with them having control over him for the next three seasons (2020 included).
The Brewers saw their star and they jumped on him to make him a Brewer for life. In the process, they dropped some bigger bats that were intricate parts of them contending for a championship.
So, what this Yelich deal tells me is that the Brewers want to reload this season, develop their younger players, all while still competing for a playoff berth. They’re not in a full-on rebuild. They’re just taking a small step back, which is why I think we’ll see some other teams in the National League jump passed them this season.
Don’t get me wrong, the Brewers are still a very good team that will most certainly be in the playoff mix with a strong MVP candidate in Yelich, but are they as good as they’ve been these past few seasons? I’m going to say no.