Brewers Video
A team like the Milwaukee Brewers always has to be thinking beyond the season at hand. They always have to be working on player development, which means maintaining depth, exercising patience, and keeping lanes to playing time open for players under long-term team control. That comes with certain opportunity costs, but it's how a small-market team blossoms into a miniature dynasty. It's Matt Arnold's cross to bear—and Pat Murphy's, too.
This year, the dilemma that organizational setup is posing for the team comes in the form of Eugenio Suárez, who is positively perfect for a team lacking only right-handed power in the lineup on the champion's checklist. A free agent at year's end, Suárez looks like as good a fit as any team could ask for, when they already boast a young, cost-controlled core and have the best record in baseball. Alas, he plays third base—where the Brewers have benefited tremendously from the production of an ever-improving Caleb Durbin, the diminutive rookie whom they control through 2031. Adding Suárez would throw a roadblock in front of a key player who was the centerpiece of an offseason deal for the team's former relief ace, who has delivered huge value for them and embodies their whole philosophy and identity neatly.
On the other hand, this team has been around a long time, and they've never won the World Series. Not since 1982 have they had as good and clear a chance to change that, and there's no alternative acquisition who would advance those odds as well as Suárez would. That creates a quandary.
Here's where having Murphy in the manager's office should make the key difference for this team. Murphy demands that the Brewers play hard-nosed, take-what-they-can't-keep-from-you baseball. He trusts veterans more than young players, but demands the same energy and high-intensity play from those veterans that he can get from those youngsters. He's a tough-love skipper in the old-school mold, as he proved when he benched Joey Ortiz recently for a failure not to run out a ball or show up hours before a game, but to make the kind of high-caliber swing decisions he expects. He will bring young players along; he's proven that. He also won't coddle them, and as a result, everyone in that clubhouse already understands and expects him to treat them with the respect they earn—and no more. He's shown them that he won't unduly bend to the whims of the highest-paid players in the room, by often sitting Rhys Hoskins when he struggled last year and batting the respected veteran sixth even when he's hit well this season.
Murphy is willing to move players around defensively. He's willing to communicate, compassionately but bluntly, that certain players won't play every day, and to hold them to a high standard of preparation and performance, anyway. He's the perfect guy to manage the juggling act that will become necessary if this team lands Suárez.
Durbin would need to play second base against most left-handed starters. That's just fine; it's his best defensive position anyway. Brice Turang is easily replaceable in those situations, with a .273/.316/.327 line against them this year. Against righties, meanwhile, Durbin could find the odd day in the outfield, or (if Turang can slide to short, which Murphy doesn't want to do but is open to) at the expense of Joey Ortiz. He would lose playing time for the balance of this year, and he'd lose a lot of reps at third base, but that's how the game goes. Murphy is one of the best skippers you could ask for, if you needed to communicate that to a young player enjoying a low-grade breakout.
There's some emotional scar tissue in that room, but there's also a lot of solid leadership. Suárez, one of the game's more lovable players, would fit nicely there, and his personality would provide further insulation against friction. Murphy could make this work; it wouldn't derail or degrade Durbin's development. Meanwhile, the Brewers would become slightly more likely to finally make it back to the World Series for the first time in over 40 years. They'd be a powerhouse for the balance of this year, and their development pipeline would easily backfill the young pitchers they would have to trade to acquire Suárez. They're in a good position to strike, not only in terms of the strength of their farm system and their place in the standings, but based on how their manager has run the show over his first season and a half at the helm. They ought to leverage that.
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