It's Still Too Early to Worry About the Brewers' Offseason

Ok, now things are starting to get really confusing. What are Matt Arnold and his lieutenants thinking? When we entered this offseason, the Brewers had a lot of questions, starting with who would be the manager. Once Pat Murphy was announced, we all had our assumptions about what the Brewers were going to do.

But with every transaction, things get more complicated. They non-tendered both Rowdy Tellez and Brandon Woodruff, rather than issuing them contracts. They brought back Colin Rea and Wade Miley on one-year deals with options for the following season, and they signed top prospect Jackson Chourio to an eight-year, $82-million extension with club options for 2032 and 2033.

Seven trades later, the Brewers haven’t brought any real clarity to what the 2024 season is going to look like. With six weeks until catchers and pitchers report to Spring Training, should fans be worried about what the front office is doing? Perhaps there is a light at the end of this tunnel, and the best moves are yet to come. Here’s why fans shouldn’t put too much thought into the winter transactions.

They Are Preparing for Every Scenario
At first glance, you think the organization is bringing in a bunch of "misfit toys," trying to fix them and make them better than what their stats have shown. But what if these players are meant for impact beyond the 2024 season?

The Brewers added infielders Jake Bauers, Vinny Capra and Oliver Dunn. The team also added Taylor Clarke and Bryan Hudson to help round out a bullpen that needs long relief and left handers. What all these players have in common are the multiple minor-league options they can use.

All of these guys with little experience have more club control than those that are players to look at for the trade deadline. Clarke has two years left. Bauers has three years left. The remaining additions have five or more years of club control.

These moves are low-risk, with the potential for a high reward. If they are not ready now, they have minor-league options to correct themselves for later. As soon as the likes of Corbin Burnes, Willy Adames, and Devin Williams become free agents, they will have new blood ready to take over for them. If they are traded this offseason or at the trade deadline, players will already be on the 40-man to replace them. This would give time for new prospects to adjust to their changing roles, while those who have been here the whole season play meaningful innings for a rebuilding team.

They also will be prepared for those who may retire. Miley is 37, Rea is 34, and reliever Hoby Milner is 32. It’ll only be a matter of time before those guys’ careers will be over.

So, what about now? How are they competing for the 2024 season? Honestly, the Brewers already have done the minimum to show they are competing.

The Holes Are (Technically) Filled
Fans are concerned that the additions aren’t flashy enough and aren’t showing a commitment to competitiveness for the 2024 season. However, looking at what they’ve done already, they have covered the necessities to fill the holes that were left behind by the departing players on their roster.

Along with Woodruff and Tellez, the Brewers lost Josh Donaldson, Victor Caratini, Carlos Santana, Mark Canha, Andrew Chafin, Jesse Winker, Adrian Houser, and Tyrone Taylor. You could argue the Brewers needed a first baseman, a reliable DH option, a backup catcher, a third baseman and starting pitching.

They let Woodruff walk, so let’s bring back Rea, who did such a nice job in his absence last season. Need a backup catcher to replace Caratini? Let’s add Eric Haase, who is under club control beyond 2024 if the team still wants him. We just traded Houser and need rotation arms. Wait a minute, we have Aaron Ashby already. Let’s just add Joe Ross, in case Robert Gasser or Carlos F. Rodriguez aren’t ready for MLB.

What about third and first? Well, we have Andruw Monasterio, who did fine last year. Why not add Capra and Dunn to take on the utility role? As for first, what if we can get a first baseman like Tellez and save money in the process? Bauers will do just fine.

Then what about DH? The National League has only had the DH for four seasons. The Brewers haven’t really figured out how to use it. But in this case, we have a ton of young outfielders. We can use those prospects in the field and make Yelich the regular DH.

