Image via Twitter / Brewers
Through the first nine innings of the three games in their weekend series against the Giants, the Brewers scored one run, two runs and four runs. It says a lot about the way this season has progressed that these offensive struggles didn’t spark a familiar refrain.
Woeful offense was the story for much of the early 2021 season: After 49 games the Brewers were batting .209 as a team with a .295 on-base percentage and .353 slugging. They were averaging just 3.7 runs per game and found themselves at or near the bottom of the National League in nearly every offensive category. The Brewers went 24-25 in those games, and it appeared possible that an anemic offense would cost the trio of Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta a chance to pitch in the postseason. Hitting coach Andy Haines, while defended frequently by his players, seemed like a likely candidate to take the fall for the team’s struggles.
The turnaround since, however, has been notable. Even considering this weekend’s offensive struggles, the Brewers are batting .241 since May 26 with a .330 on-base and .415 slugging, a team OPS nearly 100 points better than their early numbers. They’re averaging nearly 5.2 runs per game during that stretch, a run and a half better than their prior output, and with the pitching continuing to hold up their end of the bargain the Brewers are 42-21 as a team over that span.
The narrative of this season certainly shifted when the Brewers traded for Willy Adames, and his production has aided in this turnaround. Adames is batting .293 with a .376 on-base and .554 slugging across 67 games as a Brewer, buoying the team’s sagging offensive numbers. They’ve also gotten a boost from recent addition Rowdy Tellez, who is hitting .318/.403/.591 in 24 games since coming over from Toronto, and Eduardo Escobar, who has provided an offensive spark since being acquired from Arizona.
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Mix and Match
Even beyond those acquisitions, the Brewers have been willing to mix and match in their lineup: They’ve already had 42 different players make at least one plate appearance this season, which is tied for the fourth-most in franchise history. Only the woeful 2001 and 2002 teams, which combined to lose 200 games, and the expansion 1969 Seattle Pilots used more batters.
The production isn’t just coming from newcomers, however. Here are six Brewers who have seen a significant boost in their offensive production since the team’s numbers bottomed out on May 26:
- Christian Yelich had a .704 on-base plus slugging before that point and is up to .750 since.
- Jackie Bradley Jr. was at .506 on that day and is up to .567 since.
- Luis Urias’s OPS was .705 before that day and .776 in 60 games since.
- Avisail Garcia was at .757 that day and is at .827 since.
- Kolten Wong’s OPS fell to .736 that day but rebounded to .843 since.
- Tyrone Taylor was at .662 before and .841 after.
The Brewers have stayed hot long enough to impact the narrative around their season as a whole. They’re now in the middle of the pack in the National League in runs scored, home runs, on-base percentage and OPS, and that’s easily good enough to allow them to be carried by a pitching staff that leads the league in strikeouts and is second in ERA and hits and runs allowed. Haines’ name doesn’t come up as often as it used to, as a frustrating offense is no longer costing the team games.
As noted previously, the Brewers’ recent run of success lines up pretty clearly with a soft spot in their schedule. It remains to be seen if they can retain this level of production as the difficulty level clicks up a few notches in the months ahead. For now, however, this team’s offense is no longer a weakness.
