Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers have gone largely overlooked in pre-season prognostication. But they play in the ultra-competitive NL Central, and they made some potentially notable off-season additions, among them Kolten Wong at second base and Jackie Bradley Jr. in right field. Those two elements make another postseason run plausible.
The Brewers begin with the returning nucleus of a 2020 playoff team, although that was due to the expanded playoff format. They were actually a 29-31 team. At the same time, several Brewers – notably including Christian Yelich – had poor 2020s, and any kind of recovery season enhances Milwaukee’s chances.
The pitching staff is probably a team strength. Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes are viewed as emerging team aces. And perhaps no bullpen in baseball is as feared as Milwaukee’s, with Josh Hader and Devin Williams heading the cast. In 2020, that pair combined for a 1.76 ERA, allowing just 16 hits in 46 innings. They had a 0.76 WHIP and fanned 47 percent of the 178 batters they faced.
The Brewers are on a run of three straight post-season appearances, having won the division as recently as 2018. They played for the NL pennant in 2011, losing to division rival St. Louis in six games.
But the franchise hasn’t played a World Series game since 1982, and hasn’t won a championship in its more than half-century history dating back to its 1969 iteration as the Seattle Pilots.