The Milwaukee Brewers are the most impressive playoff team this season.
No, that’s not hyperbole. It’s just the truth. It’s true that the Brewers have never been the “sexy” team, nor the team with the most elite talent. But despite that, they found a way to win their division, leaving the rest of their NL Central rivals in the dust.
On Wednesday, Milwaukee became the first team to clinch a playoff berth this season. With the Cubs’ loss to the Oakland Athletics, the Brewers clinched their second straight NL Central title and their sixth postseason appearance in the past seven seasons.
Despite their propensity to make it to October, there weren’t many who believed the Brewers would be destined for the postseason heading into this season. During the offseason, their longtime manager, Craig Counsell, decided to head south to become the manager of the Chicago Cubs, handing the keys to former bench coach Pat Murphy.
When the Brewers also traded their ace and former NL Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes to the Orioles, it looked like Milwaukee was headed toward a rebuild. Even throughout the season, challenges continued to arise, including the loss of the team’s best player, Christian Yelich, to a season-ending back injury.
None of that stopped Milwaukee from being one of the best teams in baseball, and with each passing month, they seem to have gotten better and better. And that’s not just from the looks of it; the numbers back up their dominance, too.
What makes the Brewers such a good team? There simply aren’t many things they don’t do well. On offense, they rank fourth in runs scored and second in OPS with runners in scoring position. Defensively, they rank fourth in MLB in both defensive runs saved and outs above average. And their pitching has held up its end of the bargain, too, ranking fourth in team ERA.
Milwaukee has gotten consistent production from its entire lineup all season, with star performances from William Contreras, Willy Adames and Yelich before his injury. But the player who has helped take this team to another level is rookie phenom Jackson Chourio. Chourio has become the star the Brewers thought he would be when they signed him to an eight-year, $82 million extension before his debut. The 20-year-old has a .901 OPS since June 1.
Over the course of the season, the Brewers have not only held the largest division lead in baseball (10.5 games through Wednesday), but they have also held their division lead the longest. Milwaukee has had joint or sole possession of first place in the Central since April 12, when they began to pull away from the rest of the division on their way to the title.
It’s hard to look at the Brewers and not see Murphy’s imprint all over the roster. After several years as Counsell’s bench coach, Murphy has made a seamless transition into the managerial role. You have to imagine his presence in the Brewers dugout for so many years before landing the job built the kind of trust that would take other rookie managers much longer to develop.
Plus, the “us against the world” mentality doesn’t often go very far, but it seems like a pretty fitting attitude for this team.
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This season, the Brewers have a combined 11-14 record against the Dodgers, Phillies, Padres, Mets and Diamondbacks, with a minus-4 run differential in those games, showing how close they were. In the postseason, the numbers — and the results — could easily tilt in Milwaukee’s favor.
It’s impossible to predict what lies ahead for the Brewers in the always-volatile NL wild-card round, but their ability to consistently play their A-game makes them worth keeping an eye on as the calendar turns to October.