By Nathan Jahn

“Freddie Peralta-Milwaukee Brewers” by Ken Mattison is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

At the time of writing this, the Brewers are one game away from clinching the number one seed. I’m going to write this assuming we win any of three games against the Reds, or the Phillies lose any of three games against the Twins. If that doesn’t happen then put a whole big asterisk on this article. ESPN recently released what they called an urgency index. They had many different factors, drought pressure, free agent pressure, and father time etc. Of course the Brewers came in 1st with a score of 109.5. Do I know what that means? Not really. But I can see why this would be assumed for any casual MLB fan. A team that hasn’t ever won the world series but has made 6 of the last 7 playoffs? Sure they should be winning at some point. I’m not here to say I don’t think they will or I don’t want them to. This is probably the best team of Brewers baseball I have ever seen. The 2018 team was good but this just feels different. I’m just here to say at some point you don’t expect it anymore and that’s ok.

Reason #1

Enjoy the regular season. That’s all I should have to say. Too often in sports we get to the playoffs and forget about what got us there. I think for all sports (except football since it only has 17 games) the regular season should be more important than the playoffs. I was lucky enough to go to around 8 games this year. Watching this team just felt special. The 14 game winning streak was magical. We felt untouchable. And in a city where not everybody cares about baseball, everybody cared about the Brewers then. As a sports fan it was heaven because it’s all people were talking about. This regular season that had us as the best team in baseball is not something to be scoffed at. Even if we lose in the first round (I would probably cry), we still had one of the most successful seasons in Brewers history. Our ability to play amazing baseball all year should make this season worth it. The Brewers played 162 games of baseball and there were not many where it didn’t feel like there was a chance. We had 38 comeback wins this year which tied for 10th in the MLB. Every single game you either turned on the tv, radio, or went to, it was almost guaranteed to be a good time. 

Reason #2

Most of the members of this team will be returning. The vibe around Brewers baseball always feels like the team has to win now or it will never get another chance. Although I haven’t had to endure a long stretch of bad Brewers baseball, I don’t understand that mindset. We have made 6 of the last 7 playoffs not including this year. We have won 4 of the last 5 division titles. There is no reason for this to be that we have to win this year. Here is a list of the Brewers players entering Free Agency after this season. Jordan Montgomery, Eric Fedde, Shelby Miller, and Luis Urias. Those players have given the Brewers a combined 0 WAR this year. That comes from Eric Fedde giving us 0.1 WAR in 7 appearances, and Shelby Miller giving us -0.1 WAR in 9.2 innings. I mean no disrespect to two major league players when I say that I think the Brewers will be fine if they walk. Out of the 6 players with options, none of them are player options. Peralta and Contreras have team options and the other 4 have mutuals. I will say Brandon Woodruff has a mutual option that he could decline. That would not be great for the team, but I get a different feeling about him. The Brewers way is to not pay a pitcher, but he just feels different. I could be wrong but it feels like especially with the injuries he might be willing to take a pay cut to stay a Brewer. If I’m wrong we may just have to replace him with one of our many young pitchers. Moral of the story we do not have enough players leaving for this to be win now baseball. Unless players start retiring, I think we will see a pretty similar lineup for the Brewers take the field next year. 

Reason #3

Baseball is facing a massive money issue. At the end of next season the CBA will be expiring between the MLB and the MLBPA. The salary cap question looms very large over everyone’s head. Owners have pushed for a salary cap for a long time, with the players acting like saying salary cap is like saying “Voldemort” in Harry Potter. We have even had a star player cuss out the MLB commissioner over the salary cap. This is a huge issue. I suspect we may be missing at least part of the 2027 MLB season. All of this to say that it doesn’t apply to the Brewers. According to USA Today, the Brewers have the 23rd highest payroll in the MLB. 23rd!!!! We are the number one seed! That is just unbelievable. This team has about a third of the New York Mets payroll and we have won 14 more games than them. It feels like we are watching Moneyball play out before our eyes. The Colorado Rockies were on pace to have one of the worst seasons in MLB history. Although it has still been pretty bad they won’t be losing as many as the White Sox last year. They have 5 million more payroll than us this year. I will always advocate for a salary cap. This Brewers team is an anomaly and something that you can’t count on happening ever again. But that is a completely different article. Moral of the story this Brewers regular season should be regarded as one of the best in history. 

Reason #4

Get used to it, Milwaukee. Our sports teams have won one combined title since 1973. Congratulations 2021 Bucks. You made me cry tears of joy. But as a Milwaukee sports fan winning is not the way you should get used to. Move to New York or something if you really want that. Going back to reason number 1, here in Milwaukee we have to appreciate the regular seasons. I’ll bet you next year the Brewers will be a trendy pick for teams that aren’t going to win as many games. Then we will end up picked 3rd to finish in the NL Central again. The Cubs will be picked to win like every year. The Cubs have not made the postseason since 2020. They have the third largest market size and perennially underperform. You can call it “Wrigley North” as much as you want, we will keep our division championships. Also it’s great that you won it in 2016 but for a team that’s been around 120 years to only have three world series isn’t a great look. But this isn’t a hating on the cubs column. Sorry. Milwaukee always has to do more with less. It’s what gives us character and the Wisconsin way of life. We are polite and nice because our sports teams always lose and we will still support them. We have the Packers do the winning for our other sports team. So I say to the Brewers team that will get picked to finish 3rd in the division next year, do what you always do.  Overperform. To the fans I say keep enjoying the winning baseball. The regular season is amazing.

I want the Brewers to win so badly. I will be going to playoff games. This isn’t me saying that I like losing baseball games. It’s me saying that success in sports should not be so determined by the postseason. The team put together a grueling 162 games and managed to win at least 96 of them. That is enough for me to feel like it’s a successful season. If it isn’t for you, I suggest you change your mindset around sports. You are in for a lot of sad seasons. I will look back on this season of Brewers baseball very fondly no matter what. I suggest that you do too.