By Joe Browne

Record: 80-82

The Brewers look to be headed toward a new era filled with some change and frequent roster churn in 2024. The story of the offseason was manager Craig Counsell’s departure. While this was expected, nobody expected the division rival Cubs to pay 40 million dollars for a manager. The Brewers lost in my opinion the best manager in the game to their own division rival. That flat out sucks. He will be replaced by Pat Murphy as the new manager and Rickie Weeks Jr. as the new “associate manager”. That aforementioned roster churn has already begun and will continue as the year goes on. All of it will be in an effort to get the Crews’ young players more opportunity to prove themselves. The Brewers have a surplus of talented young players already at the major league level or very close to it. So, that will give fans some hope for what is to come. However, the present just looks mediocre. This lineup is good and this team is going to score runs. Milwaukee will need solid production from youngsters like Mitchell, Chourio and Frelick if they want to be competitive in this division. It will be interesting to see if they can get a power source from Rhys Hoskins as he will make his return after not playing in 2023 due to injury. Also, can Gary Sanchez produce following a career resurrecting half season in San Diego ? Like I said, this lineup is good but it does have just a few to many question marks for my liking. The main reason why I think this team is going to be 12 wins worse this season is because of this rotation. Corbin Burnes, Adrian Houser and Eric Lauer are gone. Those three have consistently given Milwaukee a chance to win every 5th day in recent history. Freddy Peralta is still around and the Brewers will need him big time in his new found role as the ace. 37 year old Wade Miley was actually great last season but does have an injury right now. It should not hold him out long though and he will slot in behind Peralta. If you did not already know or maybe forgot, Brandon Woodruff was re-signed but he will be out the entire season. The rest of the rotation will be rounded out by Colin Rea, Jakob Junis, Joe Ross and DL Hall. Junis only started four out of his forty games for the Giants last year and the Brewers will hope he can make a strong reliever to starter jump. Joe Ross has not appeared in a major league game since 2021 and has not had legit success since 2016. Rea is mediocre and potentially a viable back end of the raotion arm. Here’s to hoping DL Hall can get a role in the bullpen because he was great in that role last season but terrible as a starter. This rotation is the reason why I believe a good team last year is going to quickly slip into mediocrity this year. The bullpen is going to be without its best arm and in fact the best player on the entire team, Devin WIlliams for a significant portion of the season. I can tell first hand as a Mets fan, losing your superstar closer makes your bullpen much worse. Everyone else has to move back an inning and it is tough to fill that void of a true closer. However, I have slight optimism for the Brewers because their pitching evaluation and development has been very good in recent history. Can they unlock something in some of these arms and get them to produce ? Only time will tell but for now I do not see much of a winning season in Milwaukee.

MVP: Christian Yelich

Sure, Yelich is not the player he once was in 2018 and 2019 but man is he still damn good. Last year Yelich slashed an impressive .278/.370/.447 paired with swiping 28 bags and an OPS+ at 124. All of these numbers are the highest they have been since his 2019 MVP runner-up campaign. His advanced metrics were also great. A 93rd percentile hard-hit % at 50.2% and on the other side of the ball +3 OAA in the outfield. Yelich is still a five tool player despite his numbers dipping since his peak years. He is most certainly still an elite player in my eyes, the face of this franchise and is primed for another great year in 2024. 

Cy Young: Freddy Peralta

This is an easy pick here because of Williams injury and the overall weakness of this staff heading into the year. I talked a whole lot about how the Brewers pitching may struggle this year but I have never been higher of Freddy Peralta than I am right now. This is his rotation now, no more Burnes or Woodruff (at least for now) he is the big game pitcher in Milwaukee. I believe Freddy will step into and excel in his new found ace role. He struck out 210 batters with his 33.6% whiff rate last year and I expect that number to climb again this year. His fastball is awesome, it has great ride and has some perceived velocity on it as well. Where Perlata can really make his money is in the offspeed department. If Peralata can get more success with his slider and changeup there is no telling what his numbers could look like. If he can be more effective with his offspeed pitches look out for Freddy Peralta to win the 2024 NL Cy Young. 

Breakout: Garrett Mitchell

It is time for the former first round pick to start producing in the show for the Crew. Mitchell suffered a bad shoulder injury last year. Like our April to September bad. So his season was completely gone. In only 73 PA he showed some pop blasting a trio of homers and spraying hits to all fields. Mitchell’s speed is flat out elite; it will help him to succeed in the outfield and on the basepaths. If he can cut down on strikeouts he will blossom into the ideal leadoff hitter for Pat Murphy. He is already 25 years old and with a surplus of youngsters coming through this system, it’s now or never for Mitchell in Milwaukee. 

ROTY: Jackson Chourio

This pick is just about as easy as it gets, Chourio is going to be a superstar. He has got it all, a true five tool player who put up video game numbers in the minors last year. He slashed .282/.338/.467 with 22 jacks and swiped 44 bags across two levels in 2023. The former shortstop has made the full time switch to outfield where he can put his 70 grade speed on display. The only thing you would like to see more of is his ability to take walks. As he gets older and develops into a more professional hitter I expect him to get on base more. Chourio is the projected opening day center fielder in Milwaukee at just 20 years old. I could rave about this kid all day. He is a generational talent and a superstar in the making for the Brewers. 

Sources:

Baseball Reference

Baseball Savant

CBS Sports

Fangraphs

MLB Pipeline