Brewers Setting A New Template for Roster Building?

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Photo: Andrew Chafin - Instagram

Andrew Chafin with the Detroit Tigers

Andrew Chafin with the Detroit Tigers

The team the Brewers send out to chase an NL Central crown during this year’s stretch run is not going to look all that similar to the lineups they posted in May and June, but if this strategy succeeds it might provide an interesting blueprint for small market success going forward.

At the time of last week’s trade deadline 53 players had already worn a Brewers uniform in at least one game this season. That was already more than the 51 players they used last year and tied for the second-most in a single season in franchise history, trailing only the 61 they churned through in 2021. Deadline acquisitions Mark Canha and Andrew Chafin have since become the 54 and 55, and there would have been one more if reliever Justin Wilson hadn’t gone down with an injury while warming up for his Brewers debut the previous week. Many of those players had brief windows in the majors: 13 pitchers have thrown 9 1/3 innings or less for the Brewers this season, and five batters have made fewer than 30 plate appearances.

Some of the Brewers’ roster churn has not been intentional: They’ve needed to dig into their organizational depth and explore external options to cover for injuries large and small, including a fair number of position players and most of their starting rotation. Along the way they’ve given opportunities to dozens of minor leaguers and players who were let go by other clubs, however, and those “open auditions” turned out some players that have earned an opportunity to play a role on this roster going forward: 

• Colin Rea had pitched just a handful of MLB games across the previous six years and did not appear to be a top contender to crack the Brewers’ starting rotation in March, but only Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta have started more games than he has this season.
• Andruw Monasterio was a nine-year minor league veteran before getting his first shot in the majors as a Brewer this season and getting hot, posting a .329 batting average and .390 on-base percentage in July that might have moved him ahead of several players on the organizational depth chart.
• Joey Wiemer opened the season in the minors and appeared likely to play in a corner more often than not before injuries opened the door for him to play regularly in center field, where his defense provides consistent value to cover for a hot-and-cold offensive profile.
• There were some growing pains along the way but mixing and matching in the Brewers bullpen also eventually led to the alignment of Elvis Peguero and Joel Payamps as the bridge to closer Devin Williams, a roadmap that has led to success more often than not.

With that said, mixing and matching hasn’t worked everywhere. The Brewers have tried lots of options at first base and in right field and no one clearly established themselves as a regular in either spot. The front office acknowledged and reinforced those weaknesses somewhat inexpensively at the trade deadline, adding Carlos Santana and Mark Canha. These deals were cost-effective from both a player and financial perspective: Acquiring the two veterans did not cost the Brewers any of their top prospects, and with the Mets picking up much of the cost of Canha’s remaining contract the Brewers added less than $3 million in salary obligations for this season. 

If this works it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Brewers and other clubs at a comparable payroll level attempt to embrace a similar strategy going forward: Accumulate depth during the offseason, spend the early months of the season giving those players opportunities and keeping the ones that succeed, then if needed fill in the remaining gaps in July to make a run at the postseason.

Teams that are known to do this almost certainly have a leg up on the others in the lower tiers of the free agent market. One of the things minor league free agents look for on the open market is opportunity. They’re trying to reach or return to the majors, so they want to sign with a team that will give them playing time at the highest level if they’ve earned it. The fact that the Brewers have used nearly 60 players this year will make them increasingly attractive to players trying to earn an opportunity next year.

With all of that said, this strategy is viable at least in part because of the Brewers’ weak division. The fact that no NL Central team is clearly “going for it” makes it possible for a team like the Brewers to embrace a trial-and-error approach to roster building, endure some days where it didn’t work out and still find themselves in position to make a run at the division down the stretch. This strategy wouldn’t look as good if, for example, the Brewers played in the NL East. As of late last week the Brewers and Phillies were half a game apart in the Wild Card standings but had entirely different postseason outlooks because the Brewers were right in the thick of the NL Central race while the Phillies were a dozen games back of the Braves.

Contending while employing this strategy also depends on the Brewers being able to successfully make the moves necessary to patch the holes for a stretch run. That’s not always a given, and some of their attempts to do it in recent years haven’t turned out well. From 2017-2022 the Brewers made nine trade deadline deals for bullpen help and many of those deals netted pitchers that were not successful in Milwaukee, while also giving up minor leaguers who went on to appear in the majors for their new teams.

With that said, there’s a strong possibility the Brewers will return to the postseason in 2023 with a roster they filled via trial and error in May and June and minor deals in July. If they do, it’s a path they and many of their peers may look to emulate in the future.