The Brewers did what they needed to do to put bodies on the field. At the same time, they added to the depth in the bullpen. Of the 39 players on the 40-roster, 21 are pitchers. You can expect five of them in the rotation and eight in the bullpen, leaving eight of the arms in Triple-A Nashville, ready to be called up when a player is injured or when another is struggling during the season.

The Brewers did what they needed to do to fill a roster. Now they can spend money on luxuries that make the team better. With 39 men on the roster, the Brewers can add one more player before they must worry about designating people for assignment. It doesn’t mean the Brewers will be done making moves.

There are six weeks to go until the pitchers and catchers must report for spring training. There are a lot of decent players left on the market who can interest the team. If historical patterns hold, then this month is the perfect time for the Brewers to start spending.

January is Brewers Month
It’s hard to just declare a month for a team to make moves. But historically, the Brewers have made some huge, impactful moves once the ball drops and we all get out the new calendars we got from distant relatives for Christmas.

Who can forget that the Brewers signed Lorenzo Cain to a record-breaking free agent deal the same day they traded for Christian Yelich, back in 2018? What about when the Brewers signed Yasmani Grandal to fill the hole at the catcher position in 2019? Why not go back to 2014, when the Brewers signed Matt Garza to a four-year deal? The Brewers have an interesting history with the first month of the year.

When you think about it, the 2022-2023 offseason was a strange one for the Brewers. In November, it started with a trade sending Hunter Renfroe to the Angels for pitchers Janson Junk, Elvis Peguero and Adam Seminaris. The same day, the Brewers signed Blake Perkins to a major-league contract.

December was very busy for the Brewers. They traded Kolten Wong to Seattle for DH Jesse Winker and Toro. That move set the stage for the wild William Contreras, Joel Payamps and Justin Yeager trade with the Braves and the A’s. Finally, they traded for Guardians infielder Owen Miller in exchange for cash.

With these moves prior to the new year, it left us wondering if Miller would be the regular second baseman, whether Winker would bounce back from his career-worst season with Seattle, and what the team would do with these incoming arms. Speculation continued to intensify as the Brewers added Miley and Rea, and made the trade for Bryse Wilson in the month of January.

We didn’t know it at the time, but the moves that were made in January turned out to be very impactful. Despite having a career ERA over 5.00, Wilson had a superb season, with a 2.58 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and seven hits allowed per nine innings in 53 appearances. All these stats were his best in his entire career.

Rea didn’t exactly have a breakout year, but he was originally brought in on a minor-league deal. He was added to the 40-man roster after Woodruff went on the injured list in April. Rea didn’t exactly put up Woodruff-like numbers, but he was still effective. He ended up with four quality starts, with a 4.55 ERA, a 1.19 WHIP and a career-best .235 opponent batting average. In September alone, he had a 2.22 ERA, a 0.86 WHIP and 9.2 strikeouts per nine.

As for Miley, the best seasons of his career came in Milwaukee. He had a career-best WHIP in 2023 (1.14) and the best ERA amongst all Brewers starters with at least 20 starts (3.14). If everyone had been healthy, the Crew would’ve had a four-headed monster in the rotation.

The Brewers will now have all three of those players on the roster in 2024. If they put up numbers like the 2023 season, then the team may remain competitive. That’s not to say the December additions weren’t impactful, but the production given from the new year additions made a lot of noise.

January has just started, so there is plenty of time to take a dive into the free-agent market or to make another trade. It may be small moves now, but who knows what big things might come of them?

It may be already starting as MLB Insider Robert Murray has confirmed the Brewers have had contract discussions with DH/1B Carlos Santana.

It’s hard to believe this team is competing, but it looks like Matt Arnold doesn’t want to show his cards. Time will tell what the Brewers are doing with their franchise, but it is way too early to hit that panic button. If you're inclined to do so, though, Jason Wang has you covered elsewhere on the site this morning.

What do you make of the organization’s recent transactions? Do you believe there’s more to come for this team? Will the Brewers start buying or selling within the next few months? Let us know how you're feeling in the comments.