3 Things To Improve All 30 Teams — The Milwaukee Brewers
Finishing the 2021 season with a record of 95–67, the Milwaukee Brewers are the defending NL Central champions. They were knocked out in the NL Divisional series by the eventual World Series champion Braves 3 games to 1 for a quick exit out of the playoffs. This year, they hope to build off of their extremely strong pitching staff and make a deeper run into the playoffs. Let’s dive in and find ways to help them do just that.
1. Fix Christian Yelich AND Keep Him On The Field For 150+
Debuting on July 23, 2013 for the Miami Marlins, Christian Yelich holds a career line of .292/.379/.477 with 160 homeruns and a 132 OPS+ over 4,765 plate appearances. He is a former MVP, a 3 time Silver Slugger, 2 time All Star, and 1 time Gold Glover. Since the beginning of the shortened 2020 season, however, Yelich has not provided the offensive production the Brewers have come to expect from him. In that time he has hit to the tune of .234/.360/.392 with an OPS+ of 103 and 21 homeruns over 722 plate appearances.
If you take a closer look at Yelich’s rate stats, the difference has been some bad luck with his BABIP over the past few years (.259 in 2020 and .321 in 2021 compared to a career BABIP of .351) as well as not hitting the ball to all parts of the field. In 2021 Yelich pulled the ball 28.4% of the time (26.6% career pull rate), went to the opposite field 20.8% of the time (17.2% career), and drove the ball up the middle 50.9% of the time (56.2% career). If he can get back to spraying the ball around, it may help that BABIP get back to or above his career line.
Not only has his offensive production been down lately, but over the course of his career, he has been prone to injury. More so in recent years. Over the course of his career he has had the opportunity to play in 1,259 Major League games, yet he has only played in 1,095. This is a games played rate of 86.97% or 140.8 (141) games a season. Not as egregious as others (I.e Byron Buxton), but still not great for a guy that is meant to be the face of the franchise. Giving Yelich a few days here and there as DH should help with that.
The silver lining on Yelich is that even with his struggles, he still draws his walks. He’s not a top tier caliber walk taker like Bryce Harper or Juan Soto, but he is definitely in the second tier of guys with plate discipline. Should Yeli get right at the plate and play 150+ games, expect another 4 wins.
2. Don’t Be Afraid To Give Andrew McCutchen Time In The Field
In what has probably been the biggest signing (at time of writing) from free agency the Brewers have made this offseason, Andrew McCutchen was brought in on a 1 year, $8.5 million deal to be the Brewers primary DH. The 2013 NL MVP, 5 time All Star, 4 time Silver Slugger, 1 time Gold Glover is coming into his age 35 season with a career line of .280/.373/.476 with 270 homeruns and a 131 OPS+ over 7,588 plate appearances. Coming off a year in which he hit 27 homeruns, there’s still some pop in that bat of his.
With the universal DH being put in place starting this year, Andrew McCutchen should definitely be a productive part of the Brewers offense. However, he should still see time in the field here and there, especially on long stretches between off days, to give other guys days off from fielding. Not the Gold Glove caliber defender he once was, he is still coming off a year in which he played over 1,000 innings in left field for the Philadelphia Phillies. Giving guys like Yelich, and Willy Adames days off from fielding would go a long way to keeping those guys in the lineup day in and day out. Utilizing Andrew McCutchen and the DH properly would add another 3 wins to their total.
3. Bring In Andrew Miller To Finalize The Bull Pen
In 2021, the Milwaukee Brewers had a team ERA of 3.50 which was the 3rd best team ERA in baseball. The 5 guys in their bull pen that made the most appearances (Josh Hader, Brent Suter, Brad Boxberger, Devin Williams, and Hunter Strickland) combined for an ERA of 2.477 (2.48) over 287 innings. You do not want to face the Brewers bull pen from behind.
Hunter Strickland is now a member of the Cincinnati Reds, but the other 4 guys still remain in Milwaukee. This leaves room for one more guy to come in and be another lockdown reliever like the rest of them. Enter Andrew Miller. In what will be his age 37 season, he’s no longer the pitcher he once was, but the Brewers don’t need him to be that guy. All they need from him is to come in and pitch the 6th or 7th inning against the weakest part of the opposing team’s lineup and pave the way for Devin Williams and Josh Hader. They should be able to get him on a 1 year, $2 million deal at most and he would keep their record the same.
Assuming Christian Yelich figures it out again, the Brewers utilize the DH properly, and Andrew Miller is brought in from free agency, they would finish the 2022 season with a record of 102–60. A record like that would easily win them the Central again, but still would not be good enough for homefield advantage throughout October.
This has been the 16th entry in our series in which we take a look at all 30 teams individually and find 3 things that they can improve upon from their 2021 season. Previous entries include the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Atlanta Braves, the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Guardians, the Colorado Rockies, the Detroit Tigers, the Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles, and the Miami Marlins. Follow me on Twitter @TroyBrock1993 for updates and other sports musings. Next up is the Minnesota Twins!
