It’s not pessimism, it’s realism. Who did the Brewers add at the deadline last year? Matt Bush and Trevor Rosenthal were picked up for essentially nothing. They added Taylor Rogers as part of the Hader deal.
In ‘21 they added Escobar for essentially nothing again, and Daniel Norris for Reese Olson, who has been a nice surprise this year, but at the time was a High A pitcher without eye popping stats.
So in my opinion expecting them to land a big name player or two is a little unrealistic in light of how they have operated in the past and their own GM’s recent comments.
As to Canha the argument is not that he’s controllable for ‘24, its price. He’s still owed 5+ million or so this year and a 2 million buyout (That’s not cheap for a team like Milwaukee). Second, because he’s not a rental, it is not the same as the typical situation where non-contenders are shipping out expiring contracts to avoid cost. It’s not pessimistic, the reality is there doesn’t seem to be much surplus value there.
As for Hernandez, check the stat sheet the Brewers have Tellez, Turang, Adames, Wiemer, Perkins and Tapia as regular or semi-regular players all with OBPs under .300. Tellez, Adames, Turang and Wiemer are all striking out at or close to a 40% clip. That’s half the line up.
Elloy Jimenez a 26 year old with 83 homers in 378 MLB games and under contract through 2026 is going to have incredible value even if he’s hurt almost as often as Buxton in Minnesota. That’s why the White Sox aren’t likely going to move him, he’s part of their core and they’re going to retool for ‘24 not tear it down.
As for the final comments, if you don’t think the Brewers are shopping for relief pitching then I wonder how closely you follow baseball. All contenders shop for it and the Brewers specifically add it every July when they’re a buyer: Bush, Rosenthal, Rogers, Norris, Curtiss, Lyles, Pomeranz, Gio Gonzalez, Soria, K-Rod, Broxton, Linebrink etc etc.
Finally, of course they’re going to look to add contact hitters because they already have too many players that have trouble making contact.