2024 Season Preview: Is a More Aggressive, Powerful Hitting Approach in Order?

Only one hitter surpassed the 20-home-run mark for the 2023 Brewers. That tied for the fewest such hitters on a team in all of baseball. Despite several powerful hitters on the roster to start the season, none actually tapped into all that much power, and how they balance the offseason is a big question mark heading into the year.

The Best Version of Offense in 2023
Offensively, the Brewers struggled in 2023 with a real lack of consistency at the plate formed from occasional hot streaks and plentiful cold patches--especially among their younger players. For most of the season, William Contreras was the Brewers' only consistent presence, with some hot streaks from Christian Yelich, Rowdy Tellez, Joey Wiemer and Owen Miller to support him until the veteran presences of Mark Canha and Carlos Santana added reliability to the lineup. 

With their addition, the Brewers offense morphed into a more competent unit, largely because of an infectious change of approach at the plate. The Brewers went from an uncoordinated outfit to a cohesive unit that took pitches and wore down opposing pitchers, the highlight of which was chasing Max Scherzer in the foutth inning after 90-plus pitches late in the season. It didn’t always work, but with Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta in full flow, the Brewers didn’t need high scores; they just needed consistency in producing runs. This season, however, they may need to take bigger offensive steps without Burnes and Woodruff around.

The Sources of Power
Last season, a lot of the expectations for home runs fell on Willy Adames and Rowdy Tellez, with anything approaching 20 homers a bonus for Contreras and Yelich. Tellez had a scorching start, but only hit one home run after May 23. Adames, meanwhile, was having his own struggles with his timing in the batter's box, and it resulted in a lot of issues driving home Contreras and Yelich even when those two did perform well.

This season, the options for power have increased significantly. Contreras has shown he can be a slugger, Yelich recovered some of his thump last season as well, but most important are the additions of Jackson Chourio, Rhys Hoskins and Gary Sánchez to this lineup. The latter two combined for 73 home runs across their last 150 games, a staggering potential to drive in runs and punish mistakes in the strike zone.

On top of this, they have Jake Bauers, who made some mid-season changes that produced very promising results in how he barreled the ball. The question is whether he can cut down on the strikeouts at the same time. He’s spoken this offseason about a change in approach to go along with the technical work the Yankees did last season; he could be another big power source waiting to happen.

Chourio has electric bat speed. We have to remember to expect some adjustment periods for him, and he might hit seventh in this more robust lineup, but he's another player who might clear the fences frequently in 2024. Showcasing a remarkable depth in the middle of the order that just hasn’t been there in recent seasons, the Brewers may vastly exceed their output in 2022 and 2023.

Do They Have Other Ways To Score?
Yes. Another facet that makes this offense more appealing is how they can adapt to game situations. With all the power mentioned above, you also have Sal Frelick, Oliver Dunn, Garrett Mitchell, Brice Turang, Blake Perkins, Wiemer and Yelich, who can cause havoc on the base paths, while Joey Ortiz is no slouch either. The freshmen will be looking to kick on this year, and if any of them can, that makes it a truly frightening prospect to see what this offense can do.

They’re also a gritty team, able to grind out at-bats and dig their heels in. Frelick and Yelich are phenomenal in this regard, while Hoskins has shown an ability to make pitchers work and take his walks. The Brewers were at the bottom of the league in in-zone swings last season, and likely won’t switch straight to a swing-happy approach, so expect that selectivity in looking for specific pitches to remain in some regards in 2024.

The last box to tick is perhaps the biggest question mark, in whether or not they can put the ball in play regularly…

The Strikeouts May Be A Concern
Not much of spring training is particularly relevant, but the strikeout rates can cross over into the regular season. On that note, it appears the Brewers are being more aggressive in the strike zone, but have also struck out at lofty rates. Only Yelich, Frelick and Turang have strikeout rates under 20% in preseason, while Sánchez (42%), Dunn (38%), Adames (36%), Perkins (35%), Bauers (32%) and Hoskins (32%) are potentially signs of worry. It is a small sample size, and the goal is more to gain comfort and timing than to produce results, but there should be a tinge of worry that an aggressive approach may not pan out quite as nicely as one would hope.

Ground Balls Galore
The final question mark for this offense is can they elevate. Any ability to do so will create breakout potential among an abundance of hitters:

• Yelich hits the ball as hard as almost anyone, and showed in larger patches last season what he can do when healthy. If he can maintain those stretches for longer (as he did in May, June and July), then the Brewers have an elite hitter at the top of their order.
• Ortiz had an average exit velocity of 92 mph last season, but he chased excessively and produced a ton of ground balls as a result. Reining in his aggressiveness and being more selective should allow him to elevate better and access his power more consistently.
• Chourio is almost identical to Ortiz. He worked on his bat-to-ball skills and dropped his strikeout rate massively last season, but he chased a ton, and it led to more poor contact than you would like. Finding the balance of his approach can see that elite power really plays up.
• Contreras did a fantastic job of elevating upper-half fastballs and any slider in 2023, but struggled to elevate against any other pitch. Another player who pummels the ball, he could blast his way into the realms of the best catcher in baseball with a few more fly balls.
• Each of the four listed above have fantastic contact skills and borderline elite exit velocities, if they can get the ball into the air more often, you’ll be looking at 5 WAR players. Add that to the mix of Adames, Hoskins and Sánchez, and this offense can be near-elite in total. 

To summarize, a different approach is likely to come from the Brewers offense this season, but Connor Dawson likes adaptability, so don’t expect it to be an all-out slugging mentality. They’ll look for ways to defuse a pitcher's arsenal and use the tools available to them. It just so happens that one of those tools is substantially more pop.