The Brewers Have Become the Most Aggressive Base Stealers in MLB

Early this season, the face of being aggressive in stealing bases was division rival Elly De La Cruz and his Cincinnati Reds. Another division rival (the ones they've hosted this weekend) has been similarly manic on the bases over the last six weeks or so. In the last 30 days, though, no team in baseball has been more relentless on the bases than the Milwaukee Brewers.

Of all their stolen base opportunities (plate appearances in which a runner was on either first or second base, basically), the Brewers have attempted a steal in 11.8% of them. That's slightly higher than the Cubs (11.1%) and Reds (10.4%) for the league lead. The average among the 30 teams is just over half that, at 6.5%. The Crew have stolen 42 bases (five more than any other team in baseball) and been caught just eight times.

Obviously, Brice Turang is a central figure in that effort, but he's been caught three times in his 12 attempts. Just as (or more) important to the team's success have been Christian Yelich (11-for-11) and Blake Perkins (7-for-8), and while Sal Frelick, Joey Ortiz, and Willy Adames have understandably run less often, they're a combined 9-for-10 in their own right over this stretch. Every time the Brewers reach base, you have to watch them closely, or they'll take an extra base on you and make keeping them off the board much more difficult.

On hits, the Crew doesn't attempt to advance the extra base at an especially high rate. They're only 16th in MLB in that respect over the last month, at 47.0%. Instead, they put themselves in position not to need to do so as often. They hit dangerously, and lately, that includes lots of big hits with the bases clogged. They're just as dangerous once they get on base, too, though, which applies extra pressure to the defense and raises the opponent's anxiety.

Pat Murphy has been preaching this and beseeching his guys to operate this way since the beginning of spring training. The Brewers made some ugly outs on the bases in the early games of Cactus League play, but Murphy was quick to say that he wanted to continue seeing that aggressiveness. Mistakes are tolerated, as long as they come from a place of calculated intensity and relentlessness, rather than from one of inattention or recklessness.

Winning with this roster requires fearlessness--not because the Brewers have a talent deficit (by now, it's pretty clear that they don't), but because they're a young team with some pieces who would have become very popular trade targets if they hadn't gotten off to this strong a start, and because they know they're walking a tightrope due to the pitching injuries that have narrowed their path to success. The team's coaching staff has been fearless in their bullpen usage, and increasingly, they're turning that attitude toward run creation, as well as run prevention. Every out (like the one on which the would-be go-ahead run was thwarted at home plate late in Saturday's game) looks ugly, but that ugliness is masked and obliterated by the extraordinary number of times they're successful, and the times when they force the opponent into a mistake, instead.

Even taking their full-season total of 117 steals through 83 games (rather than the sky-high pace they're on recently), the Brewers are on pace for 228 of them this year. That would be second in franchise history, behind only that wild 1992 team led by Pat Listach and Darryl Hamilton, who combined for nearly 100 of them by themselves. If you embrace the notion that they might steal 40 bases a month the rest of the way, they could come quite close, but it's almost impossible that they'll catch that team's total.

Here's the punchline: the 1992 Brewers were caught stealing 115 times. This team only has 20 times caught stealing all season, putting them on pace for about 75 fewer than the 1992 squad, with an ultimately similar number of thefts. There has rarely been a team in baseball history who got as much value out of the running game as the 2024 Brewers are getting, let alone a Brewers team. Murphy and his staff have this team ruthlessly taking whatever they need to win every day, which is why they're running away with the NL Central